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Cowboys use kids artwork to benefit Texas children's hospitals

By JACQUIELYNN FLOYD / The Dallas Morning News

IRVING, Texas - The Dallas Cowboys evoke a lot of images: victories earned, plays blown, heroes and goats, good publicity and bad.

But 6-year-old Seth Abney of Mansfield sees the game's joyful essence. Green grass, sunshine and a player in blue kicking the tar out of the football.

His vision has been shared with 55,000 season-ticket holders through a Cowboys-sponsored contest that is using young patients' artwork to raise money for Texas children's hospitals.

This year, season tickets for each home game show a different Cowboys-themed drawing by kids who are either hospitalized or frequent outpatients.

"We wanted them to show us what comes to them when they think of the Cowboys," said Charlotte Jones Anderson, a team vice president and daughter of owner Jerry Jones. "Their emotion really came through on the paper."

A team of 10 Cowboys office administrators chose 11 entries from about 250 submitted. Every child who entered got a package of choice souvenirs, but the winners hooked the brass ring: Each one, with his or her family, will be introduced on the field and seated in a box suite at Texas Stadium for one game.

"I guess this is my lucky year," said Aaron Mosty, an 11-year-old from Irving whose drawing was picked for the Aug. 3 preseason opener against the Oakland Raiders.

It may not have looked that way in March, when Aaron suffered an asthma attack so severe he spent three days at Children's Medical Center. During his stay, he drew his contest entry.

Aaron's picture shows an airborne football flying over the Dallas skyline. Penciled across the top is less a title than a screaming headline: "Football Season Attacks Dallas Area Again!"

His immediate reaction to news of his win was to notify all his friends.

"They all wanted to come with me," he said.

An understatement, said Aaron's mom, Donna Mosty.

"He's so quiet, he just stood there and smiled," she said. "But his friends were all grabbing him and yelling, 'Take me! Take me!' "

Contribution boxes decorated with the artwork will be posted at every concession stand at Texas Stadium this year, asking fans to donate their change to the Dallas Cowboys Community Foundation. All of the proceeds will be divided among six Dallas-area children's hospitals.

"If everybody just gives a dollar, we can raise a ton of money," Ms. Anderson said.

Ticket sales manager Carol Padgett said it took the judges days to choose 11 favorites from the entries, whose artists range in age from 2 to 18.

"We laughed until we cried at some of them," she said.

The entries catalogued the team's most popular icons. There were helmets and goal posts, Emmitts and Troys, cheerleaders, trophies, a Nate Newton.

A universal favorite, unofficially dubbed "Football Man," was drawn by a 9-year-old Mesquite boy, Garrett Van Allen. Football Man is a folk-art strongman with a football body, football legs, football arms and a jaunty cowboy hat on his football head.

In other works, there's an exuberant abstract of stars and footballs and a cheerful pyramid of stick-lady cheerleaders with big, happy balloon-shaped heads.

Seth's bendy-man kicker has a dreamy upward curve to his leg, as if his skeleton has a magical inverse flexibility.

Behind the charming artwork are some tough stories. One winner's mom warned that her child could attend a game only if it didn't conflict with chemotherapy treatments. Several of the children are facing life-threatening illnesses and painful treatment.

One 8-year-old girl, Ashley Shaw of Canyon, who has undergone a bone marrow transplant, was chosen for a picture that shows a surprising sophistication. It's a field diagram depicting X and O player positions, the yard lines carefully drawn in.

Andy Rogers, 17, started sketching portraits and cartoons years ago to keep busy after undergoing surgeries to lengthen a leg damaged by therapy to combat cancer.

"It was that or watch TV, just to pass the time," the Grand Prairie youth said.

Andy, the oldest winner, entered a finely detailed portrait of Troy Aikman dropping back for a pass, superimposed on a blazing blue star.

He's excited about his upcoming day of fame "for the high view," he said.

"And - oh, yeah - the free food."

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Distributed by The Associated Press

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