Camden gets to the point of supporting ARCH

When 11-year-old Camden McLeod got a pocket knife for his birthday last year, he didn’t know that it would soon help him start his very first business venture. 

“Since last year, he’s been carving wood spears with his pocket knife just for fun,” said Danielle McLeod, Camden’s mother. “He wanted me to post them on Facebook to try and sell them, and at first I said ‘no’ because I didn’t think anyone would buy them. I felt bad, but I posted it thinking that it could be a life lesson for him. Everybody ended up proving me wrong.”

McLeod posted a picture of Camden with the spears in the Facebook sale group “Sell my S#*t now Sault Ste. Marie” on Friday, and to their surprise, the likes and comments immediately came rolling in. 

So far, Camden’s homemade spears have generated more than $160 in sales, including two donors who gave him money just so that he could make more. The Facebook post currently has 691 likes and 192 comments from the group’s members. 

Some positive comments from members include:

“This story wins the day.”

“This is so amazing to see! I hope it teaches him that there are awesome people in this community that know how to show support for young talents!”

“Best thing I’ve read in a long day. Thanks for ending my week on a high note.”

Camden and his mother were shocked when they kept seeing people bidding on the spears. 

“I can’t believe that happened. I’m super impressed with our community, they definitely proved me wrong. If this is a ‘mom fail’, then it’s the best ‘mom fail’ ever,” McLeod said. 

Camden made the decision to donate half of the money earned to ARCH Hospice. 

“We were talking about it that day, and I told him that if he actually sells them then maybe he can look into donating some of it. I mentioned that ARCH is always looking for help and it was ultimately his decision to donate half of the money there,” McLeod said. “We've donated some already, but people keep saying they want to buy more spears so we’re going to wait until then to donate more."

“I’m really proud of him and impressed that he wanted to donate the money. He wants to buy himself an airsoft gun and he could have used it towards that. So it was definitely a proud moment,” McLeod said. 

Camden says that he didn’t expect much from the Facebook post either, but was overjoyed by the response. 

“I didn’t think people would buy them either, I hoped they would but I just wanted to see what would happen. If it keeps going this well I might have to ask my brother to help me,” he said. “One thing I’m promising is that half of the money will go to ARCH every time.”

Camden says that people can use the spears for many different reasons, mostly during the summer at camp. 

“They could use them for fishing, target practice, roasting marshmallows, or for hot dogs over the fire,” he said. 

McLeod expressed her gratitude to the community in another Facebook post and thanked everyone for supporting her son.

“I didn’t think this was going to go the way it went. I really think it’s awesome how everybody is supporting him. It’s nice to see all the positive thoughts this mom-fail brought about. Sometimes it’s hard to get past all the negative stuff and bad things in the world, so this was a nice change,” she wrote.