Nine-year-old Hunter Werts of Prosperity never met his late great-grandfather, Homer Derrick, but he hears they have a lot in common.

For one thing, Hunter likes onions just like Derrick did-”can eat them like apples,” says Hunter, rubbing his stomach-and has the same peculiarity for having things in order.

“In my desk, math (is) on this side, reading in the middle, writing, next to it,” says Hunter. “It's got to be in the exact same order.”

Derrick was particular like that, too, Hunter's parents say.

But Hunter also has a trait of Derrick's that recently brought him national recognition.

This summer, Hunter was named one of the Kohl's department store winners for the Kids Who Care Scholarship Program that honors volunteers ages 6 to 18 for “selfless acts.”

“Selfless acts” seems to be a family trait.

Derrick, often concerned for the less fortunate, was a Shriner who visited the children in the Shriners Hospital in Greenville.

Hunter also makes visits to the Shriners Hospitals and initiates visits to shut-ins unable to go to church.

“Hunter worries about other people an awful lot. He worries about those children (at the Shriners Hospital) or a church member,” says Kim Werts, Hunter's mom. “PaPa was like that. He'd get something on his mind and he had to carry it all the way through.”

Even two years ago, Hunter was set on raising money to buy bikes and coats for children at Christmas, his father, Joseph Werts says.

“We just kept putting him off,” says Joseph Werts, who admits they did not know how to begin fundraising.

Kim Werts finally called the Shriners Hospital in Greenville last June and asked if there were any goodwill projects Hunter could help with.

The hospital had just finalized plans that week for a new, $190,000 Shriners Hospital playground with equipment for handicapped kids and needed help raising funds.

It was a channel for Hunter to both pour his care into and honor his PaPa.

“It just seemed like it was meant to be,” says Kim Werts.

Hunter then sat down and wrote out a fund raising speech to present to churches.

He hoped to raise $5,000 for the project, but pushed the mark higher four different times and finally doubled the goal, “because they hadn't gotten all the money, and I had nothing else to do,” Hunter says.

For all but two Sundays from August 2007 until December, Hunter and his parents visited a different church where Hunter spoke about the need for the hospital playground and his PaPa's passion to help children.

By December, he raised $10,000.

The hospital will open the playground in October, and Hunter is invited. He has already spoke at a ladies' hospital luncheon.

“Everything they have up there it seems he's invited to,” says Kim Werts.

But Hunter's fund raising honors only start in Greenville.

In May, he received the letter announcing he was chosen as a Kohl's Kids Who Care Scholarship Program store winner.

Then in June, Hunter received a second letter announcing that he was a Kids Who Care regional winner, one of 190 in the nation and two from the state.

As a store winner, Hunter won a $50 gift card. He added on a $1,000 college scholarship as a regional winner.

“That's quite an honor there,” says Mom.

Hunter is now beginning fundraising for the Shriners Hospital's Bear Cub Club, which places a customized bear on each child's bed after surgery.

“I hope to one day finish what (Derrick) started,” Hunter said in his speech. “I would love to see every crippled and burned child receive the best treatment possible through the Shriners Hospital.”