It all begins with a drawing class.

Young patients gather in an inspiring setting — the M. D. Anderson

classroom, a museum, the zoo, a beautiful hotel lobby — and get to work. With a dedicated group of art volunteers as their guides and each other’s company and ideas as encouragement, young patients express themselves in paint, crayons and paper.

Each spring, an art coordinator on the Children’s Art Project staff sorts through hundreds of pieces of art created either in the drawing classes, or sometimes at home or in a hospital bed. The coordinator chooses more than 150 pieces to display at annual volunteer appreciation events and categorizes them into Valentines, Everyday Greetings and Holiday designs.

At the events, some 700 volunteers vote on their favorite designs for each category. Those pieces receiving the most votes become the subjects of focus groups, whose participants determine which designs will be featured in each collection.

Once the designs are selected, a production team takes over, scanning original artwork into computers and creating messages for the inside of the greeting cards. After color separations, 4 a.m. press checks and many long hours, the children’s art finally emerges as greeting cards. And with the new cards come many smiles on the faces of proud artists and satisfied customers.

— Andria Frankfort