Teenager Sebbie Hall’s random acts of kindness have truly made him one of a kind

Teenager Sebbie Hall’s random acts of kindness have truly made him one of a kind.

He has raised an incredible £42,000 during the pandemic and at the same time brought a smile to more than 2,000 strangers distributing flowers and Easter eggs to shoppers and leaving teddy bear kits on doorsteps as part of his kindness campaign.

The 18 year old from Lichfield began his campaign at the start of lockdown because he was worried that children and young people with disabilities like himself would feel lonely and isolated from friends and family as social interaction was curtailed. He set out to perform an act of kindness every day collecting coats for the homeless, rounding up waste pumpkins for food banks to make soup, buying lottery tickets with his own money and gifting them to people he met. The incredible sum raised through his JustGiving campaign has helped 500 vulnerable families purchase adapted IT devices to help with home schooling during lockdown – all in all the most amazing achievement for a teenager who has a rare chromosome anomaly, resulting in physical and learning difficulties, creating particular challenges for him.

Word of his extraordinary achievements reached the ears of some powerful champions and Sebbie found himself nominated for a Pride of Britain award, followed by an invitation from the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to a Christmas carol concert at Westminster Abbey where Sebbie and mum Ashley were personally introduced.

He has also received the Prime Minister’s award for volunteering and his commitment to change through adversity. And if that weren’t enough the latest accolade has been a World Compassion award from the Supreme Master Ching Hai, a Buddhist activist and humanitarian leader which came with a £7,500 award which Sebbie characteristically has used to set up The Sebbie Hall Kindness Foundation.

The foundation will provide communication, arts and sports opportunities and equipment to young people and organisations working with young people who are isolated due to disability, disadvantage or mental ill health.

Actors Joanna Lumley, Mina Anwar and Eddie Marsan and England rugby’s Will Greenwood are the patrons and ambassadors for the arts hub and mixed ability rugby club Sebbie has set up.

Mum Ashley said Sebbie had demonstrated a community spirit above and beyond anything she could have expected.

“He has brought great happiness to random strangers, financial help to disadvantaged families, support for charities and positive publicity to the organisations that he has helped with many famous faces now tweeting about his kind acts”, she said.

Sebbie distributed Be My Bear teds as part of his gifting campaign, leaving them on strangers’ doorsteps and handing them out to people he met in the neighbourhood. The Duchess of Devonshire was even a recipient of one of our bears when Sebbie met her at a Christmas event at Chatsworth House where she spoke about the value of kindness.

Be My Bear are now working with Sebbie and Ashley to create a Sebbie Bear, complete with a T-shirt sporting Sebbie’s Kindness mantra and a personalised message card to be used to “ pass on” kindness or a kindness challenge. Watch this space. We can’t wait!

The Sebbie Hall Kindness Foundation has been born - Sebbies Gift of Kindness continues…

Sebs Story.

Sebbie Hall from Whittington, has learning and physical disabilities and thrives from social contact, friends, and loves school. He had begun to suffer mentally from isolation when the schools closed in March 2020. However instead of allowing the doom to take over he used online education platforms, exercise, and social online groups to alleviate the loneliness.

He soon learned however, through his own isolation that some of his peers could not get access to online platforms such as zoom to see or communicate with him due to disability and /or disadvantage.

He decided to turn his year into a positive one by raising money to help other isolated young people to get ‘adapted’ devices so they too could continue to live as full a life as any during this pandemic. He set out to raise £1000 last March by doing 100 acts of kindness in 10 days.

He decided that he enjoyed making people happy and so continued with daily random acts of kindness. He has grown as a person; he has taken pride in his actions and gained a new self-worth

The most inspirational part is that Sebbie has a rare chromosome anomaly, and we were told that he would neither walk nor talk. He has low muscle tone and speech difficulties, and it is very challenging for him to do all of the things that he has done to help others over the last year.

