A Portrait Of Helping The Homeless
And nurse Mary Larson was Santa Claus, handing out gifts, bringing smiles to the faces of her patients, many of them homeless. Many of them her subjects, hanging on the walls.
Nurse Larson's paintings include: Tommy's portrait.
Tommy O'Neil, who's homeless, who's handing out hats. 480 hats that just came in to the clinic because of his portrait.
Mary Larson wanted to help her patients, keep them warm in the cold months ahead. So she decided to sell her portraits, not for cash, but for the things that homeless people need. Hats, gloves, underwear, socks.
The portrait of 'Clarence' will be taken off the wall Friday. It will go to a junior high school in Puyallup that paid for the painting with 650 white socks.
The 'Zoraida' painting will go to a youth group in the San Juan Islands for 330 pairs of gloves. Zoraida came to the clinic to pass out the gloves to patients. The gloves will be keeping James Kanady warm.
"I appreciate everything that's going on today. Giving is better than taking," said Kanady who is homeless.
Giving joy. It's what holidays are all about. It's what nurse Mary Larson is all about.
"The hope here is that they'll leave here glowing. Glowing", says Larson.
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