Wilmington, NC – Lower Cape Fear LifeCare (LCFL) is hosting a bucket list wish art show featuring Larry Hewett on July 20, from 1-4 pm, in the Bistro at Grapeful Sisters Winery, 95 Dot Lane, Tabor City, NC. The event is open to the public and the agency encourages community members to join them to celebrate Hewett and share in his talent.
Hewett volunteered for LCFL for six years before recently retiring due to Parkinson’s Disease and is now a hospice patient himself. He shared a bucket list wish of having an art show with LCFL team members who partnered with Grapeful Sisters Winery to make his wish a reality. His showing will include works from his early days as an artist, to when he experienced the first signs of his illness, to creating art while living with Parkinson’s.
Hewett spent his career as a high school AIG Specialist/Instructional Technology facilitator, and elementary art teacher with Columbus County Schools. In 1996, he was a recipient of the Milken Educator Award. At the time, Hewett was quoted as saying: “I help my students to discover that art is a window through which they can see the world beyond Chadbourn, as well as the world inside themselves.”
The award was given in recognition of his work including the Art Exchange program he created to introduce his students to “the world, its people, cultures and arts.” Through that program, his students exhibited work in more than 11 North Carolina counties, 42 cities across the country, and five foreign countries. The Adopt-A-Star program he developed encouraged students to correspond with nationally known contemporary artists whose work they studied. Students also created a mural reflecting prevention as part of a drug and alcohol awareness project. The mural won a national championship and was exhibited at the nation’s Capitol building and published in a nationally distributed calendar.
While Hewett’s aunt was a patient at LCFL’s Angel House Hospice Care Center, he brought approximately 200 students to the facility to deliver blankets they had made to give to patients and their loved ones. After retiring from teaching, Hewett began volunteering for the local nonprofit. Not only had he experienced hospice with his aunt, but also his brother who had been a hospice patient at home in Florida many years earlier.
“I wanted to find some way to give back,” Hewett said.
In addition to Hewett working the front desk and welcoming guests to the hospice care center, he wanted to do some type of artwork for the facility. Although he was already experiencing tremors from his illness, Hewett began work on a cheerful mural for the children’s playroom at Angel House, which was also used for children’s grief care services.
“I wanted it to be a bit cartoonish and use bubble gum colors that appeal to kids,” Hewett said about the mural. “I also wanted to incorporate the agency’s tree. A cloud, representing wind, blows on the tree and the leaves, which stand for life, turn into hearts, meaning love, and then into butterflies that signify transformation.” The mural also has children leaping in the air, a brook and a host of animals in bright colors.
Lower Cape Fear LifeCare hopes that Hewett’s friends in the community, fellow teachers, education professionals, and former students will join LCFL at Grapeful Sisters Winery in the celebration of Hewett and his artwork. He has given much to the community throughout his life and deserves this recognition and his wish to share his artwork.
Lower Cape Fear LifeCare is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing access to the highest quality LifeCare, education, and supportive services to our patients, their families, and the communities we serve. For more information, visit lifecare.org.