give ten

life is a gift…
and it offers us the privilege, opportunity, and responsibility
to give something back by becoming more.
- anthony robbins

more on giving. i guess i can never really blog too much on giving…right?! well just so happens that one of my very best friends started a giving project–the give ten project. and i’m hoping that everyone will participate. not just photographers. everyone. in some way. give ten. ten percent of your time and profits to charitable work and causes.

some giving i’ve done this year that has fed my soul–

max’s family. i will forever be committed to photographing and helping max’s family in any way i can. recently i photographed their family and am hoping to return to san diego the end of september to photograph their maxapalooza fundraising event.  hannah is holding max’s shark, who since max’s passing, will be in all their family photos.

team kirsten. you can read more about kirsten and her family and see some of her photos on this blog post.

team sam.  my giving actually started with sam, when he and kiele were at the same school together. his family is such an incredible family, determined to find a cure to save their little boy’s life.  i’ve now photographed sam and family a few times, both for their personal use and for their magic water foundation.  

st paul’s school auction. i made this book, 52 glimpses of heaven, to raise money for the preschool class.

warren-walker school auction. i actually worked with two warren-walker classes this year. i photographed the first grade kids and auctioned off 5×7 framed prints of each child. and photographed and made a book for the 2nd grade class.

deployed EOD families. a few months ago, i donated mini-sessions to six EOD families, who had a deployed spouse…and gave them 5×7 prints of all their photographs to send to the deployed active duty member and an 8×10 for their wall.

mentoring session. i recently donated a mentoring session to an up-and-coming photographer.

the howard family. nicole’s husband deployed when she was 36 weeks pregnant. i donated a maternity and newborn session to nicole and her family, giving them 5×7 prints of all their photographs. dad was able to be here for newborn photos because he was able to come home for a couple of weeks because baby got sick and was in the NICU for a little while.

there’s so many ways we can give. i truly believe that where there’s a will, there’s a way. we all have our unique gifts that we can share with others…that we can give to others.

a future giving project that i’m super excited about…
after steve retires (nine more years), we plan to live on a sailboat and travel the americas. i’m excited about the adventure. excited to be free of the things that hold us down and hold us back in our everyday lives. excited to give.

we’ll bring the little ones with us on our year sailing adventure, as they’ll be 14 and 15. kiele will be able to choose if she wants to come or not, as she’ll be 21. and when we go, i want to give, give, give…at every location we stop. in some way. in any way that will benefit the community. whether it be building homes. or teaching english. whatever will help. we will learn. and give. and share. and dream.