Giving It Her All

This Republic 9-year-old chases her dreams with more gusto than you might expect, and she’s doing it all for other kids.

Angelica Owrey is more driven than most adults, and she does outstanding things for sick children. Last year she raised $1,500.02 for St. Jude Children’s Hospital and hand-delivered the donation in Memphis. While she was there, instead of sightseeing, her free-time activity was picking up more than 500 cans off the street (so she could raise even more money). This year, she has upped her fundraising goal to $15,000, and she has added new ways to raise money to her repertoire.

But when Angelica Owrey is in her grandmother’s front yard on a warm May day, she doesn’t look like she’s a single-minded young lady with big money-raising goals. She looks like a 9-year-old girl who doesn’t mind getting her dress a little muddy on her mission to locate and dig up an earthworm. (She’s successful at that, too, by the way.) Although she has only just finished 3rd grade, and although she possesses a child-like optimism about her future (she aspires to become a nurse and maybe do some modeling on the side), Angelica has a very adult demeanor when she talks about why she devotes so much time and energy to the patients that she calls “my kids.” Their illnesses inspire her to action, and her mom, Billie Matthews-Owrey, says Angelica can’t understand why everyone doesn’t feel the same way she does. “She doesn’t think she’s anything special,” Billie says.

When Angelica was learning to read in 1st grade, she asked her mom if she could be paid for each book she got through. She didn’t want the money to save for a bike or anything else for herself, Billie says. She wanted it for St. Jude. Billie agreed to give Angelica five cents for each book. Soon this industrious kid was reading books to her little brother for money (and he was doing the same for the same cause), and before long she took her storytelling to Maranatha Village nursing home once a week to read to the patients and collect even more of her book allowance.

She’s still a reading fanatic (especially Laura Ingalls Wilder), but she has now ventured into a craftier side of fundraising. With the help of a neighbor who taught her how to use a sewing machine, Angelica makes angel dolls that she trades through her nonprofit, Angels of the Ozarks. She also puts together bookmarks, washcloth bunnies, bags of “angel dust” and ribbon-decorated handbags. She even picks up cans, has plans for a yard sale and asks Santa for Christmas gifts that she can donate rather than gifts for herself.

Billie says that Angelica came back from her last trip to Memphis ashamed that she hadn’t been able to raise as much money for the hospital as some of big-name celebrities, such as Tiger Woods.

But $1,500.02 is a lot for a child to raise on her own, and Angelica’s efforts haven’t gone unnoticed. Marlo Thomas (who is a big
name at St. Jude and the daughter of its founder, Danny Thomas) sent her a personal letter in a signed book (a highlight for Angelica). She has been recognized by several groups and been given several awards. And this month she’ll make another trip down to Memphis and St. Jude, this time to be awarded the Jerry Nicholson Award. It’s given out annually to a young person who has contributed greatly to fundraising. Like Angelica.

Wanna Help?

To donate to Angels of the Ozarks, call 417-732-4487 or mail to Angels of the Ozarks, PO Box 684, Republic, MO 65738. Money donated to Angels of the Ozarks benefits St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Children’s Miracle Network and the Shriners Burn Center.