One of the downsides of being young is that interests that are considered cool to older people are often considered boring by your peers. And unfortunately, this can lead many children to give up what they love.
A dad who didn’t want this to happen inadvertently sparked a wave of generosity when he tweeted about the lack of support for his son’s hobby: woodworking. Gabriel Clark, his 12-year-old son, has enjoyed making wooden objects since he received the machine from his grandfather when he was 3 or 4 years old. “I’ve always had a real passion for wood and taught myself everything I knew,” Gabriel told PEOPLE.
Gabriel’s father, Richard Clark, has opened up about how sharing his passionate son’s disappointments via social media has caused the internet to explode in recent weeks. “Three weeks ago, my youngest, 12-year-old Gabriel, came home upset. His love of carpentry was not considered cool,” Richard Clark wrote in a tweet on April 15.
Richard’s March 25 tweet read: “Dear Twitter friends, I don’t know how many of you are also Instagram users, but I need a little favor. I have a 12 year old who loves working with wood. He spends hours on his instruments making bowls and cutting boards which he sells to buy himself a mountain bike. So I was wondering if any of you would like to give him a hand and follow him on his clarkie_woodwork Instagram profile , it would make him happy. Thanks in advance and feel free to retweet!”
Richard said his son, who then had just 6 followers, hoped to hit 60. But soon, Gabriel’s Instagram follower count skyrocketed to hundreds and then thousands. Within days, that number skyrocketed to over 225,000, and over 20,000 orders for his handmade bowls and cutting boards.
Knowing there was no way for him to fulfill so many orders, the young man decided to make just one special bowl to auction off to raise funds for Ukraine. So he created a beech wood bowl, which includes a blue stripe and a yellow stripe, reflecting the colors of the Ukrainian flag. The Clark family set up a Just Giving page with the aim of raising €6,000 and invited people to donate for a chance to win the bowl in a raffle.
And as happened with Gabriel’s Instagram following, the amount kept growing. With the increase in donations came hope. “What if we threw aside all caution, let go of our cynicism and really embarked on the adventure? » communicated Richard Clark. He suggested that people get together to make a donation and see if they could donate €120,000 to the appeal of the humanitarian association Save the Children Ukraine. In the end, it turned out that this sum was not only feasible, but also exceeded. By April 16, they had raised €180,000 and Gabriel shared a thank you message.
A bowl, a happy child and awesome gifts
The draw has taken place, but the Ukraine aid project has not yet been completed. The blue and yellow bowl has already been given to a donor, but the Clarks decided to keep the fundraiser open a little longer, as many netizens affected by Gabriel’s story still wanted to donate. With Gabriel’s Instagram follower count reaching 254,000, it makes sense that the fundraiser is aiming to reach €300,000.
At the time of writing this article, the collection had reached €302,000 and if you wish to participate in this tremendous outpouring of generosity, know that it will remain open until Saturday. “I let you do everything. RT if you like, or not. You have all done more than enough. The fundraiser ends on Saturday anyway,” concluded the father of the family. This is proof that social networks, often derided for their excesses, can also be real vectors of particularly positive initiatives.
