We have three artists who's designs were chosen by the lovely people at
Paper Clouds Apparel to be used for tshirts, canvas bags, hats... I will be sharing about all of our winners but to start things off, I am sharing one of our RR families and devoted advocates,
Julia Nalle's, blog post announcing one of our winners! Simply said, no one could have put it better, so I am passing it to her to tell you a little about one of our winners. You can also click the title of the post to view it on their blog.
He would sit in the shed, take a stick, hold it between his toes and draw pictures in the dirt.
They had no paper or markers or coloring books for him to use. He had nothing to draw on and no books to look at while he drew. Yet he spent hours making designs in the dirt with his stick.
One of the caretakers told us.
She wanted us to know that this child we were adopting could draw with his feet.
It was important to her that we knew this about him.
We barely spoke her language and she knew nothing of ours.
But she wanted us to know. It was one of the few times that we directly communicated with one of them without a translator there.
He drew in the dirt.
With a stick.
With his feet.
Because that is all he had.
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He doesn't draw with sticks anymore.
And he rarely draws with his feet.
We have plenty of markers and paper and pens.
And a whole assortment of books filled with pictures he can see and copy.
And he still loves to draw.
And he is good.
His drawings are good.
Even with limited arm motion and fingers that can't bend.
They are so good that one of his drawings was selected by
Paper Clouds Apparel to be featured for the next two weeks on their shirts, totes and hats.
That's right.
THAT'S AARON'S TRUCK!
On hats, shirts and totes.
AARON'S DRAWING!
His picture was one of many submitted.
The people at Paper Clouds chose their favorites. They didn't know Aaron and no one shared with them his story.
His picture was one of three selected by impartial judges who just plain liked it.
Happily 50% of the proceeds are going to Reece's Rainbow.
That seems very fitting since we found him on
Reece's Rainbow.
Without them he would still be drawing with a stick.
In the dirt.
With his feet.
Because back then he didn't have paper and pencils and markers.
And he couldn't see past the walls that surrounded the institute...
To even know what a tanker truck looked like.
Actually, he didn't even know what a tanker truck was.
We have just under TWO WEEKS to go of the 
