
KATIE KORANDA
Itâs not every day you meet a tech analyst who moonlights as a face painter but then again, you probably havenât met Lynda Tysver.

She paints faces, in part, to raise money for St. Jude Childrenâs Research Hospital. Her favorite part is what she calls the big reveal, when she holds the mirror up for a child sheâs transformed into a butterfly or a dinosaur.
âItâs like Christmas morning,â said Lynda, who has been a contract worker for Best Buy in Minnesota for the past three years. âThey light up. They giggle. Itâs the most blessed moment anyone could have.â
And thatâs what she misses the most as the nation settles into its third month of social distancing because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
âIt breaks my heart to think of so many nursing homes where people are sitting there just like kids at St. Jude,â she said. âWaiting for something, anything, for a vaccine or a cure.â
So, Lynda has taken to painting windows at houses, businesses and schools to spread joy and hope during this challenging time. She paints sunflowers and lilacs and the occasional Star Wars scene.
âWe went straight from winter into COVID-19, so itâs like having a flower garden on everybodyâs doors,â she said. âIâm just trying to find a way to bring smiles to people.â
Despite it being a side business, she doesnât charge for painting windows. Instead, sheâs collecting donations for St. Jude, a charity that sheâs been involved with for almost 30 years.
Thatâs a cause Best Buy also supports. Weâve raised more than $100 million for the hospital since 2013 through our holiday fundraising campaigns, including a record $22 million during the most recent holiday season.
The importance of touch
Lynda first picked up a brush more than a decade ago after her grandpa moved to a nursing home.
She remembers the six-hour drive with her sister to visit him for the first time. But what changed her life was what happened when they parked the car and walked inside. Â
âWe saw all these people just wanting to be touched,â she said.
The next day, she opened the newspaper and saw a headline about the dying art of clowning. It didnât take long after that for her to discover face painting at a clown convention.
Miles of smiles
If touch is the foundation of face painting, the pandemic is a big crack threatening to bring the whole house down.

Thankfully for Lynda, she has realized that face paintingâs other foundational principle cannot be taken from her. She can still bring a smile to someoneâs face â even if sheâs not painting it.
She recently painted a schoolâs windows to bring encouragement to kids who come by to pick up lunch. She painted rainbows and flowers and pawprints. She also painted messages of hope.
We miss you. We love you. Husky pride.
âYou have to be present in peopleâs lives, even if itâs just through the glass,â she said.
To learn more about St. Jude Childrenâs Hospital, please visit www.stjude.org.