The Crayon Initiative: Recycling old crayons for sick children

GLENDALE, Ariz. - A colorful volunteer project for Valley insurance workers was a way to get crayons in hospitals. 

Red, yellow, green, blue and orange, all the colors, all the crayons.

"Here it's literally don't overthink it we're sorting used crayons into the appropriate color so any shade of blue any shade of green goes there and that way when we melt them down they're getting a blue crayon, a green crayon or red crayon," said Bryan Ware, founder of The Crayon Initiative. 

Bryan Ware, the founder of The Crayon Initiative, made his sixth visit to the CSAA insurance group in Glendale.

"The Crayon Initiative is a non-profit organization that collects used and unwanted crayons throughout the United States," said Ware. 

Employees at CSAA are sorting the colors, so Ware can melt down the old crayons and make new ones again. He came up with the idea about 14 years ago.

The Crayon Initiative has collected more than 41 million crayons and donated to more than 420,000 children in hospitals nationwide, including Phoenix Children's Hospital. 

"We've gotten them as far away as Japan, Australia they come into to us literally all across the United States, we get crayons from and then we donate to 245 hospitals across all 50 states," said Ware. "I myself have a 3-year-old and she loves to color and so I can only imagine when children are not feeling so good to have a little color in their life, paint a picture and kind of escape that feeling. 

Click here to learn more about The Crayon Initiative.