Calgary cartoonists to draw up smiles at children’s hospital

Thirty lucky kids at the Alberta Children’s Hospital will get to watch as professional cartoonists draw whatever their hearts desire right before the eyes of the young patients.

Guy Parsons, chair of the Canadian chapter of the National Cartoonist Society, is taking a popular program in the U.S. — in which cartoonists visit children’s hospitals and draw pictures for kids — and bringing it to Canada for the first time.

Six Calgary cartoonists, including Dave Whamond, creator of the Reality Check comic strip, Dean Stanton, known for his Sunalta School mural overlooking Crowchild Trail, Parsons himself, and three other local artists will visit the hospital at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday.

Parsons, who was inspired to create a Canadian version of the event after seeing NCS cartoonists do the same thing in Memphis, Tenn., hopes it will become a regular occurrence in Calgary. “The kids love it,” he said. “From what I’ve heard, a lot of these events will be planned to be an hour long, and they’ll end up going on for four hours because more kids end up coming down and everyone has a really good time.”

In the past, similar events have raised up to $100,000 in the U.S. Parsons hopes the Calgary version of the drawing event can become a fundraiser for the Alberta Children’s Hospital in the future, too.