21st of July
New record: 500 signatures in one day! The most signatures on The Ball on any day on the journey so far.
A TV News Channels came down to film and report on The Ball at Linfield College. A producer of the breakfast show reached out to us and said they would come to The Ball’s visit to Stanhope Rd. Primary School in Auckland. It, they said, was excellent timing as it was the day after the FIFA World Cup had started. However, as so often happens all over the world, a negative news story involving violence took precedence. The school had been prepared to host TV: parents’ permissions were collected, children who had attended the World Cup Opening Match at Eden park the night before were ready to speak to camera and The Ball was scheduled to visit every class at the school. Unfortunately, producers for the Breakfast show made the decision to focus on a shooting that had taken place the previous day in Auckland and dropped The Ball. Violence and negativity sells. Good and positive news stories often make way.
Nevertheless, The Ball was warmly welcomed and indeed in a tightly scheduled day and supported by a young pupil, who managed the whole process, The Ball and the team from SOF visited every single class and nearly every child and teacher signed The Ball: 500 people in total – making it the single day on the entire journey with the most signatures and pledges. Indeed, every class came up with their own class pledges too.
It was a beautiful day, full of youthful energy and enthusiasm and commitments in the form of social and environmental pledges from young people and teachers. It ended with The Ball being presented to the entire school assembly and school Principal Jesse Lee signing The Ball and pledging on behalf of the school’s teachers to continue to teach sustainability at Stanhope Rd. School. Iris, Andrew and Paul from SOF handed over a sustainable development goals (SDG) ball, that will remain in the school in the future and be used by teachers in sustainability education in the future.
