Phoenix students are learning much more than drawing and painting in Kathy Lambert’s classroom, as guest artist Dennis Pullen recently provided them with a lesson in perseverance.
Pullen, a quadriplegic painter who has received numerous awards for his work, met with Michael A. Maroun Elementary students to share his story about how he turned tragedy to triumph. Despite an accident that left him paralyzed from the neck down, Pullen refused to give up doing the things that make him happy. He holds a job, works to improve lives for people with disabilities and is a talented artist.
“We’re more alike than we are different,” he said to a class of fourth-graders. “Sure, we have some differences – I’m in a wheelchair – but there are a lot more ways we are alike. We all like to go on vacations, watch movies, go on rides, hang out with friends, play on the computer … lots of things.”