Starting young

Kids do the darndest things.

I received an email this week that stood out from the barrage of flood updates and political statements.

The email promoted an art sale Saturday. The attachment gave the time and location of "The Joey Hazard Art Sale" and included a picture of a little boy with a paintbrush and a big smile, sans one front tooth. Under the picture, it read "He's seven years old. He does a lot of art. Please come buy some of it."

I had to make a call on that one.

The boy's mother, Jamie Hazard, said Joey creates with whatever he can get his hands on. During our conversation, he handed her a painting of the Earth with flowers coming out of the top of it.

She said his first art sale was in the family dining room. Joey set it up, and Jamie ended up "buying" everything. The owner of Broadway Books and Roasting Co. encouraged them to have a real sale at the shop.

All the money raised from the art sale, scheduled from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, will go into an education fund for Joey and his little brother. They will also be selling copies of "Letter to My Sons," written by the boys' father, Andrew Hazard.

Andrew died of brain cancer in 2009, but before he passed away he wrote a letter to his two sons with life lessons and advice he knew he couldn't give them otherwise. After his death, Dr. Susan Swartwout at the University Press made the letters into an inspirational booklet.

I haven't seen Joey's art, but he's quite the little entrepreneur and artist to set up a public art sale at age 7. Hopefully we'll see more of him through the years.