Twelve-year-old Max Woosey made history last week as the second youngest-ever recipient of a British Empire Medal. That’s one of the numerous awards, recognitions, knighthoods, damehoods, and whatnot given out each year on the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List—a big deal in the United Kingdom. The B.E.M. recognizes “hands-on service to the local community,” according to a government Web site. Believe it or not, Max’s hands-on service involves sleeping in a tent every night, mostly in his backyard, going on nearly two years now.

There’s a reason for it, of course, besides just fun: Max, who lives in an English seaside village named Braunton, has been raising money for a local hospice that took care of an older neighbor at the end of his life. The neighbor, Rick Abbott, and Max had bonded over their shared love of the outdoors. But when Rick, who died of cancer in February 2020 at the age of 74, learned he had only a few weeks left to live, he gave his young friend his tent along with the admonition, “Max I want you to promise me you will have an adventure in it.”