Summer, 9, and Elijah, 6, Wynyard-Palmer with the original painting and the finished shopping bag. Photo / Paula Martin
Six-year-old Elijah Wynyard-Palmer was the proudest kid in his local supermarket this week when he walked in to see his signed artwork featuring on new shopping bags.
Elijah, from Tikipunga, was in Whangarei Hospital with viral meningitis in August this year and had an intravenous drip in his arm when
he created his artwork, a vibrant representation of himself in a garden.
"He had major antibiotics pumping through him," his mum Katherine recalls.
That picture was chosen to go on Countdown's reusable bags, adding a local dimension to a national campaign which raises funds for dedicated children's hospitals and wards throughout New Zealand.
Elijah and the other children in the children's Ward 2 were invited to draw a picture for Northland District Health Board's initiative to support the Countdown Kids Hospital Appeal. An initial run of 1000 of the new bags has been distributed to Countdown supermarkets around Northland where they are being sold for $5 each, every bag sold adding to the total raised for the benefit of Northland kids.
