The name Quaden Bayles might not ring a bell, but this video definitely would:
The bullied boy with dwarfism went viral worldwide after his mother, Yarraka Bayles posted a video of him talking about how he couldn’t take the “relentless” bullying in school anymore.
His mother posted this video to show the damage of bullying in school.
“This is what bullying does,” she could be heard saying in the video. “Can you please educate your children, your families, your friends?”
The video was viewed over 24 million times and moved many people.
Including American comedian Brad Williams who suffers from the same condition.
He set up a GoFundMe page for Quaden on 21 Feb 2020.
And within 2 days, it has raised $451,419 from 19,800 donors.
The money will go to Quaden and his mother to bring them to Disneyland in California and the remaining amount given to anti-bullying organisations.
Today, it’s revealed that they’re not going to Disneyland; not because of the COVID-19 outbreak, but because his aunt said that they wanted the money to be used for charities instead.
Bullied Boy With Dwarfism to Donate His USD$475K GoFundMe Funds to Charity
Quaden’s aunt appeared in Australia’s NITV News and said that all the monies would go to charity instead.
She said, “What kid wouldn’t want to go to Disneyland, especially if you have lived Quaden’s life. To escape to anywhere that is fun that doesn’t remind him of his day to day challenges.
“But my sister said ‘you know what, let’s get back to the real issue’. This little fella has been bullied. How many suicides, black or white, in our society have happened due to bullying.”
Well, the boy’s not going to Disneyland, but at least he’s achieved something recently.
And no, it’s not that he’s gone viral.
Instead, he was invited to lead out an Australian national All-Star rugby league team onto the field last Saturday.
Lest you’re not aware, rugby is a bigly thing in Australia.
No Disneyland? No problem. Anyone can go Disneyland, but no one can say that he’s led Joel Thompson into the field.
(P.S. I also don’t know who Joel Thompson is but he’s apparently a very popular rugby player in Australia lah, just like Indra Sahdan)
Reader Bao: Who’s Indra Sahdan?