Charity Fest - How are you giving back?

With Charity Fest we're looking for stories about how photographers are giving back...and there's no such thing as a project that's too small!

June 12, 2013: We had so many great entries, we're now doing a second round. The deadline is July 1, 2013. Thanks for your support. To read the posts put up so far, mouse over the SCU Blog tab above and click on "Charity Fest".

by Skip Cohen

A few times over the years on other blogs I've done a series called Charity Fest. It's simply a collection of guest posts from other photographers on projects they're doing to give back to the community. There's no such thing as a project too small and each time I thought we'd covered everything, somebody would send me something nobody had thought of before.

Well, it's time to bring back Charity Fest and share your ideas with other photographers, but if you don't get them to me, I can't post them and share them with our industry.  I know a lot of photographers just don't know how to get started - so it makes sense to find the stories out there and share them with everybody.

It's incredible when social media works the way you hope it will.   Here's what happened three years ago - within just a few minutes after Tweeting the request asking for photographers who are involved, I received three emails.  The first one was from Seshu in Connecticut, the second from  Jen May and the third from Peter Garr, who not only told me about a project in L.A. but retweeted my original tweet.  All three of the stories became part of Charity Fest that year and since then Seshu and I have had a lot of different discussions about other projects.

This year I'd like to take it one step further.  In an effort to encourage you to take the time to share your stories of the thousands of different ways photographers are making a difference, we'll draw for two scholarships to this year's SCU Summer Session, August 11-14 in Chicago*. 

So, send me your story, 2-400 words and a few images (5x7 75 dpi) to skip@mei500.com.  There's no guarantee that every story will make the blog, but every photographer submitting will be included in the chance to win one of the scholarships to Summer Session!  Deadline for submissions is June 10.

Here's what I'm looking for, stories of projects you're involved with in your community; charities in which you're involved; non-profit events in which you used your photographic skill set or just good old blood, sweat and tears to make a difference.  There's no event or activity too small.

There are so many of you who are making it a point to be involved in your community and projects you believe in - let's share those stories with other photographers and create our own photo industry charity RAVE! 

*Registration for SCU, hotel, transportation and expenses are the responsibility of the recipient.

Photo Credit: © DOC RABE Media - Fotolia.com