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Carter rejoices with gift of giving

Rapt: Carter Mitchell gives a backpack to Dave Basell. Picture: Steve Ferrier/The West Australian

While most 11-year-olds would be looking forward to celebrating their birthday with a party, cake and presents, Carter Mitchell wanted to take some of his birthday joy to other people's lives.

With the help of his mother Amanda, he prepared backpacks full of blankets, beanies, scarves and toiletries to hand out to homeless people early yesterday.

Mrs Mitchell said she had been walking through the city a few months ago with Carter and his brother Jordan, 12, when they saw homeless people begging.

"They each wanted to give them some money," she said.

"Then we saw one of the men get up and hand the $2 coin to the next person."

That stuck in Carter's mind and three weeks ago he decided to do more to help homeless people.

That was when he came up with the idea of handing out backpacks on his 11th birthday and asked his mother for help.

Mrs Mitchell set up a Facebook page - Pack a Backpack for Carter - and his family helped collect donations and stuff the packs.

They met the Salvation Army van at Wellington Square yesterday where they handed out 46 backpacks.

Mrs Mitchell said she was so proud of Carter for giving up his birthday to help others.

Carter said his birthday celebration went even better than he had expected.

"Everyone was really happy and they kept shaking my hand and saying happy birthday," he said.

The Bellevue boy said he wanted to continue his backpack project.