When I started The Orange Dodgeball Project, I didn’t know whether anyone would say yes.

Guillermo Sotelo, known as ASMA Speeks, didn’t hesitate.

ASMA is a Grand Rapids-born, self-taught artist and graffiti writer whose work has appeared on walls and in public spaces throughout West Michigan. His work has been featured through projects with Lions & Rabbits, Founders Brewing, and Windows GR, and one of his Windows GR pieces is now part of the Grand Rapids Public Museum’s permanent collection.

I handed him an orange dodgeball and gave him essentially one instruction:

Make it yours.

He did.

And in doing so, ASMA became Artist #001 of the Orange Dodgeball Project.

The orange dodgeball was never just our logo. Orange is the color of leukemia awareness. And the dodgeball grew out of something I learned while fighting leukemia myself:

You don’t survive cancer by standing still.

You adapt.
You move.
You take the hits you have to take.
And you keep going.

But that story isn’t mine alone.

Every person facing leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma, or another blood cancer has their own version of those hits. Their own fight. Their own reason to keep moving.

That’s what the orange dodgeball stands for.

Not just Team Dodge B-ALL.
Not just my leukemia.

All of us.

A simple orange ball became a symbol of the strength it takes to face cancer, adapt, get back up, and keep moving.

A way for artists, businesses, and communities to carry that fight farther than any one of us could alone.

ASMA Speeks was the first artist to catch that idea and make it his own.

See more of ASMA’s work and follow him on his Instagram page. https://www.instagram.com/asma.speeks/

And now, for the first time, Dodgeball #001 is leaving our hands.

ARTIST #001 — ASMA SPEEKS
Opening bid: $100

Bidding opens September 10, 2026, through September 25, 2026.

Bid on Dodgeball #001 https://www.32auctions.com/organizations/142757/auctions/206756/auction_items/7160336#google_vignette

All proceeds from the winning bid will be donated to Blood Cancer United through Team Dodge B-ALL’s Light the Night campaign under the designation “2026 Dodgeball #001”

Follow our Light the Night campaign: https://pages.lls.org/ltn/gr/GrdRapid26/TeamDodgeBALLEvery movement has a beginning.

This is ours.

#001. 👊🧡