7-year-old girl donates $20,000 worth of multicultural educational materials in California

seven-year-old girl multicultural educational materials donation

By Fatima Virrey , Parent Herald Jul 17, 10:21 am

Besides entering the third grade this coming school year, Madison Wilson is also coming to her school with multicultural educational materials.

These materials are important for Madison because she made a difference in her community.

The seven-year-old girl from Solvang, California, was the one who raised funds for all the multicultural educational materials donated to schools in their state. That is after she took notice of how few are the books she has read and films that she has watched that are diversified.

The seven-year-old girl's curiosity

While watching the Disney film "Maleficent," Madison noticed that there were not many people of color in the film. The seven-year-old girl's curiosity was even more triggered when she noticed the pattern in other films.

That is when the little girl asked her mom, Tameka Vashti Wilson, about representation.

Madison's mom shared in an interview with the TODAY that she had a difficult time finding movies that represented seven-year-old Madison.

Madison's mom was even more challenged to answer the little girl's questions when the same questions about books came up.

Madison's questions gave her family the idea of raising funds to make learning and entertainment more inclusive for children.

Raising the money

Initially, Madison's family only thought of raising 2,500 dollars. At first, this already sounded ambitious to Madison's mom.

However, after only a day, they were able to reach their initial goal.

After some time, they were able to raise $23,000 from people all over the world.

Instead of only donating multicultural educational materials to Madison's school, they expanded the donations to four other schools in California.

Included in the donations are not only multicultural books, but also crayons, and construction papers.

The books included Madison's favorites. These titles are featuring diverse characters.

Messages from all over the globe

Aside from being able to raise funds, Madison was also able to inspire other people.

According to Madison's mom, they have been receiving several messages about the cause that they decided to support.

Wilson shared, "Just all these different places of people reaching out and saying that they had similar feelings growing up or just congratulating her on what she's doing and helping other children to feel appreciated and included."

Even with the great drive to make a difference, Madison is still a little girl who loves being in the spotlight.

According to her mom, the seven-year-old girl thinks she is like the famous singer Beyoncé.

A non-profit on the way

After the enormous support that Madison has received, her family thought of continuing the cause that they have started.

The family has decided to create a non-profit that will curate multicultural educational materials. They will call this Madi's Treasure Box.

They believe that this project will continue to receive support from the public.