RecognizeGood Spotlight: Cambria Sawyer

A small story – a photo and a blurb, really – from the Stateman’s “Community News” sections arrived on the RecognizeGood desk last week.  A student at Dripping Springs High School, named Cambria Sawyer, collected $300.00. She planned to give the money to an orphanage in Mexico that she visited as a child.  The catch?  The money was entirely made up of pennies!  That’s right, Cambria had collected about thirty THOUSAND pennies.  What’s more, she’d displayed them – all of them – in a classroom at Dripping Springs High. This encouraged other students to drop by and add to the incredible pile of pennies.  The photo showed Cambria sitting in the middle of the pile of pennies, playfully tossing handfuls into the air with a huge smile.

The story reminded us of an anecdote shared by Luci Baines Johnson at our April Legends ceremony. She was so inspired by the efforts and attitude of April Legend Erin Kiltz, that she asked herself:  “Am I doing EVERYTHING I can do?”  Cambria’s story embodies that exact sentiment. As simple as it might be to write a check to the orphanage in Mexico, this high school student wasn’t in a position to do the simple thing!  She didn’t have a lot of extra money.  What she did have was pennies.