"When you do something with the right attitude, it just keeps coming back to you,'' said Margaret Alligood, Isabella's first-grade teacher at Lake Rim Elementary School.

...The idea for the necklaces came from a traumatic experience for Isabella and her family. Her baby sister, Valentina, was born Oct. 14, five weeks before her due date. The baby needed emergency medical care and was flown to Duke University Hospital, where she was treated for a heart condition and underwent surgery.

The family, which includes four other sisters, was in a state of upheaval. Isabella's parents, Jesseka and Fred Hardison, tried to juggle spending time in Durham with being back home with their other daughters in Fayetteville.

The family was finally able to spend some precious time together, thanks to the Ronald McDonald House of Durham, which provides a home for families to stay while their child receives medical treatment at Duke.

Baby Valentina is home now with the rest of the family. Meanwhile, Isabella remained so taken with the Ronald McDonald House that she was determined to do something to return the care her family enjoyed there.

...Isabella's classmates and teachers have made the project a success, a fact that touched her parents. Everyone, it seemed, wanted to make a donation. Soon, the little cardboard box holding the donations had grown to hold $400. The school will present a check to the Ronald McDonald House.

But the donations are growing and so is the popularity of the necklaces. Isabella has enlisted the help of her sisters, forming what the family calls "Team Pasta....''

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