Marisol Tanguma is a little girl with a big heart who understands the power of networking.
On Tuesday, Courtney Tanguma, four-year-old Marisol’s mother, told the Castle Rock pre-schooler that the Denver Rescue Mission was in need of donated turkeys to feed homeless people and provide low-income families with birds they could take home and cook.
She thought she was teaching her child a lesson about giving.
“I asked her how many turkeys she thought we should buy for the Rescue Mission,” Courtney remembered.
When Marisol replied 50, her mother laughed and said “we can’t afford 50 turkeys.”
“Mommy, you know we have lots of friends,” Marisol replied.
Courtney froze. It was about noon when she and Marisol began e-mailing friends and relatives asking them to contribute what they could toward “Mari’s great turkey mission.”
By 4:00 they had pledges for $445.
The pair wrangled a reduction in price from a Safeway in Castle Rock.
“Her mom called and asked if we could help her out and we gave them a price break,” said Patrick Nigro, manager of the Safeway at 880 S. Perry St.
During the holidays, Nigro said, representatives of charitable organizations frequently come to his store and ask for donations and other help.
“But you don’t see a lot of younger kids doing that. It was a great deal.”
They left the store with three shopping carts filled with frozen turkeys, 50 in all.
Marisol and her mother drove the turkeys to the Denver Rescue Mission “and in a moment of silence, Mari says, ‘don’t you think that was a really good idea?’
“Here she is, her shoes on the wrong feet, and there is ketchup all over her face,” Courtney recalled Wednesday. “It was just a beautiful experience realizing that your four-year-old dreams and believes so much more than you do.”
Pledges for more turkeys are still coming in, said Courtney. With Christmas right around the corner, that money can go toward more holiday turkey donations.
And there is plenty of room in the family’s SUV to deliver them.
“I liked taking them to the poor people,” Marisol said.
Tom McGhee: (303)954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com
