This could very well become the best news that you’ve heard all day!
One teen, Darius Brown, was 8-years-old when his bigger sister, Dazhai, taught him how to sew a bow tie.
And, he wore his new Ninja Turtle tie to school the following day. When some of his peers asked for one, he got back home and hopped onto the sewing machine to make them.
Two years after this happened, that is, in 2017, he discovered a better use of his interesting hobby after learning that hundreds of dogs and cats lost their homes in Florida and Puerto Rico after the Hurricane Irma hit.
Darius Decides to Help these Animals Get Adopted through His Hobby
Darius realized he could help these animals stand out in the usually crowded shelters if he would make them look funny and irresistibly cute by wearing a bow tie.
When some of the rescues were brought to the north, Darius went to the shelter and left them 25 bow ties in the ASPCA animal shelter in New York.
And, this worked so much better than they hoped. Darius who’s 14 and lives in Newark says how even a small thing like a bow tie can help these sweet things get adopted.
It’s because it looks unique and it does make a pet’s personality stand out!
He’s still sewing bow ties on his Singer machine in his mom’s apartment. He says he’s donated more than 600 bow ties for both dogs and cats throughout shelters in different states.
It Makes all the Difference, Say the Shelters
Every tie that the boy makes is unique-striped ties, ties with paws and rhinestones, and even polka dot ones. He likes to sew them all.
The eight-grade boy, according to the shelter workers, helps different animals get adopted, but especially the older ones.
People like them because they find them charming, explains Lorri Caffrey, the executive director of the Mt. Pleasant Animal Shelter in East Hanover.
When they got the first bow ties, they immediately noticed a big difference. And, this has kept Darius motivated to make more, but also how much the dogs like wearing the bow ties.
And, even some lucky cats got from Darius’s bow ties. What’s more, he made two ties for the dogs of President Biden, Champ and Major.
His mom, the 42-year-old Joy Brown says that she’s not surprised that her son kept this passion since his third grade. She says he was diagnosed with fine motor skills disorder and a speech disorder at the age of 2. And, in the beginning, his mom worried he might injure himself while using the sewing machine.
But, he was very persistent and would watch his sister for months and he took it all in. She says sewing actually helped the boy develop his fine motor skills and solve his dexterity challenges.
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