9 year old Mikah Frye's selfless deed on Christmas #AtoZChallenge

9 year old Mikah Frye was walking down the streets with his grandmother discussing Christmas gifts when he saw some homeless people struggling to stay warm in the cold night. When he asked aloud if he could do something for them, his grandmother suggested giving up a gift to donate a blanket for one of them.

That thought stayed in Mikah Frye's mind and when he reached home, Mikah informed his parents not to buy the Microsoft XBox gaming device he had asked for earlier. Mikah had been doing the math in his head and realized that by not buying the $300 device, he could instead donate not one but 30 blankets to the homeless. He knew how much it meant to be warm in the cold holiday season. You see, three years ago, Mikah and his parents were the ones living in a homeless shelter.

Having suffered a financial crisis, they too had lost their house and lived night after night for a few weeks, not knowing where their next meal would come from and sharing a blanket every night. Mikah was six years old then but he remembered what it was like to have to give back that precious blanket every morning.

Reaching out to the emergency shelter program that looked after them 3 years ago, the family donated 60 blankets in the end, each with a personalized message of hope in Mikah's handwriting stating:

“They gave me a blanket, but I had to leave it. That's why I want you to have your own blanket. Today, I live in my own house, and someday you will too. 

Your friend, Mikah."

The homeless people at the shelter may not have been able to give Mikah a Christmas gift in return but his gesture was noted by the billion dollar company Microsoft who made sure that Mikah was fooled into visiting their store so that Santa Claus could personally deliver an XBox from the company to him as a reward for making the top of 'Santa's list of nice boys' that year.

You can listen to Mikah explain his reasons and watch the moment he got surprised by Microsoft Santa Claus here. 

Authors's note:

This is part of my #AtoZChallenge where I will be focusing on Real Life Heroes of Kindness and Compassion.

The list for this year's (2018) Heroes of Kindness can be found here.

Of course, I have been tracking these lovely human beings for years now and have found children as young as six years old and old women in their eighties from across the world who will restore your faith in humanity. You can find the entire list of Real-life Heroes of Kindness and Compassion here.