Eloise “Lulu” Peck with her grandparent’s dog Henry in a toy Porsche. Lulu was named the ASPCA’s 2026 Kid of the Year. The honor will be accepted posthumously after her death at age 8 in the July 2025 flooding near Camp Mystic.
Photo provided by Missy Peck
Eloise “Lulu” Peck did not wait until she was grown to help animals.
She sold lemonade on her Dallas block, where dogs drank free. She and her friends started a dog-walking business and decided part of what they earned should go to animal rescue. Sometimes Lulu walked the dogs without charging at all.
Dallas 8-year-old Eloise “Lulu” Peck, who died in the 2025 Camp Mystic floods, will be honored Oct. 8 as the ASPCA’s 2026 Kid of the Year for her love of animals.
Now the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has named the Dallas girl its 2026 Kid of the Year, an honor her family will accept posthumously.
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Lulu, who died at age 8 in the July 2025 flooding near Camp Mystic in the Texas Hill Country, will be honored Oct. 8 during the ASPCA Humane Awards luncheon at The Plaza Hotel in New York City.
For her mother, Missy Peck, the award recognizes the way Lulu lived while underscoring who will be missing from the ceremony.
“I wish more than anything that she were the one walking into The Plaza, one of her favorite places, and receiving the award,” Peck said. “But at the same time, there’s something so incredibly beautiful about it.”
“It really is a reminder that her eight years on Earth mattered,” she said. “They mattered to a lot of people, a lot of animals, and her love mattered.”
Each year, the ASPCA selects its Kid of the Year from nominations across the country, recognizing a young person who shows extraordinary compassion for animals and a commitment to helping them, said Matt Bershadker, president and CEO of the ASPCA.
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One of Lulu’s lemonade-stand signs captured that spirit simply: “Lemonade is $5. Dogs Drink Free.”
“Lulu’s love for animals was simply part of who she was,” Bershadker said. “She cared deeply for creatures big and small and showed a level of compassion that inspired the people around her.”
Related: Remembering the girls and leaders of Camp Mystic lost to the Kerr County floods
A love for animals from the beginning
Peck said Lulu, who was born and raised in Dallas, seemed drawn to animals almost from birth.
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As a young child, Lulu repeatedly asked Santa for a puppy. She had grown close to Jack, a family dog who died when she was 2.
Years later came Ollie, the dog Lulu had long wanted.
“They were never just pets for Lulu,” Peck said.
Her mother described Lulu as a deeply empathetic child. Animals, she said, seemed to give her daughter peace.
“She connected with them on a deeper level that is hard to explain,” Peck said.
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Ollie died only months before Lulu. The family was heading to its ranch in West Texas when Ollie, still on a leash, became excited after seeing an animal, jumped from the vehicle and was killed, Peck said.
Not long afterward, Lulu looked at her mother and said something Peck has never forgotten.
“Mommy, I’m not afraid of death.”
Lulu explained that she believed Ollie was happy and playing in heaven.
“He’s in heaven with Jesus, and I’m not afraid at all,” Peck recalled her daughter saying.
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“She had this otherworldly compassion,” Peck said, “and almost a sense that there’s more to life, that life doesn’t end with death.”
Lulu also found ways to put that compassion into action.
In June 2025, after school let out and before she left for camp, Lulu and several friends started a neighborhood dog-walking business. Peck helped them make signs and spread the word.
Lulu suggested charging about $20 for a 30-minute walk and said some of the money should go to dog rescue.
The girls made about $45, Peck recalled.
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But Lulu also walked plenty of dogs for free.
“Just because it was fun,” her mother said.
Lulu also set up lemonade stands with friends on their Dallas block, sometimes with Ollie nearby, offering lemonade to neighbors and free drinks and attention to dogs.
“She knew she didn’t have to be an adult to make changes in the world, to spread love and compassion,” Peck said.
“We hope people see that compassion doesn’t have an age requirement,” Bershadker said. “Lulu was only eight, but the kindness she showed animals made an impression on everyone around her.”
Lulu is not the first child to receive the award posthumously. The honor was established in memory of Tommy P. Monahan, a 9-year-old Staten Island boy who died in a 2007 house fire while trying to save pets. In 2013, the ASPCA also honored 6-year-old Catherine Hubbard, who was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and had dreamed of creating an animal shelter.
Related: SPCA head: Here’s why shelters are full
‘We are going to live for Lulu’
Eloise “Lulu” Peck with her dog Ollie. Lulu, who sold lemonade and walked neighborhood dogs to help animal rescue, has been named the ASPCA’s 2026 Kid of the Year.
Photo provided by Missy Peck
After Lulu’s death, her family began looking for a way to carry forward what mattered to her.
Peck said the idea came within hours.
Peck said she and her sister were talking and crying when her sister looked at her and said, “We are going to live for Lulu.”
“That’s it,” Peck recalled responding.
The Living for Lulu Foundation grew from that moment, with a mission centered on kindness, animal welfare and helping children and others who cannot always advocate for themselves.
The Pecks also found support among families who lost daughters in the Camp Mystic flooding. Peck calls them their “Heaven’s 27” family.
“They’re the only people who know exactly how we feel and exactly what we go through on a day-to-day basis,” she said.
Now family and friends from Dallas, New York, Philadelphia and elsewhere plan to gather Oct. 8 as Lulu receives another form of recognition.
But Peck does not expect to walk into The Plaza without her daughter.
“She will absolutely be there,” Peck said.
“I truly think she’d be embarrassed by it all a little bit,” Peck said.
But she believes Lulu would have understood what could come from the recognition: more people helping animals, whether by donating, volunteering, walking dogs or putting up a lemonade stand.
“I hope that it inspires people,” Peck said, “to care more, to love more, to spread more love.”
Most of all, Peck wants people to remember her daughter for how she lived.
“I want Eloise to be remembered not for how she left this Earth, but how, in her eight and a half years that she was here on this Earth, how much love and compassion her little body and brain put out into the world,” Peck said.
“She was pure light.”
Related: Lawsuits against Camp Mystic paused after bankruptcy filing. Here’s what to know