The original Children’s Defense Fund logo came from a drawing I saw in a gallery window during a walk through Cambridge, Massachusetts, where CDF had its beginning.

The artwork was by 5-year-old Maria Coté and shows a bright sun shining on a tiny boat adrift on a very wide sea. Above the boat in Maria’s handwriting is the ancient fisherman’s prayer: “Dear Lord, be good to me. The sea is so wide, and my boat is so small.”

In 1974, when CDF completed its first report, I asked permission from Maria’s mother to use the drawing on the cover. A few years later, after someone suggested CDF ought to have a logo, I looked at Maria’s drawing hanging above my desk and realized it reflected the Children’s Defense Fund mission more truthfully than any abstract piece prepared by the graphic arts firm

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