Other than settling in, I've reconnected with a few friends from college, started graduate school and am currently wrapping up my first semester. Things are great here, I've met a lot of wonderful people. I'm still trying to find my way around, find a church family, meet more friends and make this new place a comfortable home. I think so far, it's going well!
I'll stop with the "about me" stuff and get to the good part, probably the point of why you even clicked on the link to read this...Help Portrait.
Now that I've given you a preface, you probably know that I've taken up photography. No, I'm not the best, no...I don't have the time or money to dedicate my life to it (but it would be nice!) But, I do enjoy it and it makes me feel so good when I can do it for other people.
One day, I was probably gripping to someone about how all of the people that were helping me get my photography gig started, were back home in the mountains and that ever since my move, I have lost all of my clients. I complained that my camera is just a dust collector now and that I regretted even buying it.
I'll thank God for this one, because all of a sudden I just had an epiphany where I told myself to stop whining and make something happen. We should all know by now, nothing will happen unless you make it happen. I thought of ways to get my camera off of the self and into my hands and put to use. I started brainstorming different ideas that consisted of free holiday portraits. I thought of all of the churches in my neighborhood and toyed around with the idea of reaching out to them and to offer my services as a nice holiday gesture. Then it occurred to me that maybe there was something better I could do.
I googled soup kitchen's in Charlotte, clicked on the first one that came up and emailed the director. Within the hour I received an email back letting me know that they were thrilled about the idea.
I was excited, mainly that they were excited.
They proceeded to tell me that if I did this, I would need to break my time into two separate dates, because they have over 250 people/families that come to eat every single Monday.
My eyes widened and my mouth dropped at this number. It doesn't seem that big just reading it, but when you think about the task of taking 250 family photos...it immediately becomes a HUGE number.
This is obviously more that I had planned on doing. So, I went home and started crunching numbers of what it would cost for me to do this. It wasn't going to be cheap, but how could I say no now? If they can feed 250 people EVERY WEEK, then I'm SURE, with God by my side, I can take their Christmas photo.
I sent out an email to my close family members, the response was incredible. Then I sent out an email to a few very close friends letting them know what I was doing and asked them for their time and/or donations. I was weary, because I had never done anything like this before, I've never stepped into something so big, that I couldn't financially handle it on my own. This however, was something I felt like I just couldn't walk away from.
About a week later, the donations started coming in. People sent in blank CD's, money and holiday decorations for the photographs...it warmed my heart. Even my alma mater at WCU - The WCU Print Shop is offering us a discounted rate for prints.
Because of each of them, each family will receive a blank CD and an 8X10 print out of their family holiday portrait.
About a week ago, I met with the soup kitchen, went to the church where it is held and scoped out the area where I would be setting up. The ladies there were very kind and reminded me of the safety regulations of working with strangers. They assured me that most of them were very kind hearted people, but to always keep your guard up, even when your doing something nice.
It's the night before my first session, I'm all packed up, I have my release forms printed (thank you Help-Portrait for providing them) my lens is in, my battery pack is charged and my back drops are ironed. Now, I just need my nerves to be calm! I've been anticipating this for a while, all of the preparing and planning, is finally coming to life. I pray that people will graciously accept the gift tomorrow.
You can be a part of this still. I will be at the soup-kitchen on 11/26 (tomorrow) and 12/2 from 11am-1:30pm each day. Then on 12/8 I will be handing out the completed photograph packets to each family.
I'll update my blog again once I finish both sessions to let you know how it goes! My heart will be in a new place, so I pray that it stands strong for me while I snap away! :)
This quote shows up on the home page of the website and it just really stuck with me:
"We are all hungry for something.
Some of us are hungry for food.
Some of us are hungry for friendship.
Some of us are hungry to make a difference."
Ask yourself, what are you hungry for this year? You might be surprised what it is! Don't stop with that thought, keep going and see what you can make happen.
Thanks for reading!
No comments:
Post a Comment