Propa Happy
In collaboration with Farshore and the NSPCC, we celebrated the launch of Propa Happy, Ant & Dec's book on positivity for kids, with a big event at Hillcross Primary School in London.
Project partners
Check out the highlights of the event in the video above!
So what was this project all about?
In early 2002, we asked kids and grown-ups to Pass the Positivity by posting us physical messages, drawings and poems that summed up what made them happy. In total we received 10,558 entries from across the UK, Europe, North America and Australasia. 85 UK schools participated in the project from reception age, up to Year 7.
Preparing for the event
The ootiboo team then turned the thousands of entries into paper scrolls ready for the big day. After visiting several schools, we chose the school to host the live event: Hillcross Primary in Morden.
On May 25th 2022, we arrived at the school, constructed and filled our giant see-through box (3m long, 2m deep and 2m high) with all the entries. It took 9 hours for the ootiboo and Farshore team to complete the build.
The day arrives!
May 26th was event day. First the box was covered in wrapping paper decorated by the children from Hillcross Primary with the help of the book's illustrator Katy Abey. After rehearsals with CITV presenter Kerry Boyne and the school we went live just after 2.15 pm, with Kerry hosting the live stream to over 20,000 viewers. Ant & Dec joined the proceedings part-way through, which was a big surprise for the kids!
After some fun and games the wrapping paper was ripped away by Ant & Dec to reveal the thousands of entries inside the box. They were so surprised at how many entries everyone had sent in! They read out some of the entries, then revealed the top things that made the kids happy, with the aid of a fun positivity pie chart.
Our project was all about Passing the Positivity, with schools and individuals sharing their messages with Ant & Dec. After the big event, it was time to Pass the Positivity again, this time to Mike McGrath from children's charity the NSPCC who received 12 posters created from the entries that would be placed in each of the regional NSPCC call centres to help spread positivity to the staff and volunteers long after the project completed.
Entries from all over!
From Alderney in the Channel Islands to Aberdeenshire in Scotland, Cardiff in Wales to Co. Londonderry in Northern Island, London to Newcastle - messages of positivity came in from across the UK!
Book giveaway
Our friends at Farshore gave away a bundle of 92 books to one stand-out entry from a school every single week leading up to the deadline of May 23rd. St Peter's Primary School in Folkestone kindly shared the moment when the kids opened up their prize.
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