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Video: Three-year-old Isabella Billesberger paid it forward to new babies

One-year-old Leander and three-year-old Isabella Billesberger received an unusual Christmas gift last year from their family friends in Weyburn. The envelope contained a ten-dollar bill and a card offering them to pay it forward.

One-year-old Leander and three-year-old Isabella Billesberger received an unusual Christmas gift last year from their family friends in Weyburn. The envelope contained a ten-dollar bill and a card offering them to pay it forward.

Isabella and Leander’s mother Cat Billesberger knew that the younger kid was a bit to small to participate, but she was surprised to see how well her daughter understood the idea.

“She is a fairly smart little cookie, but I was surprised that she was able to grasp the concept,” Cat said. “In the back of my head I was trying to formulate my own ideas that would be age appropriate for her, if she couldn’t come up with something on her own.”

But Isabella managed to come up with something unforeseen. Since they have donated some of her toys before, she had a general sense of giving. Yet, it was the recipient of her kindness that surprised everybody.

“I asked her to come up with somebody who probably wouldn’t get gifts for the holidays. She said, ‘New babies.’ To which I replied, ‘We don’t know any new babies.’ And she said, ‘The hospital always has new babies.’”

Isabella Billesberger
Not only did Isabella come up with the gift idea, she also helped her mom to buy, pack, address and deliver Christmas teddy bears. Photo submitted

Isabella took $10 and went to a dollar store to get as many teddy bears as she could for new babies. She explained that she wanted to get toys to babies, because she thought that since they were new, they were bored.

“She helped me from start to finish. She helped to gift-wrap them (teddy bears), she wrote her name on the cards for them (babies),” Cat said.

St. Joseph’s Hospital, which helped Cat deliver Isabella three years earlier, welcomed the idea.

“The hospital was awesome. Isabella told them what she was there for. She was able to vocalize that on her own. A new baby has just been born, so one of the nurses went in, spoke to the mother and asked if Isabella could go to the room with this gift. And the mother was awesome. Isabella was able to see the baby and give one of her teddy bears,” Cat shared.

It’s not a surprise that Isabella couldn’t hand in all her teddy bears in person that same day. It got her a little frustrated, but mom and nurses made sure that Isabella knew that all toys would get gifted to babies as they were born.

Cat says it is important for her and her husband Joe to raise their kids to be humanitarians. And even though it was a bit too early for Leander to catch up with the idea, he still had a chance to participate.

“Leander may not have been old enough to participate in this one, but he came with to drop off. Exposure to kindness is pertinent to instilling it,” Cat said.