Warrior Wednesday: Our finalists for the 2012 kid’s shirt design

My momma always said, “Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” Forest Gump

When Get Your Rear in Gear looked to young artists to design the 2012 kid’s shirt, we feel like we indulged  in a box of chocolates.  There was tremendous enthusiasm from our young artists and our staff.  Our finalist’s designs were put to vote on Facebook.  And, the winner you selected was “Denzel!”  We wanted to share a little more about all of the talented artists and award them the honor of our featured “Warriors” today.

Denzel

Denzel, age eight, has participated in the Northeast, Iowa Get Your Rear in Gear event in Waukon the last two years.  His mom shared with us that their family has been affected by colon cancer, because of a friend, so they volunteer their time helping to organize the race. Denzel thinks the race is fun and important to many people.

Get Your Rear in Gear 2012 shirt design winner!

Quinn

Quinn’s folks decided to film Quinn at work.  We were so tempted to share this video sooner, but we thought it might be an unfair advantage as it is without doubt our organization’s favorite cheer.  Quinn is six years old and his folks said, “when we talked about this contest, Quinny said he was going to draw a picture of the race, because ‘the person who wins the race gets to save people from cancer.’ He did the picture several times until he was satisfied that it was good enough.  He also did another picture of a kid and a punching bag.  The kid was “beating up” cancer.  But he liked this one better.“

Quinn, age 6, final contestant

Mayan

Our youngest artist award goes to Mayan.  She is three years old and put her hands to wonderful use to design an awesome picture.  Mayan’s mom, Danielle Goforth, shared Mayan’s own words: “My grandma has stage IV colon cancer. She was diagnosed four years ago, before I was born. We play and laugh every day to make wonderful memories.”  We at Get Your Rear in Gear know that Mayan’s grandmother is deeply touched as we were very moved by Mayan’s words.

Alexandra

Alexandra is eleven years old.  Our communication director’s husband is her cousin.  We were inspired by her message and definition of a rear.  R=Reach Out!  E=Exercising!  A=Aspire! R=Respect others!  We couldn’t agree more Alexandra.  We might need to make this our official cheer of the rear!  We also enjoyed the baseball bat!  We’d like to take a swing at colon cancer too!  You definitely get the importance of moving to help prevent cancer.

Alexandra, age 11, final contestant

Olivia

Olivia was our oldest contestant at the ripe age of twelve years old.  Our Get Your Rear in Gear staff loved the running path and the “Gumby” runner GYRIG style.   Her father Langdon shared with us that “artist was contacted by a family friend, because they have a friend who is involved with the Get Your Rear in Gear cause.”  We thank you Olivia and your family friend for putting a wonderful design together for the contest.

Olivia, age 12, final contestant

Gumby, age 60, designed by Art Clokey

Langdon

Talk about talent within a family!  Langdon is Olivia’s younger brother.  At age ten, we think he could be hired by Cartoon Network.  Take a look at the definition effort on the ears, eyes and the cloud coming out from the rear to show effort and running. WOW!.  One of the comments in Facebook says it all about Langdon, “Love this design by Langdon.  Langdon is not only a great friend, he is an awesome artist.”

Langdon, age 10, final contestant

Kellen

When my niece, Becky Lindquist, submitted  Kellen’s drawing.  A ton of emotion came over me.  Kellen, age 5, is a cancer survivor.  At six months old, Kellen was diagnosed with a rare cancer.  The “beetle” fought hard at a young age for his life.  Those that meet this little guy would never know his battle as he has always had so much life and creativity in his words.  What made our staff and this writer’s day was to have Becky tell us that the submission of artwork came at a great time…Kellen’s doctor declared the words all survivors long to hear, “no evidence of disease.”

Kellen, age 5, final contestant and cancer survivor

We thank you young artists!  You made December so very wonderful for so many people.  We are deeply moved by your talent and work for colorectal cancer awareness.  Expect to see all your artwork displayed in 2012.