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Grieving Dad's 'Stolen Moments' Campaign Surpasses $87,000

Heather Navarro |
April 29, 2014 | 5:31 p.m. PDT

Executive Producer

Savannah Carroll didn’t wake up on April 4. 

Entertainment reporter Larry Carroll's social media campaign to honor his daughter has raised $87,000. (Facebook/Larry Carroll)
Entertainment reporter Larry Carroll's social media campaign to honor his daughter has raised $87,000. (Facebook/Larry Carroll)

She was 2 and half years old, and showed no signs of illness.

And Larry and Carrie Carroll, Savvy’s parents, still don’t know why.
But instead of letting the devastation consume him, Larry decided to focus on the amazing time he was granted with his blue-eyed baby.

He calls them stolen moments.

“As a dad, I practiced every day until I finally (mostly) figured out how to make pigtails,” Carroll wrote on the Fundly campaign page. “She was a healthy, happy child - this is not how things are supposed to end.”

Now Savvy’s story has been picked up by Yahoo, The Blaze, and The Today Show.

Donations have rolled in from across the U.S.

Carroll started the fund with one goal in mind – to help another family with a daughter have a “stolen moment.”

They could take them to Disneyland, or let them stay in the “greatest hotel ever.”

The only stipulations for the benefactor: the family has a little girl, they clearly love her, and they don't have the financial means to do something like take her to Disneyland. The Carrolls just want to be apart of creating a memory that the family could cherish.

The original goal was set at $10,000 – a goal Carroll told TheTodayShow.com he never thought he would reach.

It took only four days for donations to exceed $4,000.

"140 million characters couldn't explain what my daughter meant to me," Larry Carroll tweeted April 5.(Twitter/@LarryCarroll)
"140 million characters couldn't explain what my daughter meant to me," Larry Carroll tweeted April 5.(Twitter/@LarryCarroll)

As of Tuesday, April 29, the campaign is up to $87,000. Carroll wrote on Twitter:

“We’re sending someone to college!”

Carrie Carroll, Savvy’s mother, is 8 and a half months pregnant. This is their third child, including Savvy’s older brother, Jack.

Carrroll wrote:

"Hug your child tight, tell them that you love them. Every. Damn. Day.

And the next time your child wants to play with your phone, even though they have peanut butter all over their hands and will just delete all your apps and make the screen too bright and you don't know how to change it back...let them do it."

If you want to share “stolen moments” with the Carroll family, tweet a picture using the hashtag #stolenmoments, or follow Larry Carroll on Twitter for updates.

Contact Executive Producer Heather Navarro here and follow her on Twitter.



 

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