Following two of the most devastating earthquakes in New Zealand history, ordinary Christchurch residents were suddenly thrown into extraordinary positions of responsibility. Sam Johnson was one of them. He saw the need to put an army of able-bodied people to constructive use. The idea was simple: the more helpers there were, the quicker it would be to clean up. After handing out thousands of shovels to thousands of young New Zealanders, the Student Volunteer Army was born...
The purpose of this series of videos was to create awareness of the Student Volunteer Army and to encourage more people to get involved. The videos depict everything from volunteer efforts in Christchurch, post-tsunami clean-up operations in Japan, to one of the year's biggest fund-raising efforts, The Concert.
Sam Johnson's vision is one of the most refreshing and intelligent schemes Christchurch has seen. He is now a motivational guest speaker at student and aid conferences around the world. Sam was awarded Young New Zealander of the year in 2012, an incredible and well-deserved honour for someone who used their common sense to make a huge difference.