Sidewalk art offers encouragement

By Observer Staff
| 4:00 a.m. August 20, 2014

Nigel, Michelle and Ava Clinton, of Lakewood Ranch, reel in a walleye for their relative.

East County
Neighbors

+ Sidewalk art offers encouragement
Summerfield resident Michelle Clinton, a local art teacher, came up with a special idea to encourage her nephew, Luke Schmillen, who has been battling leukemia at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. He will be there at least 100 days and is away from his wife and two daughters, who live in Iowa.

Clinton, pictured with her children, Nigel and Ava, decided to do chalk art in her driveway. Clinton posted this image on Facebook, encouraging friends to leave a comment to show their support.

“Don’t worry Luke, we believe in catch and release, so there is a GIANT walleye somewhere in FL waiting for you when you get out!!” she wrote. “We got this!!!.”

Says Michelle: “I wanted to do something to raise his spirits and renew hope. My family lives in the Midwest, and it’s hard to come up with something I can do from Florida to help. This is something I came up with that I can do from here.”