When kids are given crayons in restaurants, those crayons are thrown out after each use. If you think that sounds like an appalling waste, you’re not alone. Bryan Ware thought so, too. The California dad thought that these unwanted crayons should be going to a better use, and so he started collecting them.
In 2013, Ware started The Crayon Initiative, which collects unwanted crayons and turns them into new ones.
After being sorted by color, the crayons are melted down and remolded into a larger size that’s easy for little hands to work with.
Ware uses the crayons he collects to form new, easy-to-handle crayons that are then distributed to pediatric patients in hospitals. He started doing these donations in his home state of California, but this year, The Crayon Initiative is expanding and will be making a donation in New York. Ware and his team hope to continue expanding so kids in hospitals across the country, and perhaps beyond, can have art supplies.
Art supplies might seem like odd items to donate, but they allow kids living with illnesses an outlet to express their feelings — and have some fun.
Ware knows that a box of crayons is a small gift, but for a child confined to a hospital, they can be a window to the world. “From my perspective, the biggest goal is to give them an escape,” he explains. “I can’t even fathom what these kids are going through. If these crayons give them an escape from that hospital room for ten minutes, we did our job.”
Today, The Crayon Initiative creates thousands of new crayons. They even have this nifty mold!
And their focus group approves.
(via Popsugar)
You can read more about The Crayon Initiative on their website and Facebook page. You can also make a donation to keep kids coloring.
