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Man repurposes restaurant crayons for patients at children's hospitals

Friday, September 4, 2015
When Bryan Ware found out that crayons at restaurants were thrown away, he thought of a genius way to use them: children's hospitals. He started The Crayon Initiative.
The Crayon Initiative starts by getting unwanted crayons donated from restaurants, schools and more. The crayons are then sorted by color by volunteers young and old.
The next step is to peel the paper off the crayons and melt them down.
Once each color is in one big blob, it's ready to be molded.
The liquid is poured into a special mold bought just for this project.
The new crayons are shaped as the wax is pushed through the mold.
The mold creates specially designed crayons that are easy for children to hold and that they won’t roll off of beds or trays.
Ware said the new crayons don't have paper because they could carry bacteria.
The crayons are then packaged up and delivered to children's hospitals for patients to enjoy.
Ware said the crayons work as art therapy, helping the children escape the reason they're in the hospital.
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The Crayon Initiative/Facebook
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