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.

Today the countdown features 6 year old House guest Ethan, who flew all the way from Alaska to stay in the House.  To learn more about the new Ronald McDonald House and Ronald McDonald House charities, and see the other faces who are helping to count down to the grand opening, check out the countdown site at www.rmhccni.org/86daycountdown

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.

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.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

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.

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!