Charitable Miley’s helping homeless dogs
AT only 13 years old, Miley Hope Siegel is giving hope to homeless dogs with her new charity venture, a book.
AT only 13 years old, Miley Hope Siegel is giving hope to homeless dogs with her new charity venture, a book.
The Mount Scopus Memorial College student has decided to tackle the issue by writing and selling books to raise money for Animal Rescue Centres.
Her children’s book, A Place to Call Home, is a touching story about a poor pooch and his ensuing struggles.
“There’s so many dogs in shelters and people just don’t really adopt enough of them,” she told The AJN.
With her story of Buddy, Miley hopes to encourage people to adopt dogs from shelters instead of from breeders.
Mum Natalie told The AJN, “Miley is a very empathetic young woman and always has been from a very young age. She is always thinking of the pain, suffering and hardship in people and animals. She started writing this story just before her bat mitzvah. She would write every weekend for a few months and then started drawing the pictures for the book.”
The year 6 student enjoyed the opportunity to combine her passion for charity work and art.
Miley’s great aunt Sandy assisted in digitalising her drawings and publishing the final copy.
Miley has done charity work from an early age – when she was five she made and sold more than 600 bookmarks, raising $1200 for Youth Projects, an organisation providing shelter for the homeless in Melbourne’s CBD.
For her ninth birthday, Miley went one step further, cutting off 33cm of her hair and donating it to raise awareness for children who have lost their locks to cancer treatment.
A Place to Call Home will sell for $14.99 and she has printed 200 copies so far, with plans to print a further 200 once her goal of $2000 is reached.
Miley will be selling the books at her launch on March 6, as well as at animal shelters and schools around Melbourne.
Profits from book sales will be donated to animal rescue centres as well as for cancer research in Australia as a way to honour her grandmother Lyne, who passed away late last year.
Miley was able to give her very proud ‘Nanny’ a signed copy of her book before she passed, telling The AJN, “This book is even more meaningful to me now.”
Natalie echoed the sentiment. “She worked so hard every weekend for over a year and had to forgo many social activities so she could complete the book before her grandmother’s birthday in November last year. It meant a lot for her to give this book to her grandmother and raise money as a tribute to her.
“Unfortunately, she passed away on December 30 and sadly won’t be there in person on March 6. We know she will be there in spirit, she was so proud of Miley.”
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