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Apr 12, 2012

"For so many centuries, the exchange of gifts has held us together. It has made it possible to bridge the abyss where language struggles." --Barry Lopez

The Memory Project: Portraits of Compassion

At the base of a volcano in the middle of Lake Nicaragua, there's an orphanage. Although developing world orphanages aren't normally festive places, on this day, at this time, there was reason to celebrate: the arrival of a young man named Ben Schumaker. Schumaker comes from faraway Wisconsin, and he comes bearing gifts. He carries a suitcase with 62 pounds of portraits -- portraits of the kids, a painting for just about each and every one of them. This is all part of the Memory Project, a unique initiative in which art students draw and deliver portraits for disadvantaged children all over the world.