Stuffed toys help raise money for North Bay infant food bank

12-year-old North Bay girl helps local families A 12-year-old North Bay girl continues to help various charitable organizations in the city. Eric Taschner shares her story.

There’s always a time for the giving season according to 12-year-old Paytyn Roche of North Bay, Ont.

She told CTV News that she learned at a young age to give back to others.

“I feel good because I know I’m helping out kids that don’t have a lot and their parents don’t have a lot of money,” she said.

Roche said after she gave her teachers stitched stuffed ornamental mice as a Christmas gift, one of her teachers praised her work and told her that she has a real talent and should make more.

That idea blossomed into a big dream for her – to sell hundreds of them for charity.

With the help of her grandmother Sany Foster, Roche has sewn together more than 300 stuffed mice out of leftover quilting fabric.

“We take the fabric and stuff it and put cardboard underneath,” Roche said, explaining the process of making the toys.

“Then we embroider it onto the cardboard. Then basically we glue the eyes on, embroider the whiskers and do the tail.”

The charitable child sells them for $5 each.

All the money she collects is going directly to Trinity United Church’s Infant Food Shelf – an organization that helps provide for 60 young families in the city with new newborn children until they reach 12 months of age.

“I'm so proud of her. She will tell you that and I’ll probably get into tears,” Foster said.

“She's just delightful and helps. She's kind. She's just a kind young lady.”

Roche said she is hoping to ‘squeak out’ $1,500 for the food shelf, which is run entirely by volunteers without government support.

“It’s really helpful that we receive donations. That’s what we depend on,” said Anne Smith, one of the food shelf’s coordinators.

“It’s very heartwarming and it gives us a lot of hope.”

The food shelf’s coordinators calculate that it has assisted about 600 families since it opened in 2013, supplying them with diapers, baby food and other supplies.

The food shelf is open on Wednesdays from 10 a.m. until noon.

Roche is no stranger to charity work. In the past, she sewed and donated a quilt to the children’s mental health unit at the hospital. She’s also raised money through the Nipissing Rotary Children’s Charity Fair for the infant food shelf and has donated to The Gathering Place soup kitchen on Cassells Street.

“I’ve made plates. I’ve made cups and decorated the cups,” Roche said.

“They all say that’s great that I’m doing this at a young age.”

As of now, she has collected about $500 in donations from the mice she has sold.

Roche said she will be trying to sell any remaining unsold mice at the church’s bazaar in November and that in the end, all of her work will offer some comfort for struggling families.

Anyone looking to purchase a stuffed mouse can contact Trinity United Church at 705-474-3310 or by email.