The newest member of the Department of Awesomely Good Deeds is The Crayon Initiative, a nonprofit organization started by Bryan Ware. It all began when Ware was watching his sons coloring during a birthday dinner out at a restaurant and wondered what happened to the crayons if his kids left them behind. He posed this question to a restaurant employee and was distraught to learn that all the leftover crayons are simply thrown away after customers leave. It turns out that 75,000 pounds of crayons are thrown away by restaurants and schools each year. So Ware decided he could find a way to make sure the crayons weren’t wasted and instead given to kids in need.
Now Ware collects old crayons from restaurants, schools, and friends and turns them into brand new crayons for children at California-based hospitals. He melts down the leftover crayons and then uses a special mold that he created in collaboration with an occupational therapist. The new crayons are thicker, which makes them easier for little kids and children with special needs to grasp and use.
2,000 boxes of recycled crayons have been donated to California children’s hospitals since The Crayon Initiative was founded in 2013. Now the organization is planning its first out-of-state donation to a hospital in New York City later this month.
In doing so, Ware hopes to continue expanding as he supports the hospitalized youth all across the country. “From my perspective, the biggest goal is to give them an escape,” he continued. “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.”
Holding the Bowl 