When her dad leaves for work every day, Emma—age 8—imagines that he’s going to deliver medicine to people across the world.
And, in a simplified, 8-year-old way of thinking, it is, according to her dad Daryl, an account manager at a pharmaceutical company in Connecticut.
Emma illustrated these thoughts in our Someone I ❤️ Works at C&W Services Art Contest held in conjunction with Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day—something most of our employees” children can’t participate in because of the nature of many of our facilities and the jobs our team members perform.
An independent external panel selected Emma’s art out of 63 entries that came to us from sites across Canada, Puerto Rico and the continental United States.
“I was super excited when I found out she won,” says Daryl. “It was one of those super proud papa moments that you get. I had to close my door for a moment and take a breath.”
Emma’s drawing features a vibrant, blue and green globe in the middle. Atop is her dad in between two buildings. An airplane is flying on one side of the planet to give medicine to a girl at the bottom of the globe while a truck delivers medicine to Emma and her brother on the other side of the planet. At the bottom, a simple sentence:
“My daddy makes sure medicine is delivered to people around the world safely.”
According to Daryl, Emma didn’t simply take out her markers and draw. She took her time and thought about how she was going to illustrate what her dad does every day.
“This wasn’t a sit down, draw the picture and mail it out thing. This was a project, an outline, a plan and a draft,” he says. “Once she had a plan in place, it was putting pen to paper and decorating it. She put a lot of time into this project.”
Emma’s grand prize included an Amazon gift card, a number of art supplies and a trophy. Best of all? A $1,000 check for her elementary school that she was able to present to her principal in front of other students.
“Emma’s prize to us is very, very valuable,” says her principal. “The children get very excited because this is one of their peers who has done something great. This will be the talk of the town and school for a while.”
That opportunity, Daryl says, is what will stick with Emma far longer than any other prize.
“The art supplies for Emma and trophy she—ll remember,” he says. “But having the opportunity to present a giant check to your principal? How many eight year olds get to do that
Emma’s drawing is just one of many. Make sure to check out the 60-plus other entries we received!
