Emiliano Gonzalez-Garcia decided he wanted to donate to the schools for his fifth birthday.

Instead of traditional gifts, he asked his friends to bring backpacks, lunch boxes and other school supplies to help fill 210 backpacks for the Eudora Schools Foundation’s annual school supply drive. His party collected several bags of donations.

Each year, he and his brother, Rodrigo, get to pick where they donate for their birthdays. Their mom, Fernanda Garcia-Rosales said she teared up seeing the response from the community as well as her pride in her son.

“The lesson that I like to teach the boys is that it’s good to give back to the community,” she said. “That’s what a birthday should be about: giving back to your community and being able to celebrate you and celebrate what you have accomplished this last year.”

Getting to give to his community made him feel “good,” he said.

Usually, Emiliano picks the Lawrence Humane Society, but this year he told his parents he wanted to give to the schools.

When asked why he thinks it’s important, he said, “Because they need more stuff than me.”

He said these lessons were taught to him by his parents.

Garcia-Rosales is also on the Schools Foundation board, so it was even more special that he wanted to support the district this year.

The family is fortunate to have what they need, so teaching the kids an important lesson about giving to others has always been a priority, Garcia-Rosales said.

Emiliano said next year he thinks he’ll donate to the schools again. He also hopes it inspires other kids to do the same thing when they have birthday parties.

“It made me really proud of him for wanting to do this,” Garcia-Rosales said.

His dad, Rodrigo Gonzalez-Lopez agreed.

“I feel like that’s what we are trying to teach him, and he understands that that’s what we want from him,” he said.

Reach reporter Sara Maloney at [email protected].