Story told by Mandy McMahon 

“I was driving down the road and my wife sent me the link to Grant’s fundraiser; I got a little teary-eyed after I read it. My wife and son were talking together, and he expressed how he wanted to help people, and that’s the idea they came up with up,” Josh Acevedo describes how he learned of his wife Blakley, and son, Grant’s plan to celebrate his eighth birthday. “Using his birthday as a platform to raise money for the Red Cross—I thought that showed a lot of love and I was really proud of him. He and my wife—I am proud of both of them.”  

The Acevedo family witnessed significant storm impacts throughout their Greenville, South Carolina neighborhood, where everyone was affected either through power outages or downed trees.  

“That morning [after Helene], we went out to fuel up the chainsaws and I said to Grant, ‘let’s go help some people’,” Josh recalls recruiting his son Grant on his mission. “We helped clear a couple of roads and helped pull some people out of ditches who had tried to go around a tree and got stuck. It was just all hands on deck all day long, and he was right there with me. He could see the impacts everywhere.”  

Grant’s experience seeing the damage the storm caused and how it impacted his community inspired his desire to help. The family has friends who work for WYFF, the local NBC affiliate for Upstate South Carolina. They called to share Grant’s feel-good story and hopefully inspire others to contribute to disaster relief. WYFF then worked with the Red Cross Upstate Chapter to arrange a check presentation.  

“The check presentation was fun! They set up an interview time at the house which just happened to be on his 8th birthday,” said Josh. “Then we got in the car and headed to the Red Cross office. He was super excited to see the big check and the result of his efforts.”  

Afterward, the family celebrated his milestone and philanthropic success with cookie cake.  

Like Grant, you too can help people affected by disasters. You can help by making a financial donation, an appointment to give blood or platelets, or signing up to become a volunteer by visiting redcross.org or calling 1-800-RED CROSS (800-733-2767).