More than a year after Eloise “Lulu” Peck died in the catastrophic flooding at Camp Mystic, her name is returning to the national spotlight.

This time, it is not because of the flood.

It is because of dogs, lemonade, kindness and the small acts of compassion that defined an 8-year-old girl’s life long before tragedy made her known across the country.

The ASPCA has named Lulu its 2026 Kid of the Year, a posthumous honor recognizing her extraordinary love for animals and the work her family has continued in her name.

The award will be presented during the ASPCA Humane Awards luncheon at The Plaza Hotel in New York City on October 8.

For Lulu’s parents, Missy and Tim Peck, the recognition is another reminder that their daughter’s life can still create something good.

After losing her in the July 4, 2025, Texas Hill Country floods, the family made a promise.

“We’re going to live for Lulu.”

That promise became the Living for Lulu Foundation, an organization created to bring comfort and hope to children and animals in need.

And for anyone who knew Lulu, animals were the obvious place to begin.

The little girl who tried to befriend every creature

Lulu did not simply like animals.

Her family says she seemed to treat nearly every living thing as a potential friend.

She loved dogs, birds and creatures many children might avoid.

Family accounts describe her wanting to pet, pick up and sometimes even name the animals and insects she encountered.

A report on the Camp Mystic disaster described Lulu as a child who moved through the natural world with curiosity, eager to “meet, pet, pick up, and bestow a name” on practically every animal that crossed her path.

At home, one animal occupied an especially important place in her life: Ollie, the family’s Boston terrier.

Her affection for dogs extended well beyond her own pet.

Before her first summer at Camp Mystic, Lulu had begun a small dog-walking business. She did not plan to keep all the money for herself. A portion of what she earned was intended for an animal rescue organization in Arkansas.

Then there was the lemonade stand.

On a sign advertising the drinks, Lulu had written:

“Lemonade is $5. Dogs Drink Free.”

That handwritten idea — funny, generous and unmistakably childlike — became one of the details the ASPCA highlighted when announcing her award.

It captured something her parents had always known about her.

Lulu did not seem to think kindness needed to be complicated.

If someone — or something — needed care, she simply wanted to give it.

A summer of firsts

The summer of 2025 was supposed to be an important one for Lulu.

She had recently finished second grade.

That meant she was finally old enough to attend Camp Mystic, the historic all-girls summer camp along the Guadalupe River in the Texas Hill Country.

It was her first summer there.

Her best friend, 9-year-old Lila Bonner, was also at the camp.

Then, before dawn on July 4, catastrophic rainfall caused the Guadalupe River to rise with extraordinary speed.

Floodwaters swept through Camp Mystic.

Twenty-five campers and two counselors died there. Lulu and Lila were among them. Across Texas, the broader flooding ultimately killed more than 100 people.

Lulu was 8.

The disaster quickly became national news, with the faces of missing and deceased campers appearing across television broadcasts, newspapers and social media.

For the Peck family, however, the public tragedy was also intensely private.

Their daughter — the girl who loved her little brother, animals, pink cowboy boots and dance parties — was gone.

“There was always room for one more”

Animals were only one part of Lulu’s instinct for compassion.

Her parents have described a child who noticed when other children were excluded.

Missy Peck recalled learning from another family that Lulu had been the only friend of a boy her age with autism.

Lulu would come home and talk enthusiastically about him.

“She was his only friend,” Missy recalled being told.

That story fit what her parents already saw in her.

“There was always room for one more at the table,” they said of Lulu’s approach to other children.

At school, she loved recess and organized friends into something she called “Lulu’s Spa.”

She loved her teachers and coaches.

She rode her bicycle around the neighborhood and paid attention to birds, trees and whatever else caught her imagination.

At the family ranch, she liked wearing shiny pink cowboy boots.

At home, she crawled into her parents’ bed for cuddles, movies and frequent dance parties.

Her younger brother, Holden, was described as her favorite playmate.

These details are the version of Lulu her family has spent the past year trying to preserve.

Not the image of a victim.

A child with habits, jokes, passions and a personality large enough that her nickname somehow seemed more fitting than the elegant name her parents had originally chosen.

Missy and Tim loved the name Eloise.

But once their daughter arrived, Missy later recalled, they looked at her and thought: she was definitely a Lulu.

Turning grief into “Living for Lulu”

After her death, the Pecks faced a question that many grieving parents eventually confront in different ways:

What do you do with all the love that no longer has somewhere obvious to go?

Their answer became Living for Lulu.

The foundation says its mission is to provide comfort, healing and hope to children and animals in need — areas that reflect the empathy Lulu showed throughout her short life.

Community events have since raised money in her name.

In August 2025, supporters gathered for a “Huddle Up for Lulu” event featuring flag football, food, lemonade and music, with proceeds benefiting the foundation.

The family’s work has allowed Lulu’s interests to continue producing tangible results even though she is no longer here to lead them herself.

That is part of what the ASPCA said it wanted to recognize.

When announcing the 2026 Humane Awards, the organization described Lulu as someone whose “extraordinary love for animals, compassion, and an open heart” affected those around her.

Her family, the ASPCA said, is now carrying that spirit forward.

The “CEO of Dogs in Heaven”

Missy has found her own way to imagine where Lulu’s love of animals might have taken her next.

She has said she pictures her daughter in heaven surrounded by animals.

In that image, Lulu is not simply sitting quietly among them.

Her mother jokingly calls her the “CEO of Dogs in Heaven.”

It is an affectionate title that seems particularly suited to a child who once believed dogs deserved free lemonade.

For Missy, imagining Lulu that way does not erase the grief.

Nothing could.

But it allows the family to connect the daughter they knew with something beyond the way she died.

On October 8, that same idea will take them to New York.

Inside The Plaza, an organization devoted to protecting animals will formally recognize an 8-year-old girl who never lived long enough to see what her small acts of compassion would become.

The ceremony will take place more than a year after Lulu’s first and only summer at Camp Mystic.

The flood remains part of her story.

It always will.

But it is no longer the only reason strangers are learning her name.

They are learning about a girl who donated part of her dog-walking money.

A girl who wanted everyone included.

A girl whose lemonade cost $5 — unless you were a dog.

And a family that decided the best way to survive losing her was to keep doing the things she would have done herself.

Lulu was only 8 when she died.

More than a year later, she is still giving.