Meet Nolan! We are so excited to introduce you to this eager, bright young man with a heart of gold. Nolan is a former WARM Place child that attended in 2017 after the death of his grandmother. During his time at The WARM Place, he always responded well when he was able to express his grief through art. Fast forward to now, he is receiving a scholarship from University Christian Church to attend TCU for graphic design in the fall. This scholarship involved a special art project that we can’t wait to share with you.
Tell us about yourself, Nolan! This is a busy season of life for you right now, what is on the horizon?
Well, I think the easiest thing to say is graduation. Currently I’m working to make it there and once that’s done I can breathe a little bit. It won’t be like that for long though because my summer is packed with trips, camps, and college retreats that will get me ready for when I move in in the fall.
We are honored that you chose The WARM Place for your leadership project: “Creative Connection.” Why did you pick The WARM Place?
When thinking of the different Fort Worth organizations I wanted to work with, I wanted to pick the places that I had a personal connection to. The WARM Place was an immediate “yes” and was probably the easiest to decide just because of the history I have with it and how it helped me.
Please tell us more about this special art piece and what it means to you personally.
I’ll start with the biggest part of the piece which is the word “HOPE”. For each of the pieces my church’s congregation and I made, I wanted to include a word that I felt related most to the organization it was being gifted to. For The WARM Place, I chose “HOPE” because I felt like that was the feeling it gave me when I attended in 2017. Below that is the University Christian Church logo next to The WARM Place logo to show the connection between the church and the organization. All the colors and doodles were painted by the members of the UCC congregation. And finally, I chose the color purple to honor the Muckleroy family who were members of UCC. This piece means so much to me because it served as my and UCC’s “thank you” to an organization who has done so much for us and I could say it in a way that was unique to me.
As someone who experienced the death of a loved one as a child, what advice would you give to other children who are experiencing that same tragedy right now?
To those children I would say lend your trust to anyone willing to help. Being able to talk to people who could relate to me was what really helped me overcome my grief. I’d also say if you find you deal with grief best by expressing a talent of yours, turn that talent into a passion and pursue it. Art has helped me overcome grief and now it even helps me process my feelings beyond that.
Thank you so much to Nolan and all the students that contributed their time and talent on this incredible gift to The WARM Place. It currently lives in our second floor multipurpose room, a space used for art projects and is also where our volunteer facilitators meet. It will be a great reminder of HOPE!
