The holidays are a time for giving, but with a month-long head start, four local teens have set quite an example for giving this year.

Dawson Jackson, Cameron Cahoon, Casey Boyd and Sarah Cahoon have known each other most of their lives. Cameron and Dawson are best friends; Sarah and Cameron are cousins. The four Bath Elementary School seventh-graders have a shared history and recently decided to share a birthday party, since all four have birthdays in November or December.

But the sharing didn’t stop there. Instead of gifts, they asked their partygoers to donate to their favorite cause: animal rescue.

“For four 13-year-olds I thought that was a pretty neat idea,” said Connie Hodges, Dawson’s mother.

Hodges said the kids’ cause of choice was no surprise: “They are all big animal lovers — Dawson has two dogs and two cats. They all have a bunch of animals. It just seemed like a good thing for them to do.”

During a Nov. 9 birthday party that included a DJ and sixty-plus of their friends, the four birthday guys and girls collected just over $315 and a few bags of dog food for their furry friends. They then donated their “gifts” to a Washington no-kill rescue organization: J&J’s Homeless Pet Rescue.

“They were thrilled to get the money because they don’t get a lot of donations like that,” Hodges said, adding that she was told the kids’ donation will likely go to a new J&J’s resident’s heartworm cure.

As for next year’s birthdays, Hodges said the kids would jump at the chance to do it all over again.