An artistic welcome for Children's Hosptial

Ben Franklin Academy, happy to welcome Children’s Hospital Colorado to the neighborhood, put on a schoolwide art contest in which participants were asked to paint what they thought the hospital’s South Campus should look like.

Twenty winners were selected out of more than 300 entrants, and those 20 all had their murals on display at the entrance of the May 23 groundbreaking.

“It makes me really excited that Children’s Hospital is coming,” said Maddie Barker, a sixth-grader at the school, and one of the winning artists. “I think it’s good because the other Children’s Hospital is so far away and having one in Highlands Ranch will make it easier for people who are hurt to come here.”

Barker’s painting was of what she thought the hospital should look like and had the words “Thanks Children’s Hospital” over it.

“I wanted to put ‘thank you’ on it for all the things they have done for kids and because we are glad they are coming here,” she said.

Fellow sixth-grader Alex Warren, whose work was displayed right next to Barker’s, shared her sentiments of the hospital coming.

“It will be nice to have a Children’s Hospital more convenient to us, since the other one is so far away,” he echoed, before describing his painting which showed an injured child towering over Ben Franklin and the hospital.

“In my painting I just wanted to incorporate the hospital and my school that is nearby and just try to incorporate what is coming here,” he said.

“It’s amazing to see the imagination of kids at work, and it’s a reminder of why we are all here,” said Jim Shmerling, president and CEO of Children’s Hospital Colorado, calling the kids some of the most talented artists in the area.