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Like many youngsters, Gabriel Clark wants a mountain bike. In fact, he wanted one so badly he decided to use his impressive carpentry skills to make handcrafted bowls, sell them, and raise money for himself.
His dad, Richard, thought he’d lend a helping hand by asking people on Twitter to follow his son’s Instagram account, so Gabriel quickly went from having 6 followers to 250,000 followers! However, the youngster had a change of heart and put his mountain bike dreams on the back burner, deciding instead to use his talent to help others.
While he received 20,000 commissions for his wooden bowls — orders that his dad believed would have taken him 32 years to fulfill — Gabriel decided to carve one very special bowl: “Gabriel’s Bowl for Ukraine.”
The young carpenter carved two special rings into the bowl in Ukraine’s colors of blue and yellow, and then selected one person from a raffle of 14,000 entries from his Just Giving fundraising page.
The lucky winner, Renuka Chapman, shared with Save the Children:
“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.”
Gabriel was thrilled with the response to his fundraising, stating:
“I’m absolutely blown away by the level of support that my bowl and I have received. I originally hoped to raise £5,000! I hope that the money can help Save the Children to provide more support to kids who’ve been impacted by the conflict with things like food, water and a safe place to sleep.”
In the delightful interview below, Gabriel shares a little more about the whole experience, and talks about how woodwork helps to keep him calm. And with virtues like another very famous carpenter, the schoolboy seems to be very humble, and just very happy to be able to help others.
And today we celebrate...