Last Meeting

Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who was able to make it out to our last meeting! I hope everyone's questions were answered and you have a little better idea of what might be going on during the day. It was really great seeing a bunch of new faces, and I hope to get to know some of you more as we pull this all together. If there are any more questions or concerns, please email  - helpportraitabbotsford@gmail.com - and either Patti or I will get back to you.

For those who could not make it out - no worries! We will brief you the morning of. A few key notes to be aware of:

•  The first guests should be appearing around 9am. 
• I would really love to get a large group shot of all the volunteers who can make it, sometime between 8:30 and 9am outside the building, so please take a few minutes away from whatever you may be doing so that you can join us.
• I expect us to have all of our guests through with photos in hand by roughly 5:30pm, so that we can hopefully be packed up and on our way out by 7pm.
• Some people will be at Bakerview on Friday evening to set-up prior to the event, from about 5pm. If you plan on joining us, please let us know so that we can be sure to let you in, and to wait for you before we close up.
• This should be fun for us too, so relax and smile :-)
• Please take a minute to eat something. In the past, volunteers have been so busy that eating has been an afterthought. Since we cannot keep tabs on which volunteers have had a break and which have not, it will be up to you to take a rest and have a snack when needed.
• Anyone with really long extension cords, please bring them. Same applies for power bars.
• LABEL EVERYTHING
• Along with my nice chic volunteer t-shirt, I will be wearing superhero RED stretch pants. So will a few others who are in the know. If you have a question that cannot be answered at the sign in table - find one of us.
• Candid photographers, please remember that guests wearing black lanyards should not be photographed outside of their studio session. 
• Hair and Make-up professionals, please ensure that any guest wearing a black lanyard keeps it visible when they are at your stations.
• You are all amazing! This could not happen without you, and I am in awe, each time I do this, at how much everyone pulls together and gives such a meaningful and valuable gift of their time and talents to this cause.

See you on the 8th!!!

Getting Closer!

As our event is getting closer, we are madly contacting organizations to send us guests for our day. Next week, we will be calling guests to arrange appointment times and to answer any questions they may have. We are still looking for individuals or businesses who would be willing to provide food for both guests and volunteers. We are still looking for more general volunteers to do a variety of tasks.

We have had some great success already! A few things we are grateful for include:

•  the donation of baked goods from Thrifty Foods in Abbotsford
• roughly 20 loaves of bread from someone connected with Cobbs bread (proper donor  info yet to be confirmed)
• someone to do video for us
• a $500 donation from the TWU to help cover the cost of printing and other operating needs.
• another $ donation of around $200 from an individual, to help cover the cost of shirts for the volunteers as well as food or other needs that we have.
• a GREAT deal on our shirts thanks to Bob Johnson at Unitex in Abbotsford.
• an excellent response from photographers, make-up and hair professionals, as well as others who are willing to help make our event a success.
• make-up supplies from Brianne Marble-Arbonne Independent Consultant and some hair and make-up supplies from Avon and the Beauty Shop as well.
• a couple other promised donations to be confirmed...

We are confident that things will continue to come together as we take care of all the loose ends and small details which remain. Thanks to all of you who have contributed your time, money, and resources so far. We are SO VERY GRATEFUL!!!

Planning, Planning, Planning

So we are in the midst of planning our event again this year. It seems like it's coming up too soon! Only a month away. Currently we need some more food for the day - things like sandwiches, cheese, meat, veggies, and fruit. We also would love if there was a business willing to cover the cost of our volunteer t-shirts and the screening costs.

Otherwise, things are well under way. We have been in contact with several organizations which we have worked with in the past, as well as some new ones which will be sending us some guests. We have the cost of printing 5x7's covered for the guests, as well as some baked goods, and make-up. Looking forward to an even better event than the last two years!!!

2012 is here!

2012 is upon us and nearly done! Planning has started for our December event, and there is a lot yet to be done. For those who can join us, please come out for our first planning meeting of the year at the Wired Monk in Abbotsford. Looking forward  to getting things moving again!

