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Take a Button
- By Yixiao Wei
- visuals
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About the Artwork
“The wool felt heart in this photo is covered with small buttons hand-drawn by sick children living in the Ronald McDonald House Charity of Beijing. Staff members create buttons from the children’s drawings on the day they leave the House, and the children themselves stick them onto the heart. When a volunteer finishes their service and bids farewell to the children’s families, they are invited to choose a favorite button to take with them as a symbol of the reciprocal love and kindness that flows between the children and volunteers.”
Yixiao Wei is a final-year medical student at Peking University Health Science Center in China. She studied in hospitals in Houston, Birmingham, Chicago, Cleveland and Kansas City as a visiting student in 2023, and she will apply for residency programs in the US after graduation. Last autumn, she volunteered at the Ronald McDonald House Charity of Beijing, a family-assistance center for children receiving treatment at Beijing Children’s Hospital. This hospital treats nearly two million children annually and is considered among the best pediatric centers in Asia.
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