Every school that we have visited on the We Create Change Tour has been awesome and special in it’s own way. Each school has had a great energy, supportive teachers and Principals and students who have been taking action all year in support of Free The Children’s Year of Education. There is one school though, that will stand out to all of us because everything about our time there was so unique. In Morris, Manitoba, a small town about an hour outside of Winnipeg, we brought the We Create Change Tour as to celebrate a Grade 4 student, Avery, who has raised more than $12,000 for We Create Change. The best part for everyone is that it was a big SURPRISE for Avery. There were so many people involved behind the scenes in making this day so awesome for Avery – a team from RBC, his teacher, Principal, Vice Principal, his parents and even the Mayor of Morris came to celebrate. The best part? He was really, really, really surprised!
Avery worked really hard all year to reach his goal of raising $10,000 to build a school in Kenya by his 10th birthday. He organized bake sales, art auctions and garage sales – he even sold his own bike! He had a huge wall in his house that he added a new brick to every time he got $20 so that he could see the wall fill up. He needed 500 bricks. He raised awareness in his school and community and made a video where he explained what he was trying to do with his Brick by Brick campaign for We Create Change and gave all of the reasons why education for all kids around the world is something that he was so passionate about.
I heard that Avery was really excited to attend one of the schools on the We Create Change Tour and he had even chosen the event that he would go to, but a couple of days before, his parents said that he could not go with no reason. But they actually did have a really good reason for not letting Avery go to the event in Winnipeg, that’s because the We Create Change Tour was going to his school to surprise him! RBC, our co-title sponsor, knew how hard Avery had worked for to be a change-maker and knew that he had not only reached, but exceeded his We Create Change fundraising goal. Pretty big deal – 10 year old boy raises $12,000. Awesome. RBC thought so and so we started putting plans into place to surprise Avery at his school with the We Create Change Tour. They thought that Spencer, Neverest and I should congratulateand celebrate Avery for doing so much good in the world.
Here is how it all went down:
Who was in on it? Well, just about everyone. Avery’s parents, teacher and Principals, RBC, the Free The Children team at the office in Toronto and all of us on the We Create Change Tour.
When we arrived to the school, we had to be sneaky and quiet and keep out of sight. There were some students that asked why we were there and we just told them to wait and see. We took a lot of care to keep this big secret: the bus was parked out of sight, we covered all of the windows, we did not wear our tour shirts and we stayed in the gym until the show started.
At 2 o’clock everything started to get exciting. Representatives from RBC arrived to the school and they all went to Avery’s class and told him the first part of their surprise for him – that he was going to We Day in the fall as their honoured guest. While this was going on all of the students from the whole school came to the gym so that we could all be there together to wait for and surprise Avery. So that Avery’s class had time to get to the gym, RBC told Avery that they wanted to capture his feelings about going to We Day and so they asked him to do an interview. While he was doing his interview, his class quietly head down to the gym to be part of the big surprise.
Then our friends from RBC walked with Avery down to the gym where the whole school and many special guests where quietly waiting. They brought him onto the stage and SURPRISE! Spencer was waiting for him and everyone cheered for him! You could tell that he was really surprised to be on stage with Spencer West and to have his whole school cheering for him! While he was on stage, Spencer gave him a rungu. A rungu is a beaded wooden baton from Kenya that is used by respected village elders in community gatherings and meetings. It represents status and authority and the person with the rungu is seen by all as the leader. Each rungu os unique and is hand-carved and beaded in the colours and patterns of the Massai mamas. Avery is a true leader in his school and in his community and it was so cool that Spencer was able to honour this with such a special gift. You can see the rungu in one of the photos below.
At the end of our show we invited Avery to come back to the stage and he presented his cheque of $12,000 to Spencer. Avery is a amazing example of young people changing the world. I hope that Avery inpsires you to set goals and make them a reality.
We all had a great time at our We Create Change Tour Surprise stop in Morris. I can speak for the entire We Create Change Tour, Free The Children and RBC teams when I say that are so proud and honoured that we were able to celebrate with Avery and his community.
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