“She was a firecracker. She had no limitations.”
Five year old Audrey Louise was a bright, little girl.
“She just continued to break through all these obstacles we were worried that she wasn’t going to be able to do.”
Born with Down Syndrome and a congenital heart defect – her mom Kelly didn’t let those things define her. At just five, Audrey passed away after a serious infection.
“We brought a thousand red glasses to her funeral and 970 people came,” says Kelly Jandernoa.
And from that moment on– the took off. To honor a very special little girl.
“We’ve shared over 30,000 red glasses. They’ve been everywhere. They’ve been at the top of mount Kilimanjaro, and Tanzania, some have been given to the pope in Rome, there’s some in Croatia. There was a man in Portugal that shared hundreds and hundreds of glasses at the winery he worked at.”
But why red glasses?
“Audrey wore bright red glasses. We’re going to encourage people to live like Audrey and put the red glasses on and live boldly, live big and pass it on like she did.”
Bold, and bright—the perfect pair for Audrey.
“She had some pink ones but we kept losing them everywhere. We went to the eye doctor and was like can you give us the brightest pair of glasses and they were red and it was perfect and we never lost them again.”
Inspired by the Red Glasses Movement, artist Sam Noordhoff created a special sculpture to remind us all to see and live differently. And Kelly’s reaction to the sculpture…
“I was just overcome with emotion just seeing these bright red glasses. I mean you can see them from heaven. I know she can see them. But they’re just like her, you can’t ignore them, can’t miss it, they’re just in your face.”
It’s more than just a sculpture.
Kelly says, “Watching those around me that I love – my kids and my family and my friends, and how they take this and share it with others but how they go in to live their life so brightly, is huge.”
This movement— it’s making a major impact.
“It’s been really really fun to stand in front of this sculpture and meet people and be able to tell the story and then hear their stories. Everybody’s gone through something and had an awakening. It’s been really neat to learn other people’s stories.”
Inspiring others to LIVE BOLDLY, LOVE BIG, AND PASS IT ON…
“She had it right, you know where we sometimes think that people with disabilities, they need to learn from us and we need to teach them and we need to do this, but actually I think we need to learn from them and turn it around and watch them.”
After all – Life is too short for boring glasses.
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