ABERDEEN, Md. — He will hide two dozen Easter eggs a home in Aberdeen and then at a dozen more this week in exchange for 30 dollar donations, as Bradley Snyder works to build up the philanthropy he started when he was just six years old.
“Do you ever get tired?” I asked the young boy, “It sounds like it’s getting bigger and there are more yards every year.”
“Yes. I get tired,” he replied, “I’m a nine-year-old hiding eggs at a bunch of houses.”
But Bradley isn’t your typical third grader.
His mother, Melissa Snyder, lost her grandparents to Alzheimer’s and then joined the Greater Maryland Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association directing its annual walk to end the disease.
Her sudden death at the age of 41 last year didn’t keep Bradley from wanting to continue the fundraiser in her memory with the help of his grandmother.
“I didn’t know anything about what to do, you know?” Donna Taylor told us, “Where they order things from for the eggs and etcetera and Brad set me straight and he told me what they did, what they did when they got to a house.”
Since its inception, Bradley’s Easter egg hunts have raised more than five thousand dollars.
In fact, this year alone he’s already raised more than two thousand dollars and he still has plenty more eggs to spread around.
It’s a legacy of giving he learned while most children that age are still in kindergarten.
You've been egged, for a good cause
“Some people don’t give to you at all, but the least you can do is still give something to them,” Bradley explained, “It helps make the world a little bit of a better place.”
A gift, of sorts, learned through love and loss.
“I’m so proud of him,” said Taylor, “I could not be prouder… could not be prouder of him. He is a special child. He has his mother’s heart.”
