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On Christmas Eve of 2013, Campbell’s mother, who worked as a florist, came home with a carload of leftover flowers that hadn’t sold. Campbell, who was just 9 years old, had an idea: he asked his mother if they could share them with others. They gave a bouquet to anyone they bumped into: people sleeping on the streets, walking their dogs, putting their bins out, you name it – if Campbell saw them, he gave them a bouquet!
When Campbell got home, rather than feeling content that he had brought a smile to so many people’s faces at Christmas, he felt something was lacking. Campbell solemnly asked his mother, ‘Why did we not give presents to the kids in hospital for Christmas? Can we go and do that?’ Campbell’s mother explained that she had nine kids of her own to buy for and could not shop for any more children. Campbell decided he would start making presents for kids in hospital to give away the next Christmas. He asked his mother how many days in a year and announced he would make a toy every day of the year until Christmas. This is when Project 365 was born.
With practice, the stuffed toys Campbell made kept getting better and better. He went from taking five hours to make a round stuffed ball, to completing a bear in an hour. Campbell’s bears looked so great that people started to ask if they could buy them. Campbell thought about this offer for a while. He didn’t want to steer away from his main aim of giving toys to kids in hospital, but he saw the offers from people to pay for the bears as a chance to keep supporting children. Campbell decided to start raffling and auctioning the bears and donating the money he made to different cancer charities.
Campbell’s eagerness to look out for new opportunities to make a difference shone through at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic when he noticed that many people might be feeling lonely and bored at home. He took to YouTube, making live videos on how to make teddy bears and answering questions from viewers. To date, Project 365 has made and delivered 3,100 bears. Campbell’s message to other kids is to ‘Remember that being kind and not mean will change the world.’
