Beautiful drawings started showing up on a school’s walls—authorities were surprised to find the artist
It is totally normal for people to find healing in the most unexpected places. Mesmerizing drawings mysteriously appearing on a school's whiteboards were a part of someone's healing, too. However, neither the teachers nor the students at Christian Heritage Academy in Minnesota had any idea where these mysterious and beautiful drawings came from. The kids would walk in to find exciting new images in the classroom every day. They eventually found out the person responsible for the overnight drawings and were pleasantly surprised, per Kare 11's Land of 10,000 Stories.
The person behind the artworks was janitor Myron Peterson, who had started working at the school part-time some time before the incident back in 2019. The man was working at the academy and the teachers were surprised to see mysterious drawings like aliens, reindeer, warriors and more on whiteboards. One of the drawings also had an elaborate scenery of a horse chariot in a snowy landscape. "The bear had been sitting there for a day or two and then the reindeer joined him. The kids were excited, they saw him right away," Andrea Hopkins, a 1st grade teacher, told the outlet. They didn't know about the artist for a week, when eventually the principal told them that it was Peterson. The principal, Gail Wolfe, also knew why the man made all of those drawings.
Peterson had been driving to his job as a facilities manager a couple of years before he joined the school during a snowstorm. A car crashed into his vehicle and the accident left him with a traumatic brain injury. "I don't remember much of it since it happened in 2017." The part-time job at the school was his first job since he got injured. But because of his injury, Peterson often experienced frequent and severe migraines. Wolfe revealed that the man's headaches were "debilitating." His occupational therapist had suggested that he should draw. So when he saw the whiteboards all around, he saw them as an opportunity to practice his newfound therapy and talent. "It's therapy, that's for sure. My happy place." The man noticed the assignments the English teacher, Liya Skladanovskiy, assigned and started participating too, leaving the woman impressed.
"He did awesome, he got an A," the teacher expressed as she showed off Peterson's drawing. The man shared that the kids were giving him the gift of "sharing" and hoped that he was giving them a gift through his art, too. Marcia Budnik, a 2nd-grade teacher, could attest to that. "They get all excited. They are like, 'Look at that, what's on the board today?'" The students remarked that they really liked all the drawings. "It is a blessing to be here," Peterson pointed out. "I got a beautiful man, a beautiful soul," Wolfe added.
People appreciated the man's talent in the comments section of the video. @william.doken wrote, "Thank you. I'm recovering from a deer motorcycle accident without a helmet that happened almost two years ago. This gives me hope." @k.fuentes7448 commented, "This is a beautiful, heart-warming story. I’m glad this fine man can ease his pain through art. I am sure it helps that the entire school appreciates his artwork." @cobielangrek8726 remarked, "Remarkable heart for good in this talented man. So pleased the school recognizes it, too. The children will never forget." @wzywig shared, "I was a school teacher many years ago. I used to love creating coloured chalk blackboard images. They were probably better than my lessons."
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