FISHERS, Ind. — Harper Dabbelt is one of Taylor Swift’s biggest little fans.
The 6-year-old had a Taylor Swift-themed birthday party, her favorite album is Reputation and her favorite song is ‘Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?’ When her mom told her the Eras Tour tickets in Indy were too expensive, Harper decided that just wouldn’t do.
”I explained to her, like, ‘Hey, it’s just too expensive,'” said Hannah Dabbelt, Harper’s mom. “And then she was like, ‘Well, I will work for them.'”
Admittedly, Hannah did not think Harper was up to the task.
”My initial expectations would be that she would work a couple of jobs, maybe at most make a couple hundred dollars and I would kind of have to burst her bubble and make her go to Target and get a toy,” Hannah said.
Hannah made a post on the neighborhood app Nextdoor, asking neighbors if they had any odd jobs her daughter could do.
”The original post on Nextdoor was, ‘My little one is on a mission to make enough money to go to the Taylor Swift concert – a huge undertaking. She is 100% committed to making it happen,” Hannah said in part of the post.
She and Harper got an immediate response from more than a dozen neighbors eager to help a young girl work hard toward her goal.
”There were 84 comments on it and immediately I think the first comment was, ‘I could use some help this week. Let me know the best day and time to come by,'” Hannah said.
From there it took off. Harper and her mom did all sorts of jobs for neighbors in Fishers, Indy and Carmel.
“Picking up pinecones, picking up sticks, picking up acorns,” Harper said, running through her list of gigs. “Picking up weeds. Taking trash down. Babysitting pets.”
The Dabbelt girls eventually got so many requests they had to get organized. Hannah put together a spreadsheet of names, addresses, job types, dates and times.
“It was really fun to manage with her and watch the excitement every time she got paid,” Hannah said.
As they went, Harper kept all of her earnings in a little wooden treasure chest she decorated herself.
”Every week or so I would put it in order,” Harper said. “I would put fives in stacks, ones in stacks, tens in stacks.”
Safe to say, it got hard at times. Hannah said she had to teach Harper about the importance of her own reputation. If she didn’t show up to a scheduled job, her other neighbors could hear and not want to hire her. Harper did her best to keep her mom encouraged, too.
”There were definitely days where I wasn’t feeling it either,” Hannah said. “I didn’t want to be in the rain.”
“I was just kicking her into it,” Harper added with a smile.
After months of work, Harper reached her goal with just weeks to go before Taylor Swift arrived in Indianapolis. Hannah recorded her reaction.
“I was just counting your money and you have enough money to buy your own ticket to the Taylor Swift concert,” Hannah said to her daughter behind the camera, as Harper started jumping up and down with excitement.
“I’m literally freaking out,” Harper said, talking about the moment she found out. “Probably 100 times excited as I’ve ever been.”
Harper gave a big “thank you” to all of the neighbors who had given her odd jobs over the last few months and Hannah passed along the celebratory video to all of her daughter’s new friends.
“All of them were just really invested in Harper and it was the cutest thing ever and she had so many new friends that we still keep in contact with,” Hannah said.
Along with earning $3,000, Hannah said her daughter learned some valuable life lessons.
”I think, too, we’ve just learned a lot about the kindness of stranger, how far hard work can get us,” Hannah said.
The Dabbelts also got some wonderful mother-and-daughter time.
“I wouldn’t ask anybody else to do a job except my mom,” Harper said.
Now, Harper and Hannah can’t wait to sing along with Taylor Swift all Friday night inside Lucas Oil Stadium.
“The first thing I am probably going to do is just put on my Taylor Swift outfit right when I wake up,” Harper said.