I finished my last art show of the year last weekend; it’s been a great season but very exhausting. I’m currently gearing up my online shop for the holidays and have been posting many, many new pieces in the store. I still have to upload the mother of pearl and stainless steel ones, some new jewelry sets, some new bracelets, and a bunch of photographs.
I have some exciting news to share; I’ve been wanting to do something to give back to the military community, and I’ve been thinking of offering free family portraits for military families for the holidays, particularly the deployed. One day at work, I realized as I was working on a DoD website, that Plexus had many military connections, and maybe they could help (especially since they wanted to do more to give back to the community). At first, I pitched that we could offer free photographs in the building the company rents a floor in – they have lobbies and facilities downstairs. I mentioned this to the head of marketing and they were excited about this idea; at first it was the lobby. Then it was an armed forces center near by…now even better…
We’ll be at Walter Reed photographing soldiers and their families in one of the recovery wings!!! Apparently news of this started flying around the DoD/Army community and, bam, we got permission. In fact, they’re really excited about it. We’re going to be setting up in the restaurant so the soldiers and their families can come by during their dinner service to have their portraits done. And Plexus is going to be hosting the photographs on their server afterwards so the families can download them for free.
This is really exciting – I’ll be there photographing and so will Christine! Some of our coworkers are going to be there to help guide people through, etc. I’m just so happy this has turned into something so big and crazy – and it’s a great way to give back to these guys.