An 11-year-old girl who battled cancer for more than a year succumbed to her illness in November but not without leaving her mark on this world. Natalia Marsh-Welton of Cincinnati, Ohio valiantly fought brain cancer and her final wish has inspired others to help out and give back.
Natalia’s final wish, through the Make-A-Wish Foundation was to help the homeless and provide food to those in need in her hometown. The organization has kept her wish alive by recently donating 100 blankets and providing the ingredients needed to prepare Natalia’s special for kids attending an after school program at the Central Arizona Shelter Services (CASS). The shelter provides support services to those families who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.Brenda Cash who volunteers as a manager at CASS says they were pleasantly shocked when they learned they would be receiving the donations. To learn the donations were the result of a little girl and the circumstances surrounding it makes the gesture all that more amazing and precious.
Natalia knew firsthand what it was like to feel cold as that was a side effect of her chemotherapy. She didn’t want others to feel cold. Her wish was to help keep the homeless warm inside and out.
The kids at the shelter were grateful for the donations and all pitched in to help make Natalia’s soup as they were told her remarkable story. Realizing she could have used her wish to visit Disneyland or something similar, Nehemiah, a boy from the program, said that deciding to help the kids instead took heart.
After the kids heard Natalia’s story, some were inspired to pay it forward. Sarah, another child in the CASS program said her mom would be happy to learn about what happened today because she is always worried that Sarah and her siblings will get sick form the cold. Sarah vowed to give her blanket to her little sisters because they need it more she does.