SUCCESS

Finally, I can breath again! After a few months of furious planning, hundreds of texts and emails, and several phone calls…Help-Portrait day arrived with a bang. Thanks does not even begin to cover my gratefulness for the roughly 100 volunteers who sacrificed their time, sleep, equipment, and probably a little sanity to help make this day successful. We managed to photograph about 350 people from all walks of life. Though our day did not go off without a hitch (we had major problems with our printers) I am still very happy with the experience that we were able to give to our guests, as well as with the experiences that we all walked away with. It was a great day of networking, joking, and connecting with others as we worked together to serve our community. I am already making plans in my head for things that I want to change or incorporate again for this year! There were several little loose ends to tie up, which I have been doing until now, but finally everything is finished. I am so proud to see how much regular people can impact a community! If you would like to be involved in the coming year, please fire me off an email and I will let you know as soon as things get rolling!

Tamara

2 Days to Go

Well, here we are at crunch time, and here I am at 2:30am again blogging! Things are coming together slowly and quickly at the same time. We have a great base of volunteers for all areas of our day, the exception being hair and makeup in the afternoon. But I am sure that these will also come together in the 2 remaining days as we have been working on filling the spots. Laura will be at the church on Friday evening to set up a few things with those who are willing to come in and do it then. For all others, it will be a mad rush at 8am Saturday morning. Please, if at all possible, avail yourself for a group photo (or possibly a few) before we start our day. If you are one of those who are starting later in the day, please make sure you have your photo taken so that we can try to add you to the group shot afterwards. Anyone who knows anyone who is willing to bring along food, we would be very very grateful for anything. We do have quite a bit of food, but based on last year's experience, we can always use more. Savoury things like sandwiches, pizzas, veggies, meat and cheese trays, and fruit (a box of oranges would be great!) are where we are lacking more. Please also remember to label any dishes or things that you want to get back at the end of the day.

We have made a tentative schedule for the volunteers and have emailed a couple key groups of people who need to bring specific equipment. For the rest of you, if you are a photographer, please bring your cameras and flashes etc, and if you are a general volunteer you will be told where to be on the day of. Anyone who has funny hats or things to make kids laugh, bring those along, or any other props that may be useful (remembering to label everything!) When you arrive, please see Simran Bains, our volunteer coordinator, who will let you know where you need to go and what you need to do. Laura and Tamara will be everywhere at once ;-) and I'm sure things will be great!

There are probably going to be media there as well as several photographers taking candid photos for us. Be aware you may be on camera, and also please be sensitive and aware of guests who are in situations that require confidentiality. This year there are A LOT of these individuals. We have close to 100 amazing volunteers. Feel free to use the opportunity to network with each other and to learn from each other. So far we have around 300 people registered to have their photos taken, with more on the way, as well as walk-ins on the day. I am guessing we may hit close to our target of 500-600 people. The day holds great promise. Looking forward to seeing you all there!

Always a Learning Process

Last year was our first attempt at an Abbotsford Help-Portrait event. We were pleasantly surprised at the success that it was, but most of all, we had a super fast learning curve and came away with many ideas for the way we wanted this year's event to be run. Having said that, we have already encountered areas that could be changed and better managed for next year. This blog is one example. It is constantly being modified in small ways to suit our purposes and enable a more fluid event planning and execution. Today's addition is something that I will definitely include at a much earlier date next year to facilitate guest management for our event. I was going to wait to add the Guest Registration to our next year's TO DO, but then I thought, why not just do it now anyway? So here we are, scrambling to ease the craziness of the next 9 days.... If any of you know of individuals or families who would benefit from being served by us at this event, please send them to our blog to fill out a simple form to let us know who they are. Once they have filled in the form, they only have to wait for one of our great volunteers to contact them to make an appointment on the day. 9 DAYS AND COUNTING PEOPLE!!!