Retired teacher's pop can art raises funds for Brampton hospital

If you throw a pop can in Brampton's Woodhill neighbourhod, there is a high chance it will land in a retired teacher's house.

That's because 84-year-old David Barham collects them to make art. 

It started in 2020, when Barham's friend, Leon Applewhite — an artist he met in a walking group — was hospitalized after a stroke paralyzed his right side. Barham visited him every day. On of those days, he saw a crushed can on the road — a can he says couldn't ignore. 

"It was the first can that just said, 'Take me home," Barham said. It was a Coors Light beer can with glasses drawn on it.

Inspired by Applewhite, Barham decided to pick up the can and put it onto a canvas. After that, he said, he couldn't stop.

He's now made over 100 pieces of pop can art, dedicated to Applewhite, who died four years ago. 

"You don't meet very many beautiful people in your life. And he was one of them," Barham said.

Barham uses canvases to create colourful pieces using crushed cans. His pieces — selling for $25 each — touch on everything from the war in Ukraine, to a tiny model of the first engine car, to a 1986 Mercedes model, to The Muppets, to a steel can banned decades ago. 

By the end of last year, he his art netted $1,500, which he donated under Applewhite's name to Brampton's William Osler Health System. 

"I want to pay back," said Barham, who himself has had a heart attack, two strokes, chronic depression, two artificial knees and two artificial hips.

The neighbourhood's Williams Fresh Cafe has provided Barham an entire wall for free to exhibit his work for an indefinite time.

Ken Mayhew, president and CEO at the William Osler Health System foundation, said Barham is a "community champion" in a statement to CBC Toronto.   

"His creativity and his passion for giving back to his local hospital are more than inspiring – they're vital to the work that we do. Many people don't realize that 100 per cent of hospital equipment and a portion of redevelopment costs are funded by the community," Mayhew said.  

Every penny counts as the foundation embarks on its "largest and boldest fundraising campaign yet to build Brampton's second hospital," Mayhews said.