If you’re afraid of clowns, I guess you should just stop reading this post and go play “Angry Birds” or pin some more stuff on Pinterest…….
Good, you’re still here. Last week I was back working with Ronald McDonald House Charities of Chicago-Northern Indiana on their countdown to the opening of the world’s largest Ronald McDonald House. We were lucky enough to secure the services of America’s favorite clown to help us out with day 50 in front of the flagship “Rock ‘n Roll” Mcdonald’s store downtown. The owner operators of that location Ralph and Marilyn Wright are huge supporters of RMH-CNI, along with many of their colleagues within the ranks of McDonald’s franchise owner/operators. In fact, the very first Ronald McDonald House in Philadelphia was opened with the support of the local owner/operators.
To find out how you can help support the countdown as well as the mission of RMH-CNI, please visit their site at www.Ronaldhousechicago.org
81 days to go and today’s Ronald McDonald House countdown features Michelle Hittenmiller, the head pastry chef at Molly’s Cupcakes in Chicago. Depsite the fact that her t-shirt says she doesn’t like to share, Michelle is a generous supporter of the current Ronald McDonald House near Children’s Memorial Hospital, often donating her ridiculously tasty cupcake creations to the House kitchen. Since the new House in near the Lurie Children’s Hospital will have more than 4 times the capacity of the current House, Michelle might need to invest in a bigger oven and increase her sprinkle capacity!
Well it’s actually already begun. A few weeks ago I spent a day photographing a variety of subjects to help Ronald McDonald Charities of Chicago/Northern Indiana countdown the final 86 days (there are 86 rooms in the new House) leading up to the opening of the world’s largest Ronald McDonald House.
With the craziness of the holiday season, I almost forgot to post this! Back in December I was asked by Flashes of Hope to be one of two photographers to provide the portraits at the University of Chicago’s Comer Children’s Hospital Holiday Oncology Party.
For those of you who don’t know, Flashes of Hope is a non-profit organization dedicated to to changing the way children with cancer and other life threatening illnesses see themselves through the gift of portrait photography. Every month in hospitals around the country, volunteer makeup artists and photographers come together to help hospitalized children feel better about their changing appearances by celebrating it with a full portrait photography experience.
To learn more about Flashes of Hope, to make a donation, or to find out how you can help as a volunteer, please visit www.flashesofhope.org. The work I’ve done for ‘Flashes is some of the most challenging I’ve ever come across, but it’s also the most rewarding. If pediatric medicine and care hold a place in your heart the way they do in mine, you owe it to yourself to support this incredible organization.
Avid readers and followers of my blog may remember last August I had the privilege of volunteering to photograph a group of children for Flashes of Hope at the University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital.
What is Flashes of Hope?
Flashes of Hope is an organization dedicated to creating powerful, uplifting portraits of children fighting cancer and other life-threatening illnesses. Every month volunteer photographers and makeup artists come together at University of Chicago’s Comer Children’s Hospital to photograph children and families who are undergoing a variety of treatments.
I had the opportunity to photograph several children and their families at Comer, and have seen first hand the benefit that these sessions can provide to families. One child was in the process of waiting for a bone marrow transplant, and in order to limit the risk of exposing her weakened immune system to infection we had to create her portraits in her room while she was still in bed. Everyone and everything (including my camera) had to be wrapped and covered with a gown, cap, mask, and gloves. I couldn’t help but think these limitations would take away from the experience for this young girl, and that she might not be as “into it” as some of the other kids were. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Despite these limitations and the limited time we were allowed in her room, her face lit up as soon as we walked in and she couldn’t have had more fun having her portraits made.
One of the oldest cliches in the book is “a picture is worth a thousand words.” And while that could easily apply to the children photographed at these sessions, the imact these portraits have on families is so much greater. For children and families who are often in the middle of treatments, the sessions are an opportunity to relax and feel good about themselves in the midst of what can be a very stressful time in their lives.
How You Can Help
Flashes of Hope currently serves the children and families at Comer, and would like to expand its efforts to other hospitals in the Chicagoland area. The cost to photograph one child is $25, which covers the cost to produce the package of portraits each family receives from their session. $25 is what the average family spends on a casual/fast-food dinner. Isn’t helping a family with a child in the hospital worth more than a dinner at Panera or Chipotle? (Nothing against those places, I LOVE the Frontega Chicken sandwich at Panera, and don’t get me started on carnitas or spicy chicken burritos stuffed with hot sauce, black beans and sour cream…….)
I haven’t finalised the details yet, however in the next few weeks I’ll be announcing a special portrait offer that will benefit the local Flashes of Hope chapter in Chicago. There will be a special portrait offer for everyone that participates as well
If you’d like more information about Flashes of Hope, please visit their website at www.flashesofhope.org. as well the video below which profiled FOH for the CBS Early Show back in 2006.
As the 2009 wedding photography season starts to wind down, it was cool to have a Saturday night off to do something a bit different. Last month I helped out my wife Amy, raise some money for the Ronald McDonald House Charities , and Saturday night was the RMHC National Award of Excellence Gala. We did the mini-sessions in the park which so far has raised over $350 for RMHC, and when I checked the bidding for the full portrait session I contributed to the silent auction, the top bid was over $400. Hey it’s nothing compared to the Lincoln SUV that was auctioned off with a starting bid of $50,000, but every little bit helps! Overall the gala raised over $2.6 million for RMHC!
What I love about doing what I can to help RMHC, it’s an organization that dove-tails really well with another charitable organization I support, Flashes of Hope. Both organizations work to ease the burden on families who have children undergoing continuing treatment at area children’s hospitals. If you’d like to support either of these incredible organizations, please visit the home pages of RHMC or Flahes of Hope.
Pictures in the Park for Ronald McDonald House Charities!
Yesterday I donated an afternoon of my time to offer 20 minute mini family portrait sessions in order to benefit the Ronald McDonald House Charities capital campaign. My wife, Amy, is a memeber of the RMH auxilary board, so it didn’t take a lot of arm twisting to talk me into this one. All the session fees and a percentage of the portrait art sales from these 20 minute mini session will go directly to Ronald McDonald house charities capital campaign which helps fund the new Ronald McDonald house being built in conjunction with the new Chicago’s Children’s Memorial Hospital.
There’s a very good chance I’ll offer these benefit mini sessions sometime in the spring, so if you’re interested, please shoot me an email and we’ll let you know when the sessions are being offered! Thanks again to all the families to participated on Sunday!
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