Each day this week, we've introduced you to 'Remarkable Kids.' Today, we meet a girl with a heart for the homeless.
"I don't remember the last time I played with a toy," said 12-year-old Kelli Ganaway.
There's no time, she's too busy.
"I like to help people a lot," she explained.
Helping out at her mom's daycare center.
"The kids love me," she joked. "They really do."
She also helps at her mom's grooming spa, and at home with her duties as a big sister. She'll do almost anything anyone asks of her. Almost.
"My momma has customers where she's willing to touch people's feet (at their men's pedicure shop), and I told her, I don't do feet" she said.
A great personality, and a great work ethic.
So for her 10th birthday, "we're trying to figure out the most dramatic birthday party to have ever," remembered her mom, Tureana Smith, "and this little girl was like mom I don't want all the gifts, I just want to take the money that you're going to buy things and feed the homeless. And I was like, oh, okay?"
Imagine that. A 10-year-old, turning down gifts for groceries for strangers.
"We got chips, water, sandwich meat, bread and cheese and fruit cups," recalled Kelli.
She, along with her mom and grandma packed more than 50 bags to feed the homeless. They called them "Kelli's Bags of Love."
"We went by the Salvation Army," explained Smith, "and there was a gang of them, just standing out waiting and we pulled up and it was almost like a blessing had fallen out of the sky. They were so super excited."
"They were so happy," added Kelli, "they were so grateful." "One guy started crying," said Smith, "it's like the heart of a child."
We asked Kelli how she got the idea.
"I don't know," she admitted, "I really don't. That's a good question, though. I see people on the street and I feel bad for them, and I think that could be me one day."
A possibility that, at one point, was their reality.
"We've been at a point in our life where we were homeless," said Smith, "and we didn't have help. I was left a single mother with two kids, and I'm like, 'Lord, I don't know what I'm going to do.'"
What Smith did was keep her faith.
"I always knew that God would be a provider," she said.
Over the past four years, she's worked hard. Starting several businesses, with a little help from Kelli.
"She's my little helper. My mini me," Smith said of Kelli.
A remarkable kid, who has no time for toys, and no plans to slow down.
"I said why should I stop now?" Kelli asked.
Well, she didn't. She did Kelli's Bags of Love again a few months after the first one, going from 50 bags to 175 bags. Now, she wants to go even bigger. Her goal is $2,000 for 2,000 bags.
She's started a GoFundMe page to pay for the supplies.
Eventually, Kelli said she'd like to build homes for the homeless. We told her mom that, and Smith said she was trying not to cry, because she never knew.