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Beltsville Girl's Gift to 'Katrina Kids'
Kamilah Bryant, 7, decided last year that she would raise money for children affected by Hurricane Katrina by creating and selling fans.
(Photos By Susan Biddle -- The Washington Post)
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When a potential customer asked about the purpose of the fans, Kamilah would just say, "So they could have their stuff back."
Some donors gave Kamilah $5 or $10, which she stuffed in a little can. Practically every week, she asked her parents, George and Tamika Bryant, to count what she had raised. Before long, she had collected $1,000.
Anne Jackson, a friend of Kamilah's great-grandmother, had heard about KaBoom and suggested the money be given to the nonprofit group, which has built playgrounds in underserved communities around the world. Kamilah thought that was a great idea.
Tamika Bryant said she was in awe of her daughter's focus. At first, Bryant said, she thought making the fans was just something fun for Kamilah to do for the moment -- something that she would eventually push aside. But Bryant said there were days when she had to remind Kamilah to "put the fans down and get some homework done."
"She would [give a] look like this is more important than homework," Bryant said. "In her mind it was because she had a mission to complete. . . . She just kept saying 'the kids need their stuff back.' "
In April, Kamilah and her family were devastated by news that Mama Doris, 74, had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Six months later, Mama Doris died, but not before urging the family to make sure that Kamilah finished the project.
"They were like peas in a pod, kindred spirits," Bryant said of Kamilah and Mama Doris.
One day last week, Kamilah, with braids hanging past her shoulders, sat at her grandfather's kitchen table, making a fan. On it she drew a big heart and the words, "I love fans!" Another said: "Merry Christmas," "Jesus" and "I love presents."
Bryant said she is keenly aware that Kamilah wanted to do the fans in part because it was something that she and Mama Doris could do together.
"I just know she's looking down on [Kamilah], smiling now," Bryant said.
During a recent visit to the Annapolis mall, mother and daughter purchased a Christmas ornament of an African American angel holding a star. They inscribed the ornament with Mama Doris's name.
"You were her shining star, so she's holding you," Bryant said to Kamilah.
As Bryant's eyes filled with tears, her daughter took a break from her coloring. "Don't cry mommy," she said.
Her mother replied: "Okay, I promised I wouldn't cry."
The Rev. Lorenzo McKinney, pastor of Washington Christian Center, said he was not surprised that Kamilah had taken on such a project. She even made a presentation to the congregation about why she wanted to raise the money.
"Kamilah is a special child," McKinney said. "She is unusual, sensitive to spiritual matters for a child of her age."
