This is the moment a schoolgirl busker melted the hearts of locals with her rendition of ANNIE songs — moving one man so much that he gave her £1,000.
Selfless Anna-Athene Bown-Lowe hit all the right notes while belting out a selection of show songs, plus tracks by her favourite indie band Everything Everything.
The pitch perfect 11-year-old took to the streets of her hometown to raise cash for her primary school – which is hoping to build a new play area at a cost of £10k.
Despite being in her final year, the Year 6 Head Girl performed for five hours with close pal Emma Watts in Wells city centre, Somerset., on Saturday, July 1.
One anonymous man was so impressed with her singing voice, he wrote a cheque for a whopping £1,001, signed ‘A Bond’, and stuffed it with a note inside her busking tin.
Talented Anna-Athene was singing songs from Broadway musical Annie, as well as tracks from Everything Everything’s last album Get to Heaven.
A clip of her in action has since gone viral.
The recent outing is the latest in a string of charitable performances by the schoolgirl – she performed three times before Christmas, raising £700.
Ann-Athene gave half of the money to the homeless and half to St Cuthberts CofE Junior School’s new playground appeal.
Her proud dad Paul Lowe, 47, said: “One man handed over a cheque for £1,000 – it was incredible.
“I didn’t capture the cheque donation as the Gentleman popped it in the tin with a note and told Anna-Athene to read it when she finished singing.”
He added: “So far she has raised over £1,500 pounds towards the £10,000 needed for the new playground.
“She’s just so determined and her social interaction is wonderful, she’s down-to-earth and just gets on so well with people.
“She knows that she won’t get to use the new play area, leaving for a new school at the end of this term, but she has thoroughly enjoyed being at St Cuthberts and her tenure as Head Girl, enough to want to give as much back as she can.
And on Tuesday night, (July 11), there was an extra special treat for the dedicated fundraiser.
She got to meet her heroes Everything Everything at a gig at the Eden Project in Cornwall.
“They chatted to her about her fundraising and later dedicated one of her favourite songs to her in the middle of the gig which was fabulous for her,” said Mr Lowe.
During the summer holiday Anna Athene is hoping to work towards some more of that target.
She said: “I’d like to say thanks to everyone who was kind and considerate enough to put money in my tin or, if they had none to spare, just to have time to stop and smile, and appreciate what we were doing.
“And I would like to say an individually massive thank you to the man who put £1,001 – it shows what a kind and generous man he was and that money isn’t the most important thing in life.”
St Cuthberts C Of E Junior School headteacher Helen Singleton said: “Anna-Athene has a beautiful voice and has used this to great effect to raise a considerable amount of money for our new adventure playground at school as well as raising money for local charities in Wells.
“She is an incredible young lady who we are all very proud of.”
