Boy donates money to help Haitians

PENSACOLA, Fla. (WALA) - A nine-year-old from Pensacola has decided to rebuild Haiti on his own. He's built one house for a family, but he's not stopping there. He's been donating birthday and Christmas money to Haiti for two years. Now his goal is to get more people to stand with him.

Pierce Loiselle is like any other nine-year-old. He's a fourth grader that wants to be a computer scientist when he grows up. But one thing makes him very different. In 2009, instead of asking for a new video game for his birthday, he wanted to donate money to Haiti.

"It did take a second to go, 'Wait, you are donating your money? Not some, but all of of your money!' To see it grow, to see him take the dream, to see him from going, 'I want a video game,' to 'I found out about people in need,'" his mother Angela Loiselle said.

Pierce got the idea from a brochure he got a year ago from church. That's when he knew he had to step in to help.

"They didn't have anything and they couldn't help themselves. I saw this kid and saw he was skinnier than me," Pierce said.

He went to foodforthepoor.com and wanted to buy a water pump for a village, but he realized that wasn't enough. He then set his sites on building a house. Then he decided he wanted to do more.

"He saw there was the opportunity to help a family with nothing, which provided a house, latrine, rice and beans for a year, clothing and training for them to start a small business," his mom Angela said.

Through donating all his birthday and Christmas money, and by having a bargain sale, he was able to raise more than $3,000. That was enough money to build a home for a Haitian family. But now after seeing the devastation, he wants to keep building houses until everyone has a place to live.

"I wanna do ten houses and over, and donate more and more money each year," he said.

Pierce has raised about 20 percent of the money needed to build 10 homes. He needs about $30,000 more to go. To donate, go to www.foodforthepoor.com/pierce