Frank Edwards dedicated his birthday this year July 22, 2013 to raise funds to get 500 Deprived, Vulnerable and Excluded children enrolled into schools by the new school term in September 2013. However, not only did he meet the target, he exceeded it to a 1000 mark.
The 2013 UNESCO report posited that about 57 Million children of school age in the world are presently out of schools, 10.5 million of those children are in Nigeria alone.
Source: Innercity Official Website
Award-winning gospel artiste, Frank Edwards (a.k.a. Richboy, Superstar #1), chose to spend his birthday this year with the InnerCity Mission children whilst raising funds for indigent kids to go back to school.
This wonderful artiste and trailblazer decided that rather than have his friends send him birthday presents, he’d have them join him in a fundraiser to get 500 indigent kids enrolled back in school by September 2013.
Boy! Was the event fun! Earlier in the day, the birthday boy came by the venue to help with setup and rehearse with the kids. You could tell everyone was excited to have him around; especially since we knew he could have chosen to be anywhere else.
He hung around practically all day and only left after everything was set to change for the concert.
The event proper started at 6:30pm with the celebrant making a grand entry. Anita and Toyin, two children from The InnerCity Mission Home, were on hand to welcome him, alongside the InnerCity Mission School Band that received him with drum rolls and singing. He was accompanied by his guests, Ada Ehi, Iynene, Joepraize, to name a few.
After taking a moment to mingle with the kids in the band, he went on to walk the red carpet (like the superstar that he is), stopping briefly for an interview with Dedications’ Sophia Ihegie. Then he entered the hall and the concert began!
By the time the concert started, we had already had small chops, so everyone was energized; but even at that, it felt like something more than the food gave us energy for the evening.
The performers were simply amazing. I must say, Frank Edwards really did choose the perfect array of performers for this concert; the kids had a lot of fun!
The first performance was of course by the celebrant himself. He took the stage and raised the roof with one of our favourite songs: “Super Star Number 1” and with that, the mood was set for the evening.
Everyone got their dancing shoes on and danced their hearts out! It was like that with every performance.
From Ada’s ‘Bobo Me’ to TB1’S “Jesus You Be King” to Victor’s peculiar performance of African-Nigerian praise songs, we danced. Even when the soulful songs came on, it wasn’t dull!
David, a young boy of about 13 years, performed Frank Edward’s “Every Child Is Your Child” and we all went wild at one point where he took this very long note! That boy can sing!
We then had Nathaniel Bassey (with the rest of the band) do a stirring instrumental performance of the same song.
Towards the end of the concert, Honourable Commissioner of finance for Imo State, Chike Okafor, arrived and after taking a tour of the exhibition stand outside, he made a pledge to sponsor one thousand (1000) kids back to school!
That just did it for the night! This was only one man, pledging to do double the target Frank had set for his birthday cause!
Our Goal as an organization is to get 5000 children back to school by September this year and we have 1000 already covered by one man who came as a result of Frank Edwards fundraising effort; this not counting everyone else that gave.
Finally, the kids and all present sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to Frank Edwards; he had tears in his eyes and seemed completely overwhelmed. Truly, this Man Of God is a blessing and is loved by everyone.
Not only did he dedicate his birthday to getting 500 indigent children back to school this year, he also spent quality time with the children of The InnerCity Mission, giving them a day to remember. God bless you mightily Frank Edwards!
Follow Frank Edwards on Twitter @FRANKRICHBOY
