When a dad asked a waiter what they did with the leftover restaurant crayons, he probably didn't anticipate the consequence it was going to have.
But after being told they were simply thrown in the bin, Bryan Ware from San Fransisco decided to take a stand.
In 2011, he began collecting the restaurant crayons after each meal, with a mission to get them into as many children’s hands as possible.
Two years on, the dad-of-two founded The Crayon Initiative, an organisation that repurposes crayon wax into new crayons and distributes them to children’s hospitals across California.
In September 2015, Ware will be heading to New York City to make the first delivery of crayons out of his state.
Amazing, right?
Ware said he has a crayon factory set up in his home kitchen, melting, reshaping then boxing them up.
He told BDC wire: "We then do a test in a lab to make sure that our crayons are safe.
"The tests prove that all bacteria that comes in with the crayons is killed in the melting process."
According to Ware, the wax from crayons is not biodegradable and will never break down, leaving a waxy sludge in our landfills.
Therefore, The Crayon Initiative is also supporting environmental efforts by diverting crayons from the landfills.
Since launch, Ware's initiative has donated more than 2,000 boxes of crayons to children’s hospitals.
Ware told The Mighty: "From my perspective, the biggest goal is to give [those children] an escape.
"I can’t even fathom what these kids are going through. If these crayons give them an escape from that hospital room for ten minutes, we did our job."
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Ware wrote on his his website: "Art helps hospitalised children by alleviating anxiety, providing psychological support, and offering creative outlets for self-expression.
"Children can escape into a world of fantasy penned by their own imagination just by using crayons."
His aim is to take the crayons all over the country, hoping it will give the children a creative outlet to put a smile on their faces. We think it's bloody brilliant.