• The money has been used to help over 500 vulnerable families to get adapted IT devices to enable them to continue with home schooling ...
• He has set up a Disability Rugby Club in partnership with Lichfield RUFC....and England Rugby player Will Greenwood is now the Ambassador for Seb and the club and is planning a visit to Lichfield this summer. Sebbie was interviewed by England Rugby Player Maro Itoje about the disability digital divide last year.
• He has set up 3 IT Suites to help disabled young people into jobs.
• He has donated funds to buy communication equipment to Rocklands Special School, Saxon Hill School, Two Rivers School.
• He has set up a disability arts hub which has caught the eye of Joanna Lumley and Actress Mina Anwar who is are now patrons.
• He has funded Cricket whites for Staffordshire Disability Cricket and has been noticed by cricket legend Tom Moody.
• He was noticed by Aston Villa manager Christian Purslow who did a random act of kindness to Seb and donated some funds to help get equipment for an all-ability football in Lichfield that Sebbie supports.
• He has funded many charities that work with vulnerable children and adults.
• Sebbie has received a Points of Light Award for his community work from Boris Johnson.
• He has been given an award from Lord Lieutenant of Staffordshire.
• Sebbie has been lucky to be awarded the Inspiring Young Person Award from Radio WM, actor Matt Slack and the Mayor of The West Midlands, a community award form Support Staffordshire. Sebbie recently received The COOP Community Member of the Year Award, Lichfield Live Young Person of the Year Award and Radio 1 Make A difference Award.
• His plea to keep everyone to be equally equipped in the Digital divide during Lockdown, reached Parliament.
• Sebbie has been featured on ITN News, Sky and BBC Midlands news, ITV This Morning and was included in the John Lewis Give a Little Love Campaign on ITV on Christmas Day. Sebbie was a regional finalist in Pride of Britain this year.
• Sebbie has truly demonstrated a community spirit above and beyond anything we could veer have expected bringing with him great happiness to random strangers, financial help to disadvantaged families, support for charities and positive publicity to the organisations that he has helped with many famous faces now tweeting about his kind acts.

According to a BBC report, Sebbie has become a local phenomenon in terms of volunteerism in the community. He has collected coats for the homeless and, during Halloween season, rounded up waste pumpkins, which he donated to food banks for making soup. He has bought lottery tickets every week with his own money and gifted them to strangers he meets along his changemaking journey, assuring the recipients that the tickets come with “no strings attached.” Through a JustGiving campaign, he set out to raise £40,000, with plans to disburse that money to various charities. He reached that goal and has now surpassed it.

So when he was given £150 for his 18th birthday, guess where it went? “He insisted on putting it on his JustGiving page,” his mother, Ashley Hall, told the BBC. “We said, ‘No, Sebbie, that’s money for you to spend,’ but he said it would make him happier to donate it.” As the Birmingham Mail reports, Ashley estimates that her son has carried out more than 2,000 random acts of kindness toward strangers—including gifting them with flowers or teddy bears—since the pandemic started. He has also used raised funds to donate toys to eight shelter homes for vulnerable children and purchased adapted online devices, such as laptops, for 300 families with children who have disabilities. He has even funded a mixed-abilities rugby team and started the Sebbie Hall Kindness Foundation.

According to various news reports, Sebbie Hall has spent his personal time watering people’s gardens, mailing letters for isolated locals, filling bird feeders, washing cars and taking out the trash. And with help from an unnamed sponsor last Easter, he dressed up as the Easter Bunny and gave out 365 Easter egg packages to random households and people he met on the streets. Related: Afghanistan refugees get medical help they desperately need from Campbell University volunteers

At one year old, Sebbie was diagnosed with a rare chromosomal anomaly that causes low muscle tone and speech problems. Doctors believed he would never be able to walk, talk or even sit up. He proved them wrong.

Sebbie’s volunteerism has played a big role in his progress, Ashley Hall told the BBC. “It’s given him a value to himself,” she said. “For the last 17 years of his life, someone has always had to do things for him, but it’s given him this confidence that’s spurred him on to show [others] that you can do anything.”

Meanwhile, he has inadvertently become a celebrity in the UK. Prince William and Kate Middleton, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, invited him to attend a carol concert at Westminster Abbey this Christmas and met with him personally. He was short-listed for a Pride of Britain Award. He also received the Prime Minister Award for Volunteering and the World Compassion Award from The Supreme Master Ching Hai, a Buddhist activist and humanitarian leader.

The World Compassion Award came with a £7,500 cash award, which Sebbie used, of course, to set up his kindness foundation. Related: Small group of volunteers lead charge to get rid of plastic straws in Jackson Hole, Wyoming

“I’m immensely proud of him,” his mother told the Birmingham Mail. “I couldn’t be more proud. The impact of his kindness has been incredible. It’s like this lovely ripple effect going out from him. It’s fabulous. The money’s very important, and he’s been able to create real change. I look at him daily, and I can’t believe that he is doing this. He knows so much and is so empathetic.”

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