Charities

 

From August 2008 to Present, my photo sales have allowed me to donate over $3500 to Laurie's House - our local shelter for battered women and their children. Thanks to everyone's generous support I am now their largest single doner.

Here is the letter they sent me to let me know the good news about the donations! Thank you to every person who has helped make this a possibility, the shelter truly appreciates your support!

I urge you to look into helping contribute to this vital organization the next time you are looking for something to do.

Here's the story:

When I was 14, my best friend’s mum - Jane Beattie – encouraged me to display my photos in the hallway of our local hospital where she was an administrator. I liked the idea of brightening the day for someone who might need a little cheer. To my surprise, quite quickly I sold some of my images right off the wall there. The excitement of making something that delighted others was so inspiring that I made more photos.

At about the same time, I became interested in doing some community service work for our local shelter for battered women and their children – Laurie’s House. The two projects seemed to mesh perfectly to me and I began donating 70% of my profits from PhrogEyePhoto to the shelter. By donating to the shelter, I was making a line of connection for folks that I hoped made the images an even more potent reminder of our connection to each other and the natural world.

Before I knew it, I had enough enthusiastic feedback (and enough images) to hold a showing at a local fine restaurant – Jeff’s Seafood – run by one of my other biggest advocates, Jamie West, the owner.  In April of 2009, at the age of 15, I sold 110 photos on one Sunday afternoon in the restaurant and was able to give a check for $1100 to Laurie’s house. Since then I have continued to donate to the shelter through the on-going installation there in the restaurant's fine dining room.

Recently, an anonymous buyer purchased every framed print from the restaurant (44 pictures) and drove away with them. (We were all thrilled!) I have since learned that my images will be the artwork backdrop in a newly decorated public building.

I will continue to donate my profits from the “Vermont Life” photos to this important local organization. If you want to learn more about Laurie’s house and what you can do to help, please see the sidebar here.

 

I AM EXPANDING MY OUTREACH to an organization call  SANWILD:

In August of 2010, my family took a journey to the Kalahari Dessert of Namibia, and Krueger National Park in South Africa. In preparing for that trip, we have come across a unique organization near Krueger Park – SanWild - that cares for very large African animals that have met with some misfortune, or run afoul of the illegitimate “big game hunting” industry.

Going forward, I will begin to donate most of the proceeds from all my photos taken abroad to this wonderful organization. There is a remarkable woman/founder at the core of this organization that is worthy of all the support we can give her. I would encourage you to have a peek at their beautiful and incredibly thorough website. www.sanwild.com Read some of their “success stories” and you may be hooked on this one too!

 

To learn a bit more about what has inspired me, check out SanWild on the sidebar menu on the left here.