A 5-year-old Andalusia girl is on a mission to help others, and she uses her birthday to help accomplish her goal.

“This is Hollyn’s second year taking donations for her birthday,” Mandi Wiggins, her mother, said.

“She’s taken donations for Meredith Miracle’s in the past as well as sent shoe boxes overseas to other children, but this year she chose to donate to the Andalusia Animal Shelter.”

Wiggins said that Hollyn collected donations at her birthday party, which was held on July 8th.

“We send out an invitation with the things we want to donate,” she said.

“This year it was dog food and cat food.”

Wiggins said that this method is a lot cheaper than buying gifts and in the process it helps others.

“We’ve never pushed her to do this, it’s always something she just chose to do,” she said.

When asked why she chose to donate the animal shelter this year, Hollyn responded, “I love the dogs and cats but my favorite animal is the cat.”

On Monday, Hollyn was able to go to the Andalusia Animal Shelter and drop off all of the food and visit with the animals.

“We are extremely appreciative of Hollyn,” Kayla Cleland, the Andalusia Animal Shelter’s care coordinator, said.

“It was a total surprise to us and she was so excited. I could tell that it was all her idea, she was genuinely happy to donate all of that food,” she said.

Cleland said that Hollyn also got to walk through the shelter and visit with the animals.

“She donated more than 200 pounds of food. I would say it’s leaning more towards 300 pounds of food,” Cleland said.

Hollyn doesn’t plan on stopping either; she’s working on her next donation.

“I asked her what she planned on doing next year and she said she’d have to think about it,” Wiggins said.

Hollyn is a student at Guardian Angel Christian Daycare and next year she will be attending Andalusia Elementary School. She has always had a passion for others and loves the outdoors.