A Very Special Bowl for Ukraine

[demmiblue]

Link to tweet

A wee thread about a young boy and the tweet that got away. Feel free to RT.

Three weeks ago my youngest, Gabriel 12, came home upset. His love of woodwork was not deemed cool, nor was only having 6 followers on his instagram. 1/15

His Dad was upset too. It's hard watching your children battling with life. But what to do? Mum wasn't around, so Dad, the impulsive fool that he is, instead reached out to the lovely people on twitter. Maybe he could persuade some of them to follow his son? 2/15

He was aiming for 60, the magic number in teen world when your instagram page is apparently no longer deemed an embarrassment.

So he posted the tweet and got on with cooking tea. 3/15

But then something very odd happened...

Followers started appearing, slowly at first, but then their 100's, and finally, as Dad and son looked on in astonishment, in their 1000's.

By the time Gabriel went to bed he had over 6000 new followers! 4/15

When he woke up the next morning he had over 33,000 and still it kept going. By the end of the weekend he had over 225,000 and was overwhelmed by a tidal wave of kindness and support. 5/15

Not only that, he had over 20,000 orders for bowls and chopping boards, which, he calculated, would take him 32yrs to fulfil. And now the press were knocking at the door.

It was a lot to take in for a wee lad of 12yrs. 6/15 Image

But Gabriel was certain of one thing - he wanted to share the kindness. So instead of carving 20,000 bowls, he would carve just one special one - his #BowlForUkraine 7/15

We set up a Just Giving page 10 days ago for Save the Children's Ukraine Appeal, with Gabriel setting a target of £5000. The fundraiser would stay live until Easter when one donor would be chosen at random to win his bowl. 8/15

Within 24hrs of going live you wonderful, kind-hearted people once again blew our goal out of the water, donating over £50,000!!!

The press got even more excited so Gabriel gave up a chunk of his holiday to run around doing interviews in the hope of raising even more. 9/15

And so here we are. Together we have now raised over £83,000, with donations coming in from all over the world, and, with just 48hrs remaining, our little story is coming to a close. 10/15

But how it ends is up to you. It's your story. Certainly we could all pat ourselves on the back for a job well done. Save the Children are already enormously grateful for the very real difference this money will make.

But what if there was another ending? 11/15

What if we threw caution to the wind and let go of our cynicism and really went for it? What if we blew this silly tale of a small boy and his bowl out of the water with a last swing shot around the moon? 12/15

We're all so tired of covid and war and division. What if we came together in one big, generous, soppy, silly last hurrah and we RT'd the shit out of this and all chipped in to give Save the Children £100,000?

Isn't that the ending we should go for? 13/15

So it's up to you lovely people as to whether lightning strikes a 3rd time. Either way a heartfelt thanks. You have already changed so many lives. 🙏 14/15

And if you do want to follow a little lad making bowls, and other things from wood, feel free to follow on instagram: clarkie_woodwork

Happy Easter to you all!🐣🙏❤️ 15/15

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1514981921411026949.html

Gabriel's Bowl For Ukraine: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/bowlforukraine

[MLAA]

1. I didn't see how to donate.

If you’ve figured it out please let me know. Sweet story and the bowl is beautiful.

[demmiblue]

2. I added the link to the OP (it is at the bottom).

[MLAA]

3. Thank you! It worked!

What a lovely way to start my morning. Thank you so much for sharing.

[Botany]

4. I hope the young man opens up his on wood working shop and people from around the world ...

.... visit his shop or buy his products on line if that is what he wants. And someday my he and
his family get to go to a free Ukraine and people will find joy, some happiness, and his wood
working skills might be put to use in rebuilding that country.

[littlemissmartypants]

5. Thank you. ❤

And a long and happy life to Gabriel!

🌻🇺🇦❤🇺🇦🌻 Slava Ukraini! 🌻🇺🇦❤🇺🇦🌻

[Botany]

6. This story made me cry and give $50

https://support.savethechildren.org/site/Donation2?df_id=5746&mfc_pref=T&5746.donation=form1&cid=Paid_Search%3AGoogle_Paid%3AEmer_CEF%3ABrand%3A022522&s_kwcid=AL%219048%213%21591628381678%21e%21%21g%21%21save+the+children+ukraine&gclsrc=aw.ds&&gclid=Cj0KCQjwr-SSBhC9ARIsANhzu17M4YiY8mTKUYBt81OH2w1PPsDVtwBgY_c9GqTuUtg9iH6x4WVRRbkaAhJtEALw_wcB

[AmBlue]

7. 403 error - Too much traffic

Last edited Sat Apr 16, 2022, 10:39 PM - Edit history (1)

I think little Gabriel will make his goal. Great story!! Wonderful kid. 😊

[tblue37]

22. He's over 150,000 pounds now.

[Tadpole Raisin]

8. Before I even delved into the story I saw how concerned he was that his woodworking wasn't cool and

thought “young man, the skills you have are a from a dying breed of people who are true craftsmen. Your skills are highly valuable. Just you wait and see.”

Little did I know….

Woodworking, glass blowing, anything like that - I am so glad that there are some young people taking up the mantle.

What a wonderful story!!

[Wild blueberry]

9. Lovely story all round

Gabriel, his dad, and the children of Ukraine.
Thank you.

[Kali]

10. this is a really nice story. I hate to be THAT ashole, but

is Save the Children a good charity? they spam my email and have for more than a year, can't get unsubscribed for shit. the spam has really turned me off.

[Richard D]

11. Seems to be quite legit

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Save_the_Children

[Kali]

12. maybe the spam is somebody spoofing them

it is pretty irritating that the unsubscribe function seems to just encourage the spam like any other spammer org. normally I don't hit unsubscribe unless I know it will work for just that reason

[Kali]

15. I think mine is coming from the USA org

in Connecticut. I see a number of people complaining in google reviews that they can't get their donation subscriptions cancelled, I guess I should be grateful they are only spamming me and not stealing money.

[GoCubsGo]

13. Good charity, obnoxious fund-raising.

Unfortunately, a lot of good charities do this kind of crap. It's cheaper than running TV and print ads. Which does leave more money for the actual charitable work, but yeah. It's a turn-off. Better than ads showing abused animals with weepy music in the background, that being said.

I would like to recommend using Mozilla Thunderbird as your e-mail client. They have a various filter features that will send spam and other unwanted e-mail straight to the trash. It's also great if you have multiple e-mail addresses. You can read them all in one place.

[Kali]

14. I do use Thunderbird.

and I thought I had finally gotten it to learn about Save the Children but it has been coming through again the last few days.

[GoCubsGo]

16. I have had similar issues with various spammers.

My only gripe with Thunderbird is that designating something as "spam" doesn't always filter them out. Usually, creating a filter set to "Match any of the following" with "From" and "contains" with various iterations of the e-mail address typed in does the job. If they change up the e-mail, I just add another line to it.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

17. K&R

[denbot]

18. Nice.

Cool shop as well.

[JudyM]

19. Sweet. Up to about $250,000 right now.

Way to work it, Gabriel.

[calimary]

24. This is really wonderful!

As the song goes - “it is better to light just one little candle than to stumble in the dark…”

[niyad]

20. Tears.

[lefthandedskyhook]

21. Beautiful...

...and dad helped

[Tommymac]

23. Sent a few $ to Save The Children via his page

This young person is magnificent.

[YoshidaYui]

25. AND here I was expecting a story about another bowl for Ukraine

Link to tweet