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Child's Painting Helps Kids With Cancer...
The picture of a heart painted by Keith Desserich 6-year-old daughter, Elena, is getting more attention than the Wyoming family ever dreamed.
"Maybe," Elana's father siad, they should have sprung for a better frame."
"It looks like every other child's picture," Desserich said. "It's something every parent treasures. It's not that it's any different or any more precious than any other child's picture. What's different is it has this meaning behind it and what it represents that seems to carry all this home. We're sitting back and watching this whirlwind happen. Otherwise, we'd just have it hanging on our fridge."
Elena is battling terminal brain cancer. The tumor on her brain stem has left her unable to speak and caused partial paralysis on her right side.
When she was diagnosed in November, doctors estimated she had a little more than four months to live.
Her colorful painting, dubbed "I Love You" by the young artist, helped spur a new charity that will raise funds to support research for pediatric cancer.
The painting will be on display Sunday at the Wyoming Art Show. Copies will be available for $35 and can also be found on the family's Web site, www.desserich.org.
Don Crawford, an organizer of the art show, called the painting, "iconic. It's just a perfect representation of Elena's story, the colorful little heart with all the sunbeams radiating out."
All proceeds will benefit "The Cure Starts Now," established by the Desserich family to raise awareness of diffuse brainstem glioma and to help fund research on childhood cancers.
People started sending the family donations after an Enquirer story about Elena's illness and the Cincinnati Art Museum's decision to display her painting.
Though they were touched by the community's generosity, Desserich said, they don't need it for themselves.
Desserich owns Coit Services, a carpet and upholstery cleaning business.
So they established the charity to help other children battling cancer. They're awaiting approval from the state to have it designated as a nonprofit agency.
Diffuse brainstem glioma is one of the deadliest forms of pediatric brain cancer. It's rare for a child to survive much longer than a year after diagnosis.
If researchers can find a cure for Elena's cancer, Desserich reasons, they can cure just about anything.
"If a cure is going to happen, it's going to start with this," he said. "With this cancer, they don't even quote survival statistics."
Teachers from Wyoming Elementary School, where Elena is a kindergartner, suggested selling copies of her painting at the art show. They'll staff a booth at Sunday's art show.
The painting has also inspired jewelry designs, Desserich said, and one company wants to use it for note cards. A few nonprofit organizations have asked if they can use the image as their logo.
When the family saw the painting on display at the art museum, hanging side by side with the Picassos, Desserich said, "I thought, we should have spent more than $30 on a frame. You just don't see this coming."
The family is grateful for what Desserich called "a groundswell of support. I guess that's the blessing in this horrible situation. The blessing there is that support. The blessing is that people do have overflowing hearts and they're willing to help."
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