I found a special charity

Here's the backstory: Our family was recently discussing car travel, and my husband John brought up his family's long, boooooooring car trip to the east coast when he was a boy. He said he was so bored that he was bouncing a piece of gum between his hands, watching it go higher and higher then all of a sudden it was gone! Back to being bored until, when they reached their next rest stop, their dad's exit from the car was impeded by a piece of gum stuck between his shirt and the car seat. OOOPS!

So, of course, I ask John why in the world he didn't bring anything to keep him occupied in the car. I brought up short road trips my family took and how my mom would encourage my sister and me to bring books, cards, art supplies, etc. "ART SUPPLIES!? We didn't have any art supplies!!", said in a tone that indicated I must not have been paying attention to his mom all these years. Truthfully, when I thought about it, he's right; no way my mother in law, who is otherwise chock full of great qualities, was going to think about getting her children much in the way of art supplies. (In her defense, I must mention that while processing this childhood trauma with his sisters over the holidays, they reminded John about that box of broken crayons.)

Back to the charity. I was reading the Dallas Morning News the other day and saw an ad for their DMN Charities featuring a forlorn looking little girl so obviously I had to read the ad, being a sucker for forlorn looking children and all. Here is the actual text:

How do you have a childhood without imagination?

A gift of $50 could mean art supplies, books, toys, school supplies -- a chance to imagine.

They grow up fast. Living a world of quiet desperation and of very harsh realiies. These are the lost children. And they are living right here in our city.

(Yes they are!!) I ran to John and thrust the ad under his nose. He made it through the first line and with a withering glance said, "I guess this is about those art supplies?" Through hysterical laughter I pointed to the next line and cackled, "They have a charity for you, honey!"

If you get a chance, you can donate to this charity so children like John and his sisters don't have to grow up to be lawyers, nurses, and math teachers.