Students at Bullock Creek High School in Midland, Michigan found an unusual way to raise money for their robotics team.

Every year, 28 students on the Blitz Creek team take part in a national robotics competition, where students are challenged to create a robot that can perform certain tasks. They design robots, and write the programs that run them.

But building robots isn’t cheap. Maxton Herst joined the team in the ninth grade, and later he became the captain of the robotics team. By accident, Maxton Herst saw a video about a toilet paper pyramid. Maxton realized that it was possible to build a record-setting pyramid, and then sell the toilet paper to get money for their program. All the team members agreed to try his idea.

Blitz Creek has been planning the pyramid since last May. One challenge was calculating (计算) how many rolls of paper were needed. The answer turned out to be 27,434.

In late December, team members gave up part of their winter holiday to build the pyramid. The pyramid was so big that they had to build it from the inside before backing out and filling in the areas where they had been standing. It took about 16 hours, with many people working, which is about 61 centimeters taller than the current (当前的) Guinness World Record.

The pyramid opened for viewing on January 4, 2020. Sadly, because the pyramid was in the school’s front hall, it could only stay for three days. With all the excitement caused by the pyramid, it turned out to be fairly easy to sell the toilet paper. Many supporters did help. Families and teachers bought half of the paper. A large company bought the rest. The team made about ＄10,000 from the event, which will help pay for its activities.

Maxton talks about the success of his crazy idea. “If you’ve got an idea, and you know that this idea is good, push it,” he says. “Don’t stop.”

One day, two boys were walking along the road to school when they saw an old woman carrying a large basket of pears. The old woman looked very tired. They went up and said, “Are you going to town? If you are, we’ll help you carry your basket.”

“Thank you,” said the woman. “That’s very kind of you.” Then she told them that she was going to the market to sell the pears. So the boys decided to lift the basket together. They walked slowly with the heavy basket, but they were happy.

The other day, I saw a little girl pick up a piece of banana peel (水果皮). She threw it into the dustbin (垃圾箱). “I hope nobody would throw that on the street,” she said. “Someone may slip (滑倒) and fall.” Perhaps some people may say that these are not great things. That’s right. But almost all great things are made up of such small things. We shouldn’t wait for the time to do great things. We should begin with these things that are full of love.

Michael Morpurgo was born on 5th October, 1943 in the south of England. He and his brother were moved from London when the Second World War began. Michael went to two different boarding schools when he was growing up. He particularly enjoyed playing rugby and singing but he often felt homesick and missed home. After school, Michael joined the army but he did not enjoy being shouted at and so he left shortly afterwards. Michael then decided to go to university instead.

After graduating from university, Michael became a primary school teacher and taught in a small school in Kent. He loved teaching and his favourite thing to do was to read stories to his class. When he ran out of stories to read to them, Morpurgo started to write his own. His first book was written in 1974 and was called It Never Rains: Five Stories. Morpurgo has stated that the days he spent teaching are some of the happiest of his life.

Michael left teaching after ten years and bought a farm with his wife. Together they began a charity called Farms for City Children. This charity offers children who live in poorer, inner-cities the chance to come and stay on a working farm for a week. Children learn from hands-on experience about how to care for animals and how to work with others as part of a team. The charity is still running today, and thousands of children have been to stay at one of the three farms that the charity now owns.

Michael Morpurgo has written over 100 books for children. He writes about children and their relationships with older people and animals. He also writes stories about wars. Many of them have won prizes and several are now films or plays, including War Horse, which is now well known around the world. Another popular book is Kensuke’s Kingdom, which he wrote in 1999.