The 52 prints sold out in about four days, something he had not anticipated whatsoever.
"I was actually really surprised, it was actually kind of shocking … I didn't expect it to explode the way it did," he said.
Lepine said he assumed it would be a local fundraiser as all of the money is being raised to support local schools and organizations, but was amazed to see the support from across Canada. He also had many people reach out to him to thank him for bringing attention to such an important topic.
"For me it just was a lot of heartbreaking stories and heartbreaking awareness of how real this issue actually is … it was eye opening."