Brother, sister donate 2 years' allowance to MSU animal hospital

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Most kids save their money to buy new toys, but Aaron and Kate Davis would rather give it to a cause that really needs it — like the birds in the Small Animal Hospital’s wildlife ward at MSU.

On Thursday afternoon, Aaron, 8, and Kate, 5, together donated about two years of allowance savings to the hospital, totaling more than $110.

At the Davis family’s Williamston home on Sunday morning, Aaron and Kate had just finished playing school, as Aaron was teaching Kate about geography with his globe.

Aaron, a spunky second-grader at Webberville Elementary School, said he wanted to give money to the hospital because “my most favorite things are everything about the outdoors, science and history and discovery.”

Kate, who is in preschool at the same school, said she wanted “to help the sick animals.”

The children’s parents, Adam and Sarah Davis, said the children decided where to donate the money, and Sarah Davis said the animal hospital seemed like a natural choice for them.

“They really are into the outdoors and (Aaron) loves birds,” she said. “They both watch the birds and feed the birds.”

Aaron said he also helps his mom bring in bird feeders “that aren’t really heavy” from outside their house.

Aaron and Kate’s grandparents, Williamston residents Julia and Mike O’Connor, give the children a weekly allowance of 50 cents per year of their age. When they receive the money, it gets divided into three jars: One to save, one to give away and one to spend.

“I thought it was pretty neat that their grandparents are teaching the kids that kind of fiscal responsibility — that’s such a neat concept,” said James Sikarskie, a wildlife veterinarian at the College of Veterinary Medicine. “It was just so sweet to have them come and give us their money from their little jam jars.”

Sikarskie said the money will be used to buy food — such as pellets and bird seed — for the ward’s birds of prey.

Julia O’Connor said Aaron told her he wanted to do something to help raptors. She knew of a raptor rehabilitation program at a university in Colorado but suggested checking at MSU first — “so you could see what it was you were donating to,” she told him.

O’Connor said she thought donating to MSU was “a wonderful idea” because she, her mother and her aunt all graduated from the university.

When the O’Connors brought Aaron and Kate to MSU on Thursday, Sikarskie and second-year veterinary students D.J. MacArthur and Lyssa Alexander gave them a tour of the wildlife ward and let them see and touch some of the birds.

“We thought it might be nice for them to meet the birds here,” Alexander said. “It’s not every day that you get to get up close and personal to hawks and merlins and the like.”

MacArthur said Sikarskie approached him and Alexander about giving the Davises a tour because they have spoken about wildlife to high school students as part of their veterinary perspectives course, but they hadn’t had experience with younger age groups.

“(We wanted to) do something similar for Aaron and kind of try to bring it down to his level — give him the background stories of who’s there and why,” MacArthur said. “For being so young and having an appreciation for wildlife, it’s something that I have a great deal of respect for.”

Before donating to the wildlife ward, Aaron and Kate also have used allowance money to adopt animals at Lansing’s Potter Park Zoo — a boa constrictor for Aaron and a chimp for Kate, Aaron said. They also have bought clothes for needy children.

“I think it was last year we bought socks and underwear and all kinds of stuff for little kids, and we bought shoes and things like that,” Aaron said.

Alexander said the children seemed really excited about the tour.

“They even asked for the jars back so they could start saving their allowance again,” she said.

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