2018 Was a great year and it went by really fast! Below I will go by month of some great things that happened and how I felt about them. I am happy to have met so many awesome people and have received so many letters I will keep forever! Enjoy a look back at my past year with the Buddy Bench Project. Mom helped me a bit with typing this.
January: Photo shoot and in Glo Magazine as February’s Glo Girl! (It was so fun! I loved meeting Sue)
February: Met the Mayor of Fort Wayne (got to sit at his desk! It was really cool. He said I might be the first female mayor someday!) People say I could be Leslie Knope
Got cap from 50th state! Massachusetts! (It took awhile to get the caps from all the US states but I loved getting letters and caps from so many places)
March: Mayor visited my school and sat on the Buddy Bench! (He also gave me a Certificate of Excellence in front of my class! He is the best Mayor ever)
Humankind and USA Today posted a nice video of me and it got over 1.2 million views. (this was the first of about 8 videos that covered me that went viral this year. very crazy!)
Articles online about me from Biggby’s, Babble and Her View From Home
April: Now This Her Video posted on Social Media (Reese Witherspoon tweeted about it!)
Upworthy Article online. Brought schools caps to get them started! Filmed for a day for 60 Sec Doc video.
May: Local NBC morning show (had to wake up at 5 am!) Article in Local Newspaper News Sentinel
Traveled to NYC to be on Today Show with Kathie Lee! Mom had to tell me who Kathie Lee was. She was very nice. I wasn’t nervous at all and had a lot of fun. She wrote me a song and actress Olivia Edwards sang it to me. I got to go to a Broadway Show (School of Rock)! We walked everywhere we went.
ATTN: We Need This video posted (18 million views)
June: Received letters from a school in Mexico which is really cool because I am learning Spanish!
Helped Jury Pool get started with their Buddy Bench cap collection.
Went parasailing for the first time!
Article in Martha Stewart Living
Inspired a group in India to collect caps and make Buddy Benches(:
July: Spoke to over 100 Walgreens managers who are collecting caps for me all summer long.
Excited to be Stephanie Arne’s first Girl in the Wild
Filmed for Sustainable Thinkers video.
Reached 2,000 members on my FB page
August: Got asked to be a part of the BTV (Be the Voice) Anti Bullying campaign in Atlanta GA!
Featured in Highlights of the Week
Wrote a book (hoping next year it will be published)
First Day of 4th grade (I love school!!!)
September: Radio Show! It was really cool. It was my first radio show. The Mic was really big.
Traveled down to Green Tree Plastics to see 75 yellow Buddy Benches ready to be delivered to Indiana Schools thanks to the 15,000 lbs of plastic caps Walgreen’s saved for me over the summer! Such a great day! Plus Green Tree surprised me with a bench of my very own! And a dolphin made of caps that I named Caperie
October: Lots of thank you letters from Indiana Schools!
Inspired a school in Australia to do the project! (It’s cool because this is going around the world!!)
Mentioned on Bobby Bones show for TMSG
Got an amazing literary agent Vicki at Storm Literary Agency
November: Comet of the Month for my class at school
Traveled to Staten Island to film Video for UPS Wishes Delivered! (I met so many cool friends at Academy of St. Dorothy and the filming crew)
Turned 10!
December: Featured in B Uneke magazine Amazing Kids Edition
Started this Blog!
Featured on Sodexo Performance Zone poster in 800 schools. (also given a check for $500 that I was able to donate to 2 schools so they could get Buddy Benches)
UPS Wishes Delivered Video went live with over 6 Million Views! (It turned out really cool! Watch it if you haven’t already. Worth all the work)
I had a really good year and I am so glad you all are a part of it.
Can’t wait to see what next year holds!!
But for 2018 THAT’S A WRAP!
