GINA B. GOOD / PVT Andre "Butch" Harper holds a plaque he gave to Sunrise Children's Hospital in Las Vegas. Advertisement

Andre "Butch" Harper will be honored at Sunrise Children's Hospital in Las Vegas in the coming days for his three-by-four-foot collages that will grace the hospital walls for years to come.

Each collage consists of 80 to 100 patches from organizations that help in emergency situations, such as police and sheriff's departments, firefighters and the Red Cross. There's even a Smokey Bear patch included.

These are more than works of art to the hospital's administrators and young patients. They are works of love put together by the big man from Pahrump.

"These badges celebrate our heroes who are our support system and we all need support," said Harper. "I want the people of Pahrump to know that part of these patches came from them. I also got a lot of help from the people in Pahrump when I was collecting business cards for Brandon."

He was recalling 10-year-old Brandon Payner, who reportedly collected 900,000 business cards before his death on Dec. 24.

The boy spent many months during his short life at Sunrise Hospital battling cancer, where Harper met him and became inspired by the boy's undaunted spirit.

"When my wife died, I didn't know what to do with myself," admitted Harper. "Then I found a mission to collect patches of heroes, and one thing led to another and now I am flying high as a kite, knowing they will be on display.

"Pahrump is a little town with a big heart," continued Harper, who intends to propose to the Pahrump Town Board they adopt that as the town's slogan.

"I want the people of Pahrump to know that they were part of it. If Brandon's name goes into the Guinness World Book of Records next year, the people of Pahrump are part of that.

"It threw me through a loop, the way the people of this town just opened up their hearts to this young man," said Harper, who said he collected thousands of business cards for Brandon from Pahrump.

"I'm not going to let this ride stop," he said. Harper has completed half of another collage and needs more hero patches. Patches can be dropped off at local busineses Get Framed or My Paralegal, both on Frontage Road, and at the office of TV Channel 41.