A wee thread, Part II - The boy, the bowl & the tweet that jumped the fence - update. Feel free to RT.

So, as some of you might know, my youngest, Gabriel (12) loves his woodwork. A lot. (1) Back round Easter I put out a tweet to see if I could encourage a few more followers on his instagram page (clarkie_woodwork) and the whole thing blew up!! 💥💥💥 Over a weekend he went from 6 to 220,000 followers, all thanks to you crazy lovely people. (2)

And so we come to the end of our little tale of the boy, his bowl and the tweet that jumped the fence.
The #BowlForUkraine is off on new adventures, journeying South, but remaining in this fair land. 1/7 But what an extraordinary tale it has been - a 'twitter-tale' of hope and joy and kindness and resolve. A tale of big hearts, huge generosity and the strange power we hold at our fingertips. 2/7

A wee thread about a young boy and the tweet that got away. Feel free to RT.

Three weeks ago my youngest, Gabriel 12, came home upset. His love of woodwork was not deemed cool, nor was only having 6 followers on his instagram. 1/15 His Dad was upset too. It's hard watching your children battling with life. But what to do? Mum wasn't around, so Dad, the impulsive fool that he is, instead reached out to the lovely people on twitter. Maybe he could persuade some of them to follow his son? 2/15

A wee thread. Please RT
10 days ago my son Gabriel 12yrs came home despondent. His passion for woodwork was not cool and neither was only having 6 followers on instagram.
instagram: clarkie_woodwork 1/8 But then something remarkable happened. I put a call out on twitter, in the hope of snagging him maybe 60 followers, and within 24hrs he had over 220,000!!! @ZoeTheBall was giving him a shout out on R2 and he had 20,000 commissions for bowls and chopping boards! 2/8

Today's the Day! Gabriel's #bowlforukraine has gone live! After the tsunami of #twitterlove that he received last weekend his Instagram account clarkie_woodwork went from 6 followers to 227,000! He's had a week of interviews and there's even an article in today's Times! 1/5 Woodwork is officially cool! But he wanted to share the love and do something for kids that really need our help. The war in Ukraine has been worrying him so he's hatched a plan. He's carved a special bowl and we've set up a JustGiving page - justgiving.com/fundraising/bo… 2/5

So I've now heard Gabriel's had a shout out from Zoe Ball on Radio 2! Crazy. His story seems to have really struck a chord, which is lovely. We could all do with a little sunshine given the state of the world. But since things have gone so public, a couple of thoughts: 1/6 The phrase 'bullying' is bouncing around and I think we need to be careful. I deliberately didn't use that word in my original tweet, nor do I think it is accurate. It's very easy for us all to demean the 'other', as a way of reinforcing who we are. 2/6

Update: So as many of you know my youngest, Gabriel, ended last week a little despondent with only 6 followers on his woodwork Instagram. But then twitter worked it’s magic… 1/4 #clarkie_woodwork Swept up in a wave of twitter affection and support he now ends the weekend with 220k followers! It’s all gone a little nuts but we once again wanted to say a big thank you for all your kindness. You’re all great soppy heroes. 2/4
#clarkie_woodwork