This Indiana Boy Is Selling Popcorn So Grandpop Can Get New Heart

GOSHEN, IN — Owen Holmes loves popcorn, but he loves his grandfather more. The 9-year-old Goshen, Indiana, boy is combining his two passions in a truly heartwarming fundraiser to help his grandfather, who needs a heart transplant.

Dan Holmes was diagnosed in 2003 with cardiomyopathy, which causes the heart muscle to become enlarged, thick and rigid. He’s on the heart transplant list, but the procedure and anti-rejection medication for years to come will be expensive.

That’s where Owen comes in. Every day after school, he uses his own money to buy popcorn from his favorite shop, Shirley’s Gourmet Popcorn, loads up his red wagon and then peddles it door-to-door with his mother, Jennifer, and 8-year-old brother, Tyler.

The popcorn for Grandpop been selling at a dizzying pace since his mom made a post about her son’s efforts on Facebook.

“I didn’t think it was going well at first, but now it’s blowing up,” Owen told the Pharos Tribune.

So far, Owen has brought in $300 from the sale of popcorn and has adjusted his goal to $500.

“When I was first started I was hoping for $100 to give my grandpa a little check,” Owen told news station WSBT.

Owen and his grandfather have always had a strong relationship.

“When I was younger, when I would go to his house, we’d always make model rockets and go launch them in the park,” he told WSBT.

“I just hope we’re able to make it through, and I hope we’ll be able to make more model rockets,” he said. “That’s one of my greatest memories.”

Shirley’s Gourmet popcorn enthusiastically embraced Owen’s plan, writing on Facebook:

“Role models aren’t always people who are older than you, they’re the do-gooders each community needs. If you see Owen and his red wagon, we hope you think of his story and maybe pull over to snag a bag ... or two.”

Kate Leaman, who owns the popcorn business, isn’t surprised by the response in Goshen to Owen’s fundraisers. He also had a table for Lemonade Day at the Center, and a fundraiser at the Goshen Veterans of Foreign Wars chapter — “Change of Heart for Dyno Dan Holmes” this coming Saturday — is sold out.

“This is exactly what Goshen excels at,” Leaman told the Pharos Tribune. “Someone with an idea, and someone who can elevate it. It wasn't even a question — we were going to find a way to help Owen.”

Tax-deductible contributions can also be made on the Help Hope Live crowdfunding site. It was established by a Philadelphia transplant surgeon and his wife, a nurse, who wanted to make it financially possible for more people to get heart transplants.

The charity, established in 1983 when heart transplants were considered an experimental procedure, was originally known as the National Heart Assist & Transplant Fund.