April 7, 2005

Eleven-year-old Almaden boy uses theatrical skills to raise $3,700 for tsunami relief

Andy Cook isn’t your typical 11-year-old. Mature beyond his years, he has already appeared in four plays. But perhaps his proudest accomplishment to date is the success of his personal crusade to raise money to aid victims of December’s Southeast Asian tsunami disaster.

Andy Cook, 11, poses in his Almaden Valley backyard with the sign he made to hold up after church to ask for donations to the Red Cross to aid tsunami victims.

“I just saw how devastating the effects of the tsunami were on TV and in the newspaper and I kept thinking what if that had happened to my family?” said Cook. “I’d want people to help me and my family.” So he decided to do something about it.

After participating in his fourth play, “A Christmas Carol” in December, Cook was paid $100 and decided to donate it to the Red Cross. But the Holy Family Educational Center fifth grader felt compelled to do more.

So he wrote a speech and delivered it after three Sunday masses at his church, Holy Family (at Branham at Pearl avenues) at the end of January:

“My name is Andy Cook, I am 10 years old, and I am in the fifth grade at Holy Family Educational Center. I like to play basketball, and read comic books, and I really, really like chocolate… but what I love most of all is to act. I have been in ‘Fiddler on the Roof,’ ‘The Wiz’ and ‘Peter Pan,’ but most recently, I played Peter Cratchitt in ‘A Christmas Carol.’ It was a fun role, and I got to perform it 16 times in December! One of the best parts about the play was that I was paid for my work. Here’s the check! It’s made out to me, and it is for $100. It is my first real paycheck!

I had a lot of plans for this money – CDs, comic books, chocolate…but then the tsunami hit in Southeast Asia and my plans changed. I decided to send this check to the American Red Cross to help the relief efforts in Indonesia, Thailand, and the other countries and people who need our help. My parents tried to talk me out of sending the whole thing—they thought I should save part of the money for myself—but I know that the people there need it way more than I do, especially the children who have lost their homes and families.

Andy Cook appeared in his fourth play, “A Christmas Carol,” in December and received $100 for his performance, which he donated to aid tsunami victims.

So now on the back of my check, it says, ‘Pay to the order of the American Red Cross’ and I signed my name after it. I hope that you will consider joining me in helping the children, mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters who are suffering in the aftermath of the tsunami. I will be outside of the church after Mass if you would like to make a donation to the Red Cross. My goal is to raise one thousand dollars. I will personally take the checks to the American Red Cross on Monday. I know that as a community we can work together and help those who have suffered so much.

Thank you for listening and for your support.”

After giving the speech he went outside and held up a handmade sign asking for donations and was overwhelmed with the response. “I was really happily surprised by all the money I raised,” said Andy. “At first I only wanted to raise $1,000 but instead I raised a lot more.”

In fact, the response was so overwhelmingly positive that Cook got up on the following two Sundays and read his letter again. The final amount he and his church raised for Red Cross tsunami aid relief was an impressive $3,700.

Cook’s mother Catherine was understandably proud of her fifth grader. “I’m hoping that it will perhaps inspire others to give, if not to tsunami relief, then to another cause that speaks to them as much as this did to Andy.”