Update: Closer to Finding Super Bowl Super Kid Mystery Artist!

Super Bowl Super Kid Breanna

If you recognize the girl in the picture above, I still want to hear from you.  But otherwise, there's some very good news to report in the search for Super Bowl Super Kid Artist, 11-year-old Breanna.  There's been a huge surge in the number of connected people looking for the girl who colored a welcome card that was left in my Indianapolis hotel room.  With the help of three key sources, we have good reason to believe the list of 18,000 children who colored cards as part of the Super Bowl Host Committee's Hoosier Hospitality Program has been whittled down to three.

In some ways the three week search has been narrowed, and in other ways expanded.  If you look closely at the card above, you can see our artist friend listed her home city as Indianapolis.  It might very well be, but I've learned it might also be Carmel, just outside of Indy, still a part of the greater metropolitan area. The goal remains to give her a signed copy of my book, Follow the Dog Home, which coincidentally was released Super Bowl week.

Back of Breanna's welcoming card

The first place I started searching for Breanna was with the Indianapolis Public Schools.  I've called every one of its 38 elementary schools, and some more than once.  I've sent out dozens of emails with Breanna's artwork attached.   Important clues have been provided with the help of PR experts, secretaries, principals, teachers and volunteers.

The Indianapolis Marion County Public Library System is helping too.  It hosted some coloring parties.  Considering libraries first and foremost specialize in housing and sharing books, I can't really think of a better body to help me share a book with my Super Kid.

The biggest break in the search so far has come from the Indianapolis Zoo.  It  had a massive party for Super Kid artists just before Christmas.  The zoo also has a network of thousands of friends, many of whom are thrilled to know about, and have joined in the search for Breanna.  As you can see from the words on the front of her card, and the pictures on the back, Breanna loves the Indianapolis Zoo.  So do I!

Twitter is making a difference.  There's even a hashtag now for the effort: #FindBreanna.  It's been tweeted and retweeted abundantly.  #FindBreanna is also on the radar of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, TV, newspaper and radio folks.  Karyn Sullyvan and WFMS 95.5 FM, have been godsends.  I am so thankful to the people at Thee Country Station.  By posting my blog on its website, listeners have contacted me directly.

 

Kevin Walsh with Comcast SportsNet New England Crew at Super Bowl 46.  Kevin is in the middle wearing a red tie.

So we're in a good place right now, even though there's still work to be done.  I feel super blessed to have been lucky enough to cover the Patriots run at the Super Bowl, and even luckier to have had that welcoming card land in my room.  With a little more luck it won't be long before little Breanna has a copy of Follow the Dog Home in her hands.  And there's more, I think with the help of my fellow authors: 10-year-old daughter, Samantha, and my 72-year-old father, Bob, we'll sweeten the pot.  We're going to put together a gift basket for Breanna's family.  It will include clam chowder, other New England treats, and maybe, just maybe a pink New England Patriots hat!

I don't know if we can convert a Colts fan into a Patriots fan, but that's really not the point either.   We just want to say thank you to Breanna, the Super Bowl Host Committee, and the thousands of good people around Indianapolis for sharing the gift of Hoosier Hospitality.

Kevin, Samantha & Bob Walsh, authors of Follow the Dog Home, with Beverly (German Shepherd) and Annie (Corgi)

Searching for Missing Super Kid from Super Bowl

I spent a week in Indianapolis searching for, and filing story after story related to the big game between the Patriots and Giants.  We did some fine work, and had a great time doing it.  In all, my TV network did about 100 hours of television coverage.  That's a lot.

Kevin Walsh, outside Lucas Oil Stadium

Kevin (red tie) with crew inside Lucas Oil Stadium after Super Bowl 46

But there's one story that hasn't been told completely, and I will be restless until it's told in its entirety.  It has little to do with football, and everything to do with kindness, humanity and what became a popular slogan during Super Bowl 46: Hoosier Hospitality. 

Let me explain.  I left my suburban Boston home a week before Super Bowl Sunday, saying goodbye to my wife, Jean, and daughters Samantha, 10, Amanda, 8.  I was thrilled to cover my first Super Bowl.  But as usual, I was sad to leave the family behind.  This is the tougher side of TV.  We do very exciting work and see things that most people will never have the chance to, but at the end of the day, we go back to a very quiet and lonely hotel room.  It rarely changes, only the city does.

When I arrived at the Fairfield Hotel in Indianapolis, there was something waiting for me that made me feel at home right away.  It was a handwritten welcome card from a Super Kid named Breanna.  About 36,000 students from around Indiana colored cards that were left for visitors to Indianapolis.  She drew a picture of herself which you see above.  She wrote about how much she loved animals and the Indianapolis Zoo.  Below is her additional artwork that was on the back of the card.  It looked like something my girls do for me from time to time, artwork that often ends up on the refrigerator.

One thing I've discovered in my lifetime of covering news and sports is that the best stories often find you.  This is one of those.  My second book, Follow the Dog Home, was released the week of the Super Bowl.  Really, what are the chances that Breanna's card would just so happen to end up in the hands of the one guest who just happened to release a book about animals at the same time?

I brought a signed copy of Follow the Dog Home to Indianapolis with me thinking I might bump into someone who might really want to read such a book.  Little did I know that person would be 11-year-old Breanna.  Here's where it gets tricky.  I don't know Breanna's last name, or her school.  I asked the Super Bowl Host Committee if it could help, but it said without a last name and school, finding her was all but impossible.

As a reporter, I don't accept that.  I left the book with the Host Committee, but I've been left to search for Breanna largely on my own.  Over the last few days, I've spent several hours calling dozens of Indianapolis Elementary schools hoping that someone, somewhere would recognize the girl's self-portrait and artwork.  Most of the people I talk to, and most of them are women, love the story and want to help.  They're sharing the story and pictures with art teachers, principals, liaisons and PR people. 

I thought I had a match on call number four, but it turns out James A. Garfield Elementary School had a different girl from my Super Kid artist.  Boy was that disappointing-- for me and the school secretary.  But I have hope.  We'll find the cute girl, with the unique name spelling, love of animals and a flare for pink.  It's an eyeballs thing.  Someone will have an Aha! moment, recognize her and her drawings, providing the tip that connects the dots.

Kevin at Fairfield Hotel, Indianapolis

So we have a few good stories at work here: the beginning, the middle and the end.  I think that means we're on a journey.  The most meaningful journeys are never the easiest.  And so I search, looking for the little girl who could use a good book and a nice reward, for simply being herself.