Ernie Hardeman MPP Oxford
Statement in the House – February 28, 2006 –
Six year old Samatha Bakker receives Tsunami award.

Mr. Speaker, I want to take this opportunity to congratulate Six-year-old Samantha Bakker of Woodstock in my riding of Oxford. Samantha is receiving the Ontario Spirit Tsunami Award this afternoon. This award is to recognize her for her generous spirit and desire to help raise money for victims of the tsunami.

In fact, it all started when Samatha was shopping with her parents. She noticed a can on the checkout counter with a big red cross on it. She asked what it was for, and her parents explained that the Canadian Red Cross was collecting money to send to southeast Asia to help the people who were hit by the tsunami.

She put money in the tin and told her parents that she felt good helping out because she felt sad for these people.
Samatha and her parents then discussed how they might help raise more money for this very needy cause and decided that selling something Samatha created on e-bay might be the answer.

Six year old Samatha decided to draw a picture. She used her crayons to draw a picture of the world surrounded by hearts.

Bidding for her drawing quickly hit $10,000. But when the auction closed, the buyer turned out to be a fake.

When Toronto real estate developer Don Darroch heard what happened to Samantha, he decided to make the contribution himself and handed over a cheque.

So once again Mr. Speaker I want to congratulate six year old Samatha for her kind heart and efforts to raise money for people in trouble half way around the world.

But I also want to thank Don Darroch for keeping Samatha’s dream alive and also, at such a young age, to allow her to continue to believe that there are good people in the world who can be trusted.

Thank you Mr. Speaker