Thank you. This is out there on my TED Talk, so I'll be brief.
In the days after we lost Wesley, we saw Craig Kielburger on The Oprah Winfrey Show. It was at a time when I was being monitored. Nobody would leave me because they were afraid I'd harm myself, frankly. My partner Gregory said to me, “You know, we can do something with this. We can give Wesley a legacy and we can help these kids. Let's get in touch with Free the Children.”
Very quickly, we called Dalal Al-Waheidi at Free the Children. I explained to her that I'd been on TV in Salt Lake City for seven years, that I had launched the Power tour with Governor and Mrs. Huntsman, former ambassadors to China and former ambassadors to Russia. He was the son of billionaire Huntsman chemical founder, Jon Huntsman Sr. They quickly latched on to helping me build the Wesley Smiles Coalition fundraiser. Dalal said, “Don't do a 501(c)(3). You can become a fundraiser. We'll always track every donation that comes in under Wesley's name. Have them just send the cheque to us.”
Craig Kielburger told me that he cancelled a trip with President Bill Clinton and instead diverted himself to Salt Lake City for the first fundraiser, where we raised quite a bit of money. I think the rest is in my opening statement, and in the interest of condensing time, I'll say it continued.