My next guest is a teacher from Northern California who
used the positive power of social media
to raise over $50,000 for a Children's Hospital.
She's in our audience right now freaking out.
Hi Ms. Sutherd.
Oh my gosh, hi!
Is this real?
I know.
I watched you during the introduction.
You were like wait, that sounds exactly like me.
Like no one's here for me to celebrate with.
Come on!
So you thought you were just going
to be in my virtual audience, and you're my guest.
Are you sure?
Yeah, pretty sure.
OK.
All right, so you're a teacher.
Your are a fourth grade teacher, right?
Yes, yes.
What made you want to become a teacher?
Oh goodness.
So, I wanted to be a teacher when I was 17,
and my mom told me no.
She said you were going to go to business school
and you were going to make lots of money.
And I said OK.
So I went to business school.
I hated it.
I failed classes.
I dropped out.
I moved across the country and I started
volunteering at an after school program,
and within the first week they gave me my own classroom.
So I called my mom and I said, I'm going to come home
but I want to go to school to be a teacher, and she said I know.
You were meant to be a teacher, I'm so sorry.
And so, it was meant to be.
Wow.
All right, so here's something I love,
you teach your students about charities,
and how to give back.
I love that you're teaching them all about charities.
Tell everybody what you're doing with them.
I can't.
So, I work in a Title 1 school.
I have 28 amazing kiddos, and I think
it's really important to teach them to be kind,
and to give back, and I have a couple of lessons
that I teach about charity, and so they
started researching their own charities that were local
and they found Shriners Hospital for Children.
And the connection that they made
between that there are kids their age who are sick,
who need our help?
They just fell in love and they wanted
to help as soon as they could.
And how did you use TikTok to raise the money?
So I got on TikTok to stay hip with my kids.
They're all going to cringe that I said hip.
But I'm saying it.
And so I got on there and I started
posting all of these TikTok like oh crap moments.
And then I posted a TikTok that got a little traction,
and they found my TikTok.
So they challenged me to get Jack Black and an NFL team
to say hello.
And so we did it.
It went mega viral.
It got 54 million views, and they were instantly
like oh, we can do anything.
So they wanted more people to say hello,
and I saw a teaching moment there.
So I said OK, we are going to post this challenge but as
a class, we're going to donate $1,000 to Shriners
Hospital for Children.
And they were so excited.
So I posted that on social media, and TikTok,
and Tony Hawk saw it and he gave $1,000,
and then it just went viral again.
Yeah.
And how much did you raise?
We raised over $50,000.
Unbelievable.
And I heard you promised the kids you would do something
fun if they reach the goal.
What did you do?
Oh goodness.
So my kids came up to me and they said we have a new deal.
I was like oh gosh, what's going to happen?
They said if we hit $50,000, we get to slime you.
And I said what?
Slime me, OK?
So we hit $50,000.
I held up my end of the deal.
We made a whole event out of it.
That was the first time that all 28 of my kids
had seen each other in over a year, because of Covid.
So it was the most special day, like--
That's amazing.
All right.
Hey, we have to take a break, but when we come back
we're going to talk a little bit more with Ms. Sutherd.
OK.
All right.
We'll be back.
Back with 4th grade teacher Ms Sutherd and the school year
has been really special to you for a few reasons.
You want to tell us why?
Yeah.
So, every class is so incredible and special to me,
but you know this group of kids, we made it through a pandemic
together.
And now they want to raise as much money as possible
for Shriners Hospital for Children,
but I'm a little sad because I am actually leaving the school.
I've been here for over five years.
I'm moving to Michigan at the end of the school year,
so I won't get to see my kids anymore.
But I am a little bit excited, because it'll
be my first break from teaching and my first time to relax.
I haven't had a vacation without thinking about work
in like six years, so it's bittersweet.
Wow.
Well I hope whenever you get a chance,
you can come and be a member of our audience.
Hopefully next year, we're really
hoping that we have people here, and I'd
like you to be one of those people.
So plan on that, and also my friends at Hilton
love what you're doing for your community.
And want to thank you by helping you reconnect with loved ones,
so they're giving you one year of Hilton Honors diamond
status, and a five night stay at the Hilton La Romana.
It's a brand new, all inclusive beach front.
Oh look at you.
Beachfront resort in the Dominican Republic.
That's where you're going to take a break.
To learn more about how you can help Ms. Sutherd's class
reach their next goal, go to our website.