Contact: Sasha Steinberg

STARKVILLE, Miss.—Mississippi State alumnus and Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott’s Faith, Fight, Finish Foundation has raised $20,000 that will support life-changing work at the university’s T.K. Martin Center for Technology and Disability.

Kendrell Daniels, a 19-year-old Kemper County resident who paints Cowboys-themed art inspired by Prescott, created a painting that was recently featured in an auction at the foundation’s first official fundraiser in Dallas, Texas.

Gene Jones, wife of Cowboys owner and fellow avid art collector Jerry Jones, purchased Daniels’ painting for $20,000. Proceeds will benefit the T.K. Martin Center’s efforts to provide comprehensive assistive technology, art, early intervention and dyslexia services to individuals of all ages with disabilities.

Daniels, who was born without arms and paints with his feet, has been part of the T.K. Martin Center’s Express Yourself program for about three years, primarily working with now-retired research associate Judy Duncan. Using Artistic Realization Technologies (A.R.T.), the “Experiencing Painting as Recreation and Express the Spirit within Yourself” program provides a means for Daniels and other Mississippians with the most severe disabilities to feel the power of self-expression through art.

As explained in ESPN’s Sports Emmy Award-nominated video “Artist born without arms provides inspiration for Prescott,” Daniels and Prescott’s friendship inspires them to be the best they can be in their parallel commitment to “Fight, Faith, Finish,” a motto Daniels illustrates in one of his paintings for Prescott.

The MSU Foundation offers alumni and friends multiple ways to support the T.K. Martin Center for Technology and Disability, which is part of MSU’s College of Education. For more on these opportunities, contact Trish Cunetto, director of development, at TCunetto@foundation.msstate.edu. Learn more about the college and center at www.educ.msstate.edu and www.tkmartin.msstate.edu.

For more on the Faith, Fight, Finish Foundation, visit www.faithfightfinish.org.

MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.