kids say the darndest things

I usually get a lot of requests that land in my inbox.  They come in all sorts of shapes or forms and are very often related to charity events.  Last year, I received an email from a teacher named Kevin. He just recently started a new concept in his classroom and wanted me to be a part of it. 

The email went on to explain how his class was different from the others.  Along with his fellow co-worker Monique, they had created an entrepreneurial concept for a class of grade 4 and grade 5 students in a little village called Saint-Antoine.  The idea is that they create multiple projects over the course of the year and have a group of kids manage it from the ground up.  From planning to presentation to seeking resources and managing the budget, these kids were immersed in their projects from the start.  Since I was working full time back then, I politely declined his offer to spend 4-5 afternoons with the kids, as I couldn’t take time off work to do so.

Fast-forward almost a year and I’m now working for myself.  No more day job meant that I could think about this project once again.  I was intrigued by his idea of having kids manage their own projects. Entrepreneurship is such a beautiful thing.  I decided to send Kevin an email.
 
To my surprise, Kevin and Monique didn’t really “listen” when I had politely declined their offer last year. Kevin replied saying that they went and created their own little “Matt LeBlanc” gallery and they had spent a lot of time studying me.  Say what?  Next thing you know, I was in my car driving 40 minutes to Saint-Antoine.
 
When I first came to the classroom, 49 students and their two teachers gave me a standing ovation.  I didn’t understand why and I was a bit taken back by their reaction.  Turns out they spent a lot of time viewing my videos and reading about my many charity endeavors so they were thanking me in their own way.
 
On my first day of working with them, this lovely girl said, “You’re only saying that!” when I told her that I loved her artwork.  Kids say the darndest things! I really enjoyed my time spent in the classroom. Every week I was bringing them something from my studio to show them, they got excited every time.
 
The classroom didn’t really have any good art supplies.  We used what we had and created a bunch of smaller paintings on boards.  We then had a live auction with over 100 people, which were mostly parents and extended family.  We were able to collect over 1,000$ to buy professional grade art supplies.  The next part of our project was to create 50 small pieces of art and 40 larger ones.  These pieces of art
were very special, as the sale of them will help the Little Wishes charity, which is an organization that grants small wishes to kids with cancer.  My class (yes my class) was very happy to know that kids
were going to help other kids.  There’s something cool about kids helping kids.

We’re still in the process of selling those artworks but last time I’ve checked, we have collected over a $1,000 for the cause.  That’s over twenty wishes for kids with cancer.  It’s a beautiful thing!
 
In the last six months, I spent many hours with those kids. I came to really like them and I think the feeling was mutual.  It was hard to say goodbye.  There was a big group hug and many individual hugs along with high-fives and special handshakes.  I will surely miss them.  The good news is that I already said yes to help them out next year.  I will see at least half of them and get to meet a new class of fourth graders.  Another good news is that two parents from different families told me how their kids looked up to me and they requested to setup an art studio in their home. What a feeling!