The energy on event day was amazing! With the whole team now on location, we drove to the event site before the sun was up, and arrived to find a frosty field. Students began arriving as the frost finally melted away and the sun gave reassuring warmth that this day was going to go beautifully!

John and Mntunzi began early with the volunteers to set-up the lines for the aerial art, as I handled logistics like the set-up of the stage, boom lift for cameras, port-a-johns, and tenting, while Marc Levey, our Executive Producer, managed the press and our partners as well as the official photographers and videographers.

The drumming of the Twenty Thousand Drums crew caused the children to erupt with excitement at the beginning of the event, and carried the same uplifting energy and spirit throughout the day.



As the drums kept the pace of the event upbeat, our entire Circle Up team worked feverishly to get the students grouped by uniform color and filtered into the image. The Action Aid team and their volunteers helped with this, and with passing out of drums and rhythm sticks to each of the students. As they sat in the image, the students drummed in perfect unison with the drum leaders as if they had been doing it their whole lives, and they cheered as the helicopter first went up into the air.



From the start, we were pressed for time since city officials would only allow the helicopter to take off and land within a fixed window of time. I found myself tucked off to the side of the image with Marc as we watched the helicopter come down early. Marc looked at his watch and got onto his two-way radio, “We still have 10 minutes… send the helicopter back up! Send it back up!” Fortunately, later we learned that our official image came from that last flight.



CNN was the first press to make the image viewable to anyone at the event, and I saw Action Aid’s PR coordinator come down the hill with tears in her eyes, saying, “It really does look like Mediba!” I knew at that moment, our hard work had paid off, and we had all created something magical.

A few days following the event, we attended the Action Aid press conference at the Nelson Mandela Foundation, where we had the unique honor of hearing Bishop Desmond Tutu, Kofi Anon, and Mary Robinson speak on the serious issue of the global hunger crisis and on how to combat it.



Also in attendance were several dignitaries such as the first lady of South Africa and Sir Richard Branson. Here we presented our image of Nelson Mandela on the eve of his 90th birthday, along with a video of the event that displayed the meaning and feelings of the student participants through this experience.

Possibly the most rewarding part of the entire trip came four days after the event when we went back to the two participating high schools to present them with their own copies of the image and large mounted prints for the schools to proudly display.



The students were filled with excitement as they told their stories of seeing themselves on local news broadcasts in the image.



They were so proud that so many people saw something that they had been a part of. One student even expressed to me how she felt as if this event made her realize that she can help others too. She said that she planned to start a clothing drive to bring to the local communities most affected by AIDS. That was my personal victory, as it has always been my mission, along with Marc and John’s, to inspire and empower others to be the next leaders of tomorrow!