One kid can change the world

In 2018, 10-year-old Jack Berne started A Fiver for a Farmer to raise funds for drought relief. He and mum Prue share what happened next.

Jack: It was a pretty typical night in my house. Mum was cooking dinner. I came through the door said, “We need to do something about the drought.” Mum was confused. No one really knew anything about the drought at that point.

Prue: They’d watched [ABC TV program] Behind The News at school. He saw there were kids his age who weren’t able to go to school or do their sporting activities because they were having to help out on the farm. He was only 10 but something struck. He said, “We should do something about it so that people know.” He came back about an hour later, and said, “I found all of these email addresses. Can I use your email?” I said sure.

Jack: There was something about seeing other people suffer that made me feel really bad. I’m a very lucky kid, and it was an encounter that I don’t usually have, seeing people struggle like that. I just wanted to help. I went into my room with my laptop and wrote an email to Channel 9 and Channel 7 and Channel 10 and just crossed my fingers.

Prue: I didn’t think much of it until the next morning and my phone kept ringing with random numbers. I thought, I’ll let it go through to voicemail, but one number just kept ringing. I answered and it was Edwina Bartholomew from Sunrise. She said, “I have Jack’s email. We’d love to have him on the show tomorrow.”

His email had said he wanted to get kids across Australia to dress up as farmers and bring in five dollars. He was excited about the idea, saying, “I could get my school to do it.”

Sunrise wanted to send a crew to get some footage before filming a live segment the next day. I drove to Jack’s school, ran into the principal’s office and said, “Jack’s sent this email. Sunrise is on their way!” She was lovely but suddenly there was a lot happening. We were trying to find flannelette shirts for the kids to wear and hats and things.