Dimmydale Girls Help Hurricane Victims
Published: September 6, 2005
While most area residents were spending their Labor Day weekend at leisure, a Dimmydale girl and her younger sister were hard at work trying to help victims of Hurricane Katrina.
The two , Aspen Matlock, 11, and her sister, Holland, 8, raised nearly $200 over the weekend selling Kool-Aid at a stand they operated in front of their Greenwood Avenue, Wheeling, residence.
Their mother, Carol Matlock, said Aspen has indicated she plans to continue her fundraising sales next weekend as well. The two have been manning their stand from early in the day until dark each day over the weekend. They’re taking a break this week while both are in school.
Aspen attends Mount de Chantal Visitation Academy, while Holland attends Steenrod Elementary School.
The funds will be donated to the family’s church, the Ohio Valley Christian Center in Fulton and will be “going to where they need to go,” Matlock said.
This isn’t the first community service project Aspen has undertaken. As a first grade student, she donated about 14-inches of her hair to an organization called Locks of Love. The group provides hair for wigs for youngsters who have lost their hair as a result of cancer treatment.
“She heard about it and we went online and saw what they were about,” Matlock said.
That was four years ago. The youngster hasn’t cut her hair since then. She’s about to donate another 10-inches of hair to the group. Her younger sister, Holland, is likely to make a similar donation, she said.
“She’s very compassionate,” Matlock said of Aspen.
While at the young age, children tend to switch frequently from one career goal to another, Matlock said she believes her daughter will eventually enter a field in which she is able to help others.
Hearing of the plight of the the Katrina victims in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, Matlock said Aspen first said she wanted to become an American Red Cross volunteer.
“But that’s not something she could do,” Matlock said.
“Since I’m too young and I’m still in school, I decided to use my lemonade stand,” she said. “I asked my dad to buy Kool-Aid and my mom to make signs and we got started.”
Holland said she was concerned about a family friend living in New Orleans.
Aspen put into use a little lemonade stand her father, Dennis Matlock, had gotten her several years ago.
“She asked us to get her things and she’s been going ever since,” Carol Matlock said.
The stand has become sort of a “drive through” on the side street for people wishing a cool drink, Matlock said.
“We’ve had people come by and just give them $20 bills,” she said.
While the girls have erected signs on National Road, Matlock said she believed word has gotten around of their stand and are coming out of their way to make a donation.
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