The best part of helping dip 3,600 strawberries isn't the mess or the chocolate, although those are both things 6-year-olds love.
The best part for Kami Spradling is helping children who are sick with cancer, like her father once was.
Kami inspired friends and family to organize a last minute fundraiser for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, selling 300 dozen boxes of the Valentine staple this week.
"We had to raise money for the kids that have cancer," Kami explained Monday afternoon, as volunteers packed up the first round of chocolate dipped strawberries. "I was feeling bad about them, so I wanted to raise money, so they can feel better and get their hair back."
It was picture of a little girl without hair on the cover of a school fundraiser book for St. Jude, that first made Kami ask questions.
Her mother, Kelly Shearrer Spradling, told Kami to ask her father, Bert.
Bert Spradling was diagnosed with cancer the day before his 21st birthday, and spent the next year in treatment. Doctors found a lump on his left femur was Ewing Sarcoma.
"It was kind of funny when my daughter asked me why that little girl didn't have hair like me, for me to have to explain what I went through and what she's going through," said Bert Spradling, 41, as he helped load pink boxes into vehicles.
Kelly Shearrer Spradling expected to sell about 25-50 dozen strawberries, setting the price at $10.
Within the first 24 hours of telling friends and family, she had nearly 90 orders.
Word spread until the Spradling family was left with less than 10 dozen to sell. Anyone interested in the remaining strawberries can contact Shearrer Spradling's office at 573-429-2824.
Volunteers are dipping strawberries again Tuesday morning at Fellowship General Baptist Church to finish up orders, and will deliver in Poplar Bluff and Malden on Wednesday to customers with 5 dozen or more.
Shearrer Spradling would like to do this again next year, and raise even more for St. Jude.
"It's too good of a cause not to have it next year," she said. "God really worked a pretty amazing miracle in this. We had two weeks to pull everyting together."
Poplar Bluff Heroes and US Bank provided volunteers and money for supplies. Minit Print contributed cards to place on boxes. Volunteers also came from Recycling Grace Ministries, as well as friends and family.
"US Bank loves to be involved in the community and there's no better organization than St. Jude," said Miranda Fickert of US Bank. "It's so amazing to see a child caring enough to think of someone other than herself."
This project also helps encourage Kami and 4-year-old brother Mack to take an interest in their community, said Shearrer Spradling.
"I very much believe you should give back to the community," she said. "I want to teach my kids to give back to the community and to serve others, to serve those who need it. ... That's probably one of the most important lessons I want my kids to learn."