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Six-year-old Ottawa boy’s drawing to be made into IKEA plush toy

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[Ikea Canada will make a plush toy out of an Ottawa boy’s drawing/The Canadian Press]

A little boy from Ottawa will soon be spreading sunshine around the world, thanks to IKEA.

The international furniture chain held a contest that invited children to draw their dream soft toy. Six-year-old Leonard Belanger of Ottawa beat out almost 52,000 other entries to win the IKEA’s Soft Toy Drawing Competition, reports CTV.

His design, a smiling sun with arms and legs, will be sold in IKEA stores around the globe this fall.

IKEA Canada tweeted about Leonard’s victory, and judging by the accompanying photo, the young artist looks pretty happy.

Leonard’s family heard that his drawing had made it to the top 20 Canadian finalists back in December, reports CTV Ottawa. Last week Leonard, who speaks French, learned that his “bonhomme” had been selected as one of 10 international designs that will be made into plush toys.

“He said that he invented a person, actually a sun,” Leonard’s father, Francois Belanger, told CTV, “and he did a yellow circle, the hands, the feet, and then he did the orange rays.”

The contest is part of IKEA’s Good Cause Campaign, which will see $1 donated to a children’s charity for every one of Leonard’s toys sold betweek Nov. 20 and Dec. 24 of this year.

The same contest was held last year, and looking at the winners, it’s hard not to ponder whether perhaps kids should be designing all the soft toys — they’re just that wacky and wonderful.

And with all the excitement around Leonard’s victory, there’s no doubt that his “Bonhomme” will be a big seller this year in Canada.