Seven-year-old Charlie Simpson had only planned to make £500 to donate to UNICEF for the Haiti relief effort; his plan was to do a sponsored bike ride around a local park in Fulham, UK.

He was planning to do between seven and ten laps of the park (about five miles) to raise money for the cause.

But he gained an unexpected result: tons of people sponsoring and donating to his website- www.justgiving.com/CharlieSimpson-HAITI.

I chose to do my article on this topic because my school, Warwick Academy was raising funds to donate to the Haiti Relief Fund managed by the Red Cross, and I wanted to do my topic on Haiti and the earthquake to raise awareness of the things people can do to help.

I did not simply want to do an article like everyone else on the earthquake and the destruction. I wanted to do something more encouraging and uplifting.

I thought people might enjoy reading about the boldness of one boy, to inspire them to donate as well.

Charlie Simpson explained his objective to the world with just a simple message on the just giving website:

"My name is Charlie Simpson, I want to do a Sponsored Bike Ride for Haiti because there was a big earthquake and loads of people have lost their lives.

"I want to make some money to buy food, water and tents for everyone in Haiti.

"I am going to cycle around South Park as many times as possible…. (At least 10 laps I hope!). Please can you sponsor me and all your money will go to UNICEF who are collecting for Haiti.

"THANK YOU VERY, VERY MUCH!"

And with that the people responded; pouring in donations, sponsorships, and praising him for such a great effort to help the people of Haiti.

UNICEF (the charity Simpson was donating the money to) was also very thankful and praised him for his efforts; from the Guardian news, David Bull UNICEF UK director described his efforts as 'bold and innovative'.

Money raised by Simpson will go to UNICEF's Haiti Earthquake Children's Appeal which will help provide water, sanitation, education, nutrition, and help support child protection.

Here in Bermuda, along with other fund-raising efforts, Warwick Academy chose to do three fund-raising projects to donate proceeds to the Red Cross:

Instead of using the regular pizza money towards our school's football trip, we gave it to the fund, with the help of Pizza House who donated the pizza; we had a grub day where you could bring in as much to donate as you liked (the minimum being $5), and we did sponsored laps of our school.

All in all we made over $50,000: $1,000 from pizza, just under $10,000 from the grub day, and more than $30,000 from the sponsored laps.