New Jersey Girl Uses Love Of Animals, Sewing Skills To Help The Homeless

RINGWOOD, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- An 8-year-old New Jersey girl has used her love of animals to help the homeless living on the streets of New York.

As CBS2's Brian Conybeare reported, Willow Phelps has turned her love of cats into a true act of kindness.

The third grader from Ringwood is now a budding philanthropist for one simple reason.

Willow decided to learn how to sew over the summer and wound up making and selling hundreds of homemade cat toys with the help of her mom.

She stuffed the toys with cat nip to make them irresistible to their feline friends.

"We first started via social media and people were buying them and loving them so we had to decide what to do with the money," Willow's mother Erika Mathews said.

They took baskets full of the cat toys to street fairs and sold them for $3 each.

Suddenly Willow had hundreds of dollars, that's when she decided to help homeless teenagers and pet owners by buying sleeping bags, coats, and long underwear to donate.

"People should help the homeless because in the winter they're cold and I don't want them to be cold," she said.

Safe Horizon in New York City is one of the beneficiaries where Deputy Program Director Lisa O'Connor was blown away by Willow's generosity.

"It warmed my heart in a way that I think I haven't been touched in a very long time. That an 8-year-old says, 'I don't want people to be cold,' that's a very basic thing that we all don't want to be cold and she thought about for someone else that is wonderful," O'Connor said,

A wonderful little girl, helping others this holiday season.