A bowl made from passion, love, and wood. British 12-year-old Gabriel Clarkie is using his talents to support those suffering in Ukraine.
It all started from a bowl. Noticing Clarkie’s love for woodwork, his father, Richard, posted a tweet to encourage others to order his son’s creations.
Neither of them expected much from the tweet, and they certainly didn’t expect Clarkie’s Instagram account to grow from a modest 6 followers to 227,000 in just 48 hours with a little help from celebrity retweets by the likes of J.K Rowling and Stephen Fry.
Clarkie quickly began to receive a countless number of orders. But rather than fulfilling the 20,000 odd purchases, the young man decided to make just single one bowl.
Dubbed “Gabriel’s Bowl for Ukraine,” the masterpiece was won via a lottery that could be entered by donating any amount to Save the Children Ukraine.
https://twitter.com/rclarkie/status/1507415791116857349?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1507415791116857349%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.goodnewsnetwork.org%2Fwith-his-handmade-bowl-this-12-year-old-raised-325000-for-ukrainian-kids%2F
The gods of the viral tweet has struck again! Aiming to raise £5,000 ($8850AUD), the donations have now totalled £250,000 ($442,166AUD).
Speaking to the Good News Network, Clarkie’s father, Richard said: “I never imagined that my tweet would turn into this amazing thing… Somehow, it’s resulted in people donating [over] £250,000 to help children in Ukraine, it’s just incredible!”
It didn’t take long for the anticipation of the lucky winner of the bowl to grow, and in the end, an entrant named Renuka Chapman took home the goods.
Speaking to Save the Children, Chapman said: “When Gabriel rang me to let me know I’d won the bowl, I was completely overwhelmed— I’ve never won a single thing before!”
“This bowl will be one of my most treasured possessions. It represents hope, compassion, and kindness… It will have pride of place in my home.”
What was once an innocent passion from a young entrepreneur now represents a symbol of hope. And after all that good-doing, we really hope Clarkie reaches his goal of saving up for a mountain bike soon.
