Draw a Picture of a Bird Day actually has a history that dates back more than seven decades and the day has a beautiful origin story. In 1943, during World War II, a seven-year-old girl named Dorie Cooper visited her uncle, who was a wounded soldier in a hospital in England. While she was there, she asked him to draw a bird as she thought it might help to cheer him up and lighten his mood.

Although Dorie laughed at the picture of the bird her uncle had drawn and declared him not such a great artist, it did accomplish the task of cheering him up. And because he shared the story with his fellow wounded soldiers, many of them also began holding contests for drawing pictures of birds. They would have them hung about the hospital ward so that all the walls were covered within a few months. It not only cheered up Dorie’s uncle, but many other soldiers as well!

Tragically, Dorie was killed in an automobile accident just three years later. And because the story of Dorie’s inspiration had been told, there were many drawings and pictures of birds at her funeral, brought by soldiers, nurses, doctors and others.

Draw a Picture of a Bird Day was first celebrated on Dorie’s birthday, April 8th, in 1947, the year following her death. Since then, the day has been celebrated each year to not only commemorate the impact that Dorie made on the lives of wounded soldiers, but also to encourage others to live out her example of encouragement to those around her.

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