Kacie Jorgensen didn’t send out a typical invitation for her 9-year-old birthday party this year.

Instead the Luxemburg-Casco Intermediate School third grader asked her friends to forego buying her presents and instead wrap a donation to Literacy Partners of Kewaunee County or Holy Trinity School’s Marv Bins Food Pantry.

In the invitation, she included a list of items desired by the charities and also a link to their websites.

Like many siblings, she got the idea from her older sister, Jillian, who is a fourth-grader at Luxemburg-Casco Intermediate School.

“When she was watching television three years ago Jillian saw a commercial of caged dogs,” said her mother, Ragan.   “She said to me, ‘We have to find them money.'”

Ragan suggested that her daughter, instead, ask her friends to donate items to the Bay Area Humane Society’s wish list rather than giving her gifts for an upcoming birthday party.

“Afterwards, I felt grateful that I did that and that I had friends that helped me,” said Jillian, who has continued the giving at her subsequent birthday parties.  She also volunteers for the society.

So when Kacie decided to have a bowling party this year with her friends to celebrate her birthday, she and her mother got on the Internet to find local charitable organizations that could use assistance.

They decided on the food pantry and Literacy Partners because it is “good to help people to read and help with academics,” said Ragan.

“We talked about how it was good to help other people,’ said Ragan.

This year, 22 friends brought items from the organization’s wish lists instead of gifts for Kacie, and even wrapped them or put them in gift bags.

“It felt good,” said Kacie who brought the gifts to the organizations with her mother.

They included several boxes of  office and school supplies requested by Literacy Partners, as well as gift cards.

“Each box of donations weighted about 50 pounds,” said Bob Garfinkel of Literacy Partners.   “We often hear about kids in trouble without knowing about the good things that kids do.”

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press Gazette: L-C third-grade student asks for birthday gifts to two local charities