An Omaha girl is celebrating her 13th birthday by delivering gift bags to more than 600 Omaha firefighters.
Mia Rodriguez won't officially turn 13 until Monday but on Friday she stopped by Station 34 near 48th and Marcy and handed out the first batch of gifts. She will hand out the rest today and on Monday
Mia says instead of receiving birthday presents she wants to give gifts to people she feels deserves it. "To tell people that there's other people who actually care for them," Mia says Last year she did the same thing for every police officer and she has plans to continue giving through her 18th birthday.
She began her act of kindness when she was in third grade. With the help of family members Mia does fundraisers and collects money to pay for the gifts. In the past she has collected donations for the Lydia House homeless shelter and a dog rescue.
Mia says she began collecting donations for the gifts about 2-3 months ago Firefighters like Donald Dodge says he is grateful for Mia's selfless act. "It's absolutely amazing to see somebody that can take that kind of time out of their day to do the fundraising, put the care packages together for people who don't receive them a lot," Dodge say. "For her to take two full days out of her life to drive around and donate these to all of the firefighters in the city of Omaha is absolutely amazing and we are very proud of her as a fire department."
Mia says she wants to have a career as an FBI Agent.