When Wyatt Shield was 5 years old, he told his teacher, Mrs. Brun, that he would write a book that would be in the school library by the time he graduated from kindergarten.
Wyatt almost made that deadline, writing a book that was published the day before he entered first grade. Last Thursday, Wyatt, who is 8 years old, was in Clinton with his parents and his grandfather to read his book to the Sunrise Optimist Club at 7 a.m., at the Henry County Library at 10 a.m., and to the Clinton Rotary Club at noon.
What motivated him to write the book?
“I wanted people to know that God made us all different, and that it’s okay to be different,” Wyatt said. “Some people have green eyes, some people have blue eyes or brown eyes, and some of us have 12 fingers.”
Wyatt considers himself one of the lucky ones. He was born with an extra digit on each hand. When he was a year old, he had surgery at Shriners Children’s St. Louis to remove the extra digits, and when he was 5 years old, returned to correct the angles of the growth plates in his hands.
It was when he was in kindergarten that Wyatt told his mother, Amanda Shield, that he knew his story, and asked her if she should write it down. So she went and got a piece of paper and Wyatt dictated it to her straight through, starting with “God made all his people special in their own unique and awesome ways.”
The result was “Wyatt’s Big Adventures with the Shriners,” published on Aug.5, 2022. By Sept. 15, the story had gone global.
“We met with a reporter in Los Angeles, and the story got picked up on every continent except Antarctica,” Amanda said. “We sold 1,500 to 2,000 books in a year and a half.”
The readings in Clinton were arranged by Fred Bunch, a local attorney and a Shriner, who is a friend of Wyatt’s grandfather, Kyle Rhorer, also a Shriner.
Wyatt is naturally outgoing, and is not fazed by speaking in public, his mother said, recalling the first presentation they were asked to make at a local Shriners club.
“I carefully prepared a talk with slides and timed it,”Amanda said. “I put Wyatt in a chair, and he pulled the microphone over and said, ‘Hi, I’m Wyatt.”
Bunch arranged the appearances after learning that Wyatt and his parents and grandfather, who live in Wichita, were going to the 100th anniversary celebration of Shriners Children’s St. Louis and Clinton would be a good halfway stop. Wyatt gives part of the sales of each book to the St. Louis hospital and to the Shriners’ Plane of Mercy program, which pays for patients’ airfare to the hospital.
Wyatt also donated 375 books to the hospital to share with pediatric orthopedic patients, his mother said, and participated in a virtual fundraising walk for the hospital after his second surgery.
“The first year he raised more than $2,500 and was the top fundraiser,” Amanda said. “He walked nine miles in a week wearing a cast up to his shoulder.”
The next year, Wyatt was again the top fundraiser, leading the walk and bringing in more than $3,000. Between the walks and the books, Wyatt has given back $10,000 to the hospital, Amanda said.
Wyatt has also made author appearances in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. The family went back to the first hand surgeon they had consulted after he was born, who had told them that Wyatt would need eight to 10 surgeries and not be able to write his name when he was in kindergarten.
Instead, Wyatt was a published author with a global following. He signed his name in cursive at the end of the book, which he read aloud to his first grade class.
“I wanted to prove that little kids can do big things,” said Wyatt, who was inspired by his kindergarten teacher and the biblical story of David.
The book led to other big things. Wyatt has thrown the first pitch at a Kansas City Royals Game and was named the honorary team captain at a University of Oklahoma baseball game.
When he was 6 years old, he was one of the guest authors at the Kansas City Book Fair, participating in a panel of youth authors. Asked if he could read his book aloud, Wyatt replied, “Well, I read it last week to 250 women.”
Last Thursday afternoon, after the three readings in Clinton, the Shield family drove to St. Louis. On Friday, Wyatt was scheduled to meet with the Shriners Children’s board of directors, and on Saturday, to march in the procession at the hospital’s 100th anniversary party at the Chase Park Plaza Hotel.
The party celebrated 100 years of hope and healing at Shriners Children’s St. Louis, one of 22 hospitals the Shriners operate across the country. Six specialize in pediatric orthopedics. Shriners Children’s St. Louis opened on April 8, 1924, and offers medical treatment to children regardless of the family’s ability to pay. It is, as Wyatt wrote in his book, “the best hospital in the whole wide world,” an opinion echoed by his parents.
Two surgeons operated on his hands when he was a baby, Amanda said, to limit the time he was under sedation. They did the second round of surgeries when he was five on one hand at a time, she said, but he was not allowed to run, jump or climb for the five weeks the cast was on. Wyatt spent hours building Legos with his good hand, his mother said, using his toes to pick up errant blocks.
People who are born with an extra digit on their hand or foot are said to be especially creative, imaginative and successful, and have a strong connection to the universe and empathy with other people.
The extra digit is also a sign that they will go on a journey of self-discovery. Wyatt still goes to St. Louis for annual checkups, his mother said. In the book, he recalled the long drives the family made from Wichita, but also the fun of eating out, swimming at motel pools, playing games and reading books.
Wyatt also remembers going to Shriners Children’s in St. Louis to get the cast off and how itchy his arm was.
Wyatt is now in second grade at Trinity Academy in Wichita, where “Wyatt’s Big Adventures with the Shriners” is on the shelves of the classroom libraries. It’s also on the shelves of both branches of the Henry County Library. Librarians video-taped Wyatt’s presentation, which can be viewed on the library’s Facebook page, and also recorded him reading the book for the library’s “Dial a Story.” For more information about his book, go to Wyatt Shield’s Facebook.
The local Golden Valley Shrine Club meets at Dietz Family Buffet, 1520 E. Ohio St., on the first Saturday of the month at 9:30 a.m. Interested people are welcome to come and learn more about the group, whose main focus is supporting Shriners Children’s hospitals.
Parade chairman Darren Taylor said that after a break from participating in parades, the Golden Valley Shriners have been getting their fleet of miniature cars in shape, and are planning to drive the mini-rods during Olde Glory Days and in Urich and Appleton City parades this year. Shriners in clown outfits and fezzes driving miniature vehicles in parades is a tradition that was started with home-made mini-cars in the mid-20th century to entertain children, and hit its stride in the 1950s and 60s, when go-kart kits became available. Shriners in Maine drive mini-lobster boats. Shriners in the Moolah Temple in St. Louis drive a fleet of yellow Model-A hot rods, and several Shriners clubs in the country own a vehicle with a ramp on top that Shriners can ride their mini-cars or go-karts up and down on.
Part of the Ararat Temple in Kansas City, the Golden Valley Shrine Club will have one of their mini-rods on display at their annual sale of Vidalia onions, a fundraiser scheduled at Westlake Hardware this spring.
For more information, go to the Golden Valley Shrine Club Facebook or call Darren Taylor, 660-351-4040.
