Three years after the Panchots received the ultimate bad news delivered on their doorstep by two soldiers, a compassionate response from a stranger arrived via FedEx truck, essentially delivering the memory of their son Dale, back home.
“There’s definitely a lot of love going in that box,” says goat rancher and artist, Kaziah Hancock.
She started Project Compassion, a fund that helps provide personal hand-painted portraits of soldiers killed in action, “so their faces will never be forgotten.”
It started years ago when Kaziah painted a portrait of Utah’s first fallen soldier. Since then, she has personally painted on canvas — and framed — over 800 portraits of US soldiers killed in action and shipped them across the country as gifts for their families.
Though her landscapes in oil normally sell for thousands of dollars, Kaziah accepts no money from a soldier’s family.
She started the non-profit organization (www.heropaintings.com), so many more tributes could be painted. Three other artists are now creating portraits; more than 2,500 families have received them as gifts.
Visit her website to see the portraits that Kaziah painted in Manti, Utah.
(MUST SEE the unforgettable video from KARE-TV)