Proud to be from Pittsburgh: 9-year-old helps homeless

ALLEGHENY COUNTY, Pa. — When 9-year-old Sarah Hugus first told her mother that she wanted to help the homeless, her mother never imagined the young girl would take her effort so far.

"I was thinking about the homeless one day in church and then I just decided to write something down, my mom had no idea what I was thinking, and I just went up and gave it to my pastor, Reverend Simpson," Hugus said.

On the paper was written the message, "Can we have a meeting to help homeless people?".

The Rev. John Simpson, pastor of the Level Green Presbyterian Church was more than happy to help Sarah. After several meetings, they set up a bin to collect donations inside the church.

"She rallied everybody to just bring something, anything. And within our church, and the local church up the road, there's a North Huntingdon church, the Brownies, and everybody in our neighborhood, all of her friends, a lot of the people in her school, they all just kept giving and giving and giving. It was really great," said Bergetta Hugus, Sarah's mother.

When the donations were spilling out from bins onto tables and even the floor, a group of Brownies joined Sarah, her family and Simpson to load them into a trailer and vans. Then, they organized a caravan into Pittsburgh to donate everything to the Light of Life Mission.

"For a lot of the men that were coming for the chapel service and the emergency shelter, (tonight) was just another night. And then to be greeted by these 9-year-old girls bringing in donations to keep warm and to keep safe out there this winter, I think it really touched their hearts," said Kate Wadsworth, who works at the Mission.

Sarah said her work isn't done yet. She plans to continue collecting donations and delivering them to the Light of Life Mission. If you'd like to help donate, you can drop items off at the Level Green Presbyterian Church.

Cox Media Group