This is a non cake post today, I did have a few orders this past week, some mini cupcakes and cake pops, but I forgot to snap photos, and well you’ve all seen my cupcakes before.
Instead of cakes this week I wanted to share my experience at Help Portrait this weekend. When I heard about the event I immediately wanted to be a part of it. I know that I take thousands of photos, whether it’s of myself, me and Brad, Hank, family, friends, you name it I’ll photograph it. When I was younger, going out on the weekends, people would call me Paparazzi because I was always taking photos. I never think twice about taking out my DSLR or my iPhone, I was even lucky enough to have a photo shoot done by eau naturelle photography a few weeks back so that I could have some professional head shots done for my website and promo material. But not everyone has the luxury to have professional photos done. On Saturday the event started at 1pm and by 12:40 we had people showing up to have their photo taken. I was a greeter, so I had the pleasure of meeting everyone and signing them in, seeing all the kids show up in their best outfits, big smiles, I couldn’t help but feel emotional. I was only able to stay until 3pm, as I had prior commitments for the rest of the day, but 20 groups came through during the 2 hours that I was signing people in, and between the Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows locations on Saturday we took the photos of over 100 groups of people. Groups ranged in size from one to three or four; even a family of 10!!!
So many amazing people showed up, but one person stuck with me the most, a man came in right around 1pm, he wanted to have his photo taken so that he could send it to his children and grandchildren in Pemberton. He hasn’t seen his children in 20 years and his grandchildren only know him from photos he’s sent. He took off his jacket to show me the moose hide vest he had picked out to wear just for this occasion, it had beautiful beadwork all over the front and back; he was so proud of it. He told me he contemplated wearing a cowboy hat, but decided against it. After he had his photo taken he was waiting for them to be printed and I ask him how it went. He told me the photographer had him do at least 20 different poses and he felt like a movie star; it melted my heart! The smile on his face as he left with 2 professional portraits to send to his family almost had me in tears.
Sometimes this time of the year can be all about finding the right gift for someone, and so much money being spent, but Saturday reminded me that it’s not about how many gifts you get, or how much money you spend, it’s about spending the holidays with the family and friends that you love. Big thanks to Brenda Garcia and Matt Brennan for organizing the Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows Help Portrait events; I can’t wait until next year to be a part of this amazing event again J
I’ve included a photo of myself from Saturday, all of the volunteers wore reindeer ears or santa hats, I opted for the ears ;)
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