“Horse,” 18” x 14”, acrylic of Yo Yo Ma’s carved horse-head cello scroll

“Thea’s Liberty,” 24” x 47”, acrylic, derived from an original work of art by Peter Max with the permission of the artist, private collection of family

by Dwayne Michaels

Paul Leopoulos, founder and executive director of North Little Rock’s THEA Foundation, is a man who seems to live with the assumption that the next person he meets is going to be yet another dear, dear friend. Leopoulos is described by his boyhood pal, Bill Clinton, with whom he grew up in Hot Springs, Arkansas, as “that skinny little Greek boy” he met nearly fifty years ago and whom he loves today. As important as good friends are to Paul, family is the foundation of his life. He easily shares stories about his wife Linda and his sons Nicholas and Thaddeus, and, like many a smitten father, he loves to talk about the internal and external beauty of his daughter, Thea.

He pauses, looks into the eyes of the newest of his new friends, an act akin to a wordless prayer, gathers himself for the weight of the message he must bear and begins:

“The story of the THEA Foundation begins and ends with Thea. It’s all about her spirit. She is the conduit for anything we accomplish today. It’s not just a name; without her example, there is no THEA Foundation, no scholarships, no workshops, no art supplies for schools.”

The Story

Thea Kay Leopoulos, who, during her memorial service, President Clinton called a “child of light” with a “wise old soul,” was born on December 6, 1983 in Little Rock. She died in a 2001 Memorial Day car crash. At age seventeen, she was an artist, actress, writer and athlete. She had been asked to be the 2001-2002 art editor of her school’s newspaper, The Focus. She was also selected to be a member of Senior Studio, an advanced art class for seniors.

Thea served in student council and had been selected as a delegate to Arkansas Girls State. She was a member of Stars, a “peer leadership program” dedicated to encouraging tutoring and mentoring of elementary school students. Thea had been active in both presidential campaigns of former President Clinton. Clinton said he received letters from her throughout both terms in the White House and that she was not beyond giving him “what for” when the situation called for it.

Her most active volunteer involvement near the end of her life, according to her father, was as an advocate for Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). Thea was a presenter at the Arkansas Teen Summit on Alcohol in April of 2001 and was featured in a national public service announcement for MADD. She was posthumously awarded the National Youth Advocate Award by the National Organization of MADD in September, 2001.

Active in her church, Thea was a member of the Fellowship of Student Ministries. Clinton called her “good, without being self-righteous.” She was an organ donor per her request. In November 2004, Thea was awarded the Caring Award from the Caring Institute in Washington, DC. Her picture hangs in the Frederick Douglass Museum in Washington.

Thea had little self-confidence when she began her junior year, according to her father. “Aside from making other students feel good about themselves, she didn’t give herself much credit.”

That changed, Leopoulos said, when she signed up for art, drama and competitive speech her junior year. “Thea discovered something exciting, and it taught all of us the importance of the arts in a young person’s life.” The result, he said, was a student whose math and science grades rose along with her newfound love of the arts.

“Thea died on May 28, but if she had been able to take her final test the next day in trig, she was going for an A and a B in chemistry,” Leopoulos said. “She never made anything higher than a C in Algebra. She made us promise that she would not have to take another science or math course her senior year if she signed up for trigonometry. A month after her death, her principal called to tell us she had signed up for calculus and physics for her senior year without telling us.”

A Solid Foundation

“Her light is still all around,” Clinton said to the family, during his eulogy to Thea. “Now you have to decide what to do with the light.” Paul and Linda Leopoulos decided to shine it across the state. They formed the THEA Foundation, a philanthropic organization formed “to advocate the importance of art in the development of our youth.”

“In our first five years, the foundation and our educational partners have awarded ninety-five high school seniors approximately $1 million in scholarships,” Paul Leopoulos said. “There were almost no scholarships for these students before.” The group has also given away nearly $400,000 in art supplies (often purchased by the teachers in the past), conducted music, dance and drama workshops for the students and more.

Leopoulos is convinced art can do for other students what it did for Thea, and cites high graduation percentages in inner-city schools with strong art programs as proof.

“I’m not saying that if students find their talents in the arts, they will automatically become interested in the sciences,” Leopoulos said. “But we did learn that when Thea found her talents, and was rewarded and encouraged for those talents, her self-actualization process took off like a rocket and lots of healthy things happened to her.”

Thea, age ten with her best pal, Freddie, rescued from the pound in the “nick of time”

Thea, age three in a new sundress, a gift from a visiting uncle

And So the Story Lives

After the launch of the THEA Foundation, Clinton told Leopoulos: “You did what your daughter would want you to do instead of what you felt like.”

“I carry her story to young people across this state not for sympathy, but for understanding,” Leopoulos said.” When you have an emotional connection to something, it gets into your soul. When those students fall in love with my Thea, they fall in love with the difference art can make in a young life. We are born creative, but then we get it knocked out of us. Thea’s story details what happens when we reclaim creativity. And it is her story that inspires us to keep putting one foot in front of the other in order to help every young person we can reclaim his or her creativity.

“It’s an awful journey, but it’s worth it – awful, but worth it.”

For More Info

For more information about the THEA Foundation, read future issues of ionART magazine and go to www.theafoundation.org. To listen to the eulogy delivered by Bill Clinton at Thea’s memorial service, go to www.theafoundation.org/media/clinton.mov.

“BB King,”
24” x 45” acrylic finger paint, Clinton Library, Little Rock, Arkansas