Article in Kamloops This Week

Mikelle Sasakamoose from Kamloops This Week, wrote a great article about Painting With Purpose. Take a minute to read below or visit their website for the article.

Thanks Mikelle,

Chris

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For kids by kids: Painting With Purpose
By Mikelle Sasakamoose - Kamloops This Week

As mechanical engineers, Jon and Chris Thornham are used to making things move.

But their latest project moves people.

The twin brothers from Dartmouth, N.S., started Painting With Purpose to raise money for charitable organizations that assist children with special needs.

Growing up in the Maritime city, Jon said he remembers being in middle school when he first met children that weren’t like the others.

“When we were younger, in middle school, we had a class in the school with special-needs children and I remember walking by there a few times the first year I was there and was curious,” Jon said.

“So we both ended up going in and then, for every lunch and recess for three years in a row, we ended up going in there and helping.”

Jon said he and his brother were drawn to the honesty and sincerity of the children in that class and found they learned more from them than they did in their regular classroom.

“It was a positive experience to be around,” he said.

“Some of the other kids at the school were always involved in bad things. There was always trouble if you went other places and I felt like if you went there you were in the right direction.”

Beyond middle school, the brothers’ compass eventually pointed to studies in engineering at the University of New Brunswick and, later, jobs in Las Vegas.

Although as young people the brothers were constantly involved with special-needs children — which they were recognized for with Youth Volunteer of the Year awards in their hometown — it was later in life they met a young friend who inspired them as adults.

Andrew is the 12-year-old son of a friend the brothers bunked with when they first moved to Sin City and their accommodations agreement fell through.

He was born with cerebral palsy and, right from the beginning, was the only one of his family who could tell the identical twins apart.

Six years later, Andrew’s like their little brother — the one who loves chicken fingers and ranch sauce, Whoopi Goldberg and, especially, painting.

In fact, it’s a red, blue, yellow and green depiction of a few of Andrew’s favourite things that has launched the Thornham brother’s latest efforts to help children with special needs.

Painting With Purpose is a philanthropic organization that offers an incentive approach to generating money for a variety of charities.

Digital copies of paintings created by children with special needs — including Andrew — are sold online, with half the proceeds going to the charity each child represents and for customer incentive, while the remaining revenue is used to fund organizational growth.

With what the brothers call “win, win, win philanthropy,” not only do they get to help raise funds for charity, but they get to continue to facilitate the program and give back to customers, too.

“Most businesses give money away as a tax write-off,” Jon said.

“For us, it’s not about that. We turn around and try and spread a good message . . . and we hope that people who win the cash prizes will use that money to come up with their own creative ways to spread their message or be involved charitably.”

Back on the topic of Andrew, Jon said since the little boy painted the website’s inaugural picture, he’s gone on to bigger and better things.

Andrew recently participated in a five-kilometre run with the brothers, one of many things — along with painting — doctors predicted he would never do when he was born.

“They said he’d only be a lump in the corner. He’d never talk, he’d never move but, with patient parents and after years of therapy, he’s amounted to what he is today,” Jon said.

“He’s a regular little boy with a few setbacks, but it doesn’t stop him and he has a great life.”

In addition to helping charities fund research to improve therapies and possibly find cures for some diseases affecting children with special needs, Jon said he and his brother hope to inspire others as Andrew has inspired them.

“Sometimes kids with special needs are looked at as though they’re always going to struggle in life,” he said.

“What we want to do is show them that even a simple painting, something they created themselves, can help spread a great message and that they can do amazing things by being involved.”

Original artwork by children with special needs in both Canada and the U.S. is accepted on an ongoing basis.

Each artist will be allowed to choose the charity that will benefit from the sales of his or her paintings.

For more information or to buy a painting, visit paintingwithpurpose.com.