7-year-old scores with T-shirt design

Kim Christensen photo

When Davian Tolentino decided to enter a t-shirt design contest for Texas Children's Health Plan, the South Houston 7-year-old knew he'd need to come up with something special.
I wanted to catch the eye," Davian said. I drew a picture of kids around the world. I wanted kids to have the best shirt in the world."
And Davian used those words to get his point across.
The design reads: This is the best shirt in the world."
Davian's design now graces the back of the 2010 T-shirts for Texas Children's Health Plan, a children's HMO founded in 1996 by Texas Children's Hospital.
The insurance program releases a new T-shirt every year and distributes them to clients in the Greater Houston area and its surrounding counties.
Davian, an honor roll second-grade student at L.F. Smith Elementary School in Pasadena, already has seen other kids wearing this year's shirt at a Houston Dynamo game.
It just felt really, really good," he said.
The Tolentino family learned about the T-shirt design contest about two months ago.
By entering, children qualified to receive a soccer ball. Davian, who plays soccer on a Pasadena Parks and Recreation team, already was hooked.
Shortly after receiving his soccer ball, Davian and his family learned he was a contest winner.
More than 70 children had entered drawings.
The judges narrowed them to 20, and then to two, one of the shirt's front and one for the back.
A design by 11-year-old Suha Quadri of Katy was selected for the front.
Davian's family still is excited for him.
It was beyond belief," mom Guadalupe Tolentino said. That was a major accomplishment for him."
Tolentino loved sharing the moment her son saw other children wearing his artwork at the Dynamo game.
When he saw, he said, Mom, I'm famous.'"
Davian, who also does modeling work, said he enjoys creating art.
You can draw anything, and when you're done you can look and say, look what I did."