Originally published July 27, 2011 at 7:57 AM | Page modified July 27, 2011 at 9:31 PM

Donations in honor of 9-year-old Rachel Beckwith continue to grow

More than $472,244 has been contributed to the charity "mycharity: water" by Wednesday evening to honor Rachel Beckwith, the 9-year-old girl who died last week from injuries in a vehicle pileup on I-90.

By Seattle Times staff

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Update, 7:20 p.m. Wednesday: The number of donations on Rachel Beckwith's fundraising page has climbed to more than 13,000, amounting to more than $472,244.

More than $350,800 had been contributed to "mycharity: water" by Tuesday night to honor Rachel Beckwith, the 9-year-old fatally injured in a multi-vehicle accident on Interstate 90 in Bellevue a week ago.

The figure reflected more than 7,500 donations made via her fundraising page mycharitywater.org/rachels9thbirthday.

Last month, before her June 12 birthday, the Bellevue girl made it known that the only gifts she wanted were donations toward her goal of raising $300 to bring clean water to African villagers.

A web page with Rachel's photo and birthday wish was created through "my charity: water" to take contributions. By her birthday, $220 had been raised, then the page was closed.

In the wake of last Wednesday's accident, Ryan Meeks, a pastor from her church, arranged for the web page to be revived. Since then, the donations have poured in.

By Tuesday night, Rachel's goal had been surpassed more than 1,000 times over.