Alex Faust isn’t Captain America, he doesn’t have a shield and he doesn’t wear red, white and blue tights.

But the soon-to-be 7 year old did come to the rescue for some of the Miss-Lou’s neediest residents Monday afternoon.

And he did it with a little help from a few of his buddies and the famed Avenger.

Saturday afternoon, Faust invited a group of his classmates and friends to a Captain-America-themed birthday pool party. Like most ordinary birthday parties, there was cake, ice cream and even a pile of gifts.

But the pile of gifts was anything but ordinary. Faust’s birthday stash included 16 bags of dog food, many cans of cat food, stacks of newspapers and towels. The pile of pet-related items was just what Faust had asked for.

The invitations to his friends explicitly asked for items that are in need for the local pet shelter in lieu of birthday presents.

“I did it because the dogs and cats do not have homes,” Faust said.

When it came time to celebrate another family birthday, Alex’s mother Meredith said she wanted to teach her kids that life is not just about getting.

“There is so much stuff that we don’t need these days,” Meredith said. “We live in an age of excess.”

It is a message Meredith said she herself didn’t get until a few years ago when she attended several Bible studies at church.

It wasn’t hard for Alex to give up his birthday presents, though. He had his sister Katey Belle to look up to.

In April, Katey Belle collected pajamas during a slumber party for her birthday. She took the pajamas she collected and hand-delivered them to the Blair E. Batson Children’s Hospital in Jacskon.

“There is so much we don’t need,” Meredith said. “I don’t want my kids to grow up expecting to have everything handed to them.”