Special Thanks

I am extremely grateful to everyone for every dollar donated to Escola Estrela do Mar. A part of me is reluctant to highlight any individuals in this process as I know that people give as they are able to, and that each person’s financial circumstances differ. In that regard, the actual dollar amount donated is actually not important to me, it’s the thought and intention that are special and what I will remember and what the school is grateful for.

Despite this reluctance, two individuals made extremely generous donations to this cause (like fall off your chair kind of generous). They are both friends I have known for over 10 years. I’ve always known them to both be especially generous people in everything they do. Their help here was certainly unexpected, but hardly an exception to their normal character. Many thanks to:

Markus Riese, from Darmstadt Germany. (Markus is the designer of the amazing Birdy foldable bicycle).

Richard Schipper, from Auckland New Zealand. (Richard is the head honcho at NTBS, a software company).

Since I achieved my vision of furnishing the school with some simple percussion instruments thanks to everyone’s help, I asked David Leiner what the school was sorely missing. His answer was books for the library. Richard and Markus’ combined donations will be used to give the library here a kick start. The library at the moment for a school of 150 kids, is basically non-existant so this is a tremendouls opportunity.

[UPDATE: My parents Anne and David, just recently made a large contribution that will also be used for books for the library – thanks so much mum and dad!]

I thought a nice way to thank Markus and Richard was to make a thank you video. I got one of the kids to help me. These videos are fascinating just to hear what Sara actually has to say. Sara is 8, she uses very sophisticated language (so much so I had to get help translating some of what she said). She had about 5 minutes to think about what she spoke about – yet she somehow spoke with the conviction of someone who had been preparing for a week. And her knoweldge of things going on in the school, may even surpass people on the board and steering committee. I was totally amazed at her.

These two videos are similar, but Sara does say different things in each – watch both if you have the time. As well as being thank you videos you will also learn a few things about the school by watching them, explained through the eyes (and mouth!) of one of the students.

The video addressed to Markus (the bottom one) has a funny incident half way through where another child walks onto our set, a bit bewildered and wondering what we are doing. And, as if by some amazing scripting, this new child (Cindy) walks in munching an orange – just as Sara voluntarily starts discussing how amazing the healthy food is at the school. It’s a priceless random filming moment, that you probably couldn’t achieve better even if you had rehearsed it for a week. Hilarious!

Enjoy!