Michael Bublé wears sports hat made for a good cause by Port Moody students
Aspenwood Elementary say proceeds of hat sale will go towards building school in Sierra Leone
Students at a Port Moody, B.C. school were thrilled when they saw Canadian crooner Michael Bublé sporting a hat they had designed and were selling for a good cause.
Aspenwood Elementary student Jenna Esmail just couldn't believe it. Her Grade 4/5 split class spent almost a full school year working on the hats, the proceeds of which will go towards building a school in Sierra Leone.
"We all just ran home and told our parents, 'Oh my God! Did you see Michael Bublé wore our hat?'" she said.
"I felt really proud that a celebrity like him knew about what we had done."
Tina Dybowski, the teacher that led project, said the students learned about business, marketing and product development along the way. They also made a video and sold the hats by door knocking.
"It wasn't part of the curriculum, but we found a way to make it work," she said.
She said Bublé's sister Brandee, a children's author, has been involved with Aspenwood Elementary.
"He's in Argentina, where his wife [Luisana Lopilato] is from, and she took some hats to show them. And I guess that's how we got that great photo."
The hat features seven diamonds.
"They represent the seven continents, and we thought the design looked like the shape of Africa. And that's where the school is — in Sierra Leone," said another student Ava Lilley.
Dybowski says the school has already sold 57 of the 100 hats they ordered and raised $2,600.
They hope to raise at least $3,000, and she says demand for the hats has been strong.
"We even had people ask for adult-sized hats, which we didn't expect."
But she says the project's real success has been opening up the students' minds to giving back and helping.
"It's all about the bigger picture."