Help Portrait Milwaukee is in full swing!  We started off yesterday with a large group of subjects to photograph and a large supporting cast. Not much more you can ask for right? …. That’s what I thought

Its amazing to see what this has come to be in the past three years of doing this. The first year was us not knowing a lick about what we were doing in terms of  photography event management and our support staff out numbering the subjects we had to photograph, to now we have it down were we could do it in our sleep. And not to mention the amount of people we are giving back to grows by leaps and bounds each year.

So what makes Milwaukee’s Help Portrait group different than most?  Well, instead of setting up shop in one location and expecting people to come find us, we find them.   The first year of doing this we setup shop in a studio and hopped for the best. That year we photographed maybe 20 people through the course of the day. I know that sounds like a lot of prints to give, but we wanted… needed to do more.  This lead to devising a plan that would allow us to reach a greater base of people. The result was finding shelters, rehabilitation facilities, and nursing homes, contacting them and gaining trust to show why we were really there. This lead to a great turn out and an amazing amount of portraiture given. This year we will now have seven locations over 3 days.

This year so far has proved to keep the trend going. During day one of Help Portrait Milwaukee we were an amazing shelter in Milwaukee called Repairers of the Breach, and then followed by a community food hall by the name of St. Ben’s the moore. These two places are truly instrumental to helping people get back on their feet. Repairers of the breach offers a warm place to hang out and also new clothes to those who are in need, St. Bens serves a community meal 5 days a week to as many as 400 people at a time. Truly amazing places.

With our amazing volunteers this year we were able to provide hair/makeup services to anyone that would like it, a professional photograph, an 8×10 printed photo along with a 4×6 photo with a holiday card.

Here are a few photos from the first day. Please take a look and see how one photograph can really change someone’s life.

Also please check out some of the local media coverage of the event here

http://www.wisn.com/video/29965581/detail.html

If you would like to volunteer of find out ways to help.. please feel free to email  robg@helpportraitmke.com

There’s also this article, Creating a Lasting Image, about founder, Jeremy Cowart, that appeared in the Wall Street Journal.

And finally, this blurb on Photojojo emphasizes how important a portrait can be to someone in need.

Here is where Help-Portrait Milwaukee is giving this year:

Friday

Repairers of the Breech ::  St. Ben’s

Saturday

Meta House ::  Pathfinders

Sunday

St. Ann’s ::  Hope House ::  Mercy House

Its still not too late to help, though!  We are looking for a make up artist to help at Meta House on Saturday, from 12:30-5. We have the supplies. We just need *you*.

While all of our time is donated, we still have to cover the cost of consumable. This year, we are hoping to reach over 500 people. So as always, donations are welcome.

source

As a part of the larger project this December, we are also doing a clothing drive for Repairers of the Breach, a Milwaukee grassroots homeless outreach and provider of the area’s only daytime shelter and resource center for homeless people.

Every year so far, we have individually donated to the charities we serve, but this year we are hoping to make it even better. So we are asking for your help. We have chosen to give clothing items to Repairers of the Breach.

Here is what they need the most:

- men and women: socks
- L/XL long sleeved t-shirts
- L/Xl jackets
- sleeping bags and blankets

If you would like to help, please visit our Facebook page or contact us via the form at the bottom of the website.

We’re always looking for help. How can you help? Many different ways, my friend. Many ways. We need volunteers the day of the event.  Each site requires a team lead, photographer, a person to print the photographs, and an assistant for admin type duties.  Additionally, some sites require child-wranglers.  We also need hair and make-up people (licensed cosmetologists) for each site who are willing to donate their services.

If you’d like to donate your services, please contact us at matt@helpportraitmke.com or join our Facebook group.

Supplies. Help-Portrait Milwaukee needs supplies.  We need Epson printer paper (3 stars and up), size 4×6.  We also need Epson ink, 98 or 99 series.  We’re also looking for make-up donations (if you sell products like Mary Kay, Arbonne, or other similar product, your one time use make-up samples are perfect for us!!)  You will be sent a tax-deductible receipt for any in-kind donations.

Donations.  Online donations can be made at https://help-portrait.donortools.com/my/funds/43801-Help-Portrait-Milwaukee-Wisconsin You will be sent a tax-deductible receipt.

Its an amazing feeling to take someones photo that had not had a photo taken in 22 years and see them smile eye to ear when they see the printed result. Simply amazing. The small things in life really do make the biggest difference.

Here are a few of the approx 100 people that we photographed this wonderful evening. Truly amazing people, Amazing printed photos, amazing people helping.

Also a big huge thanks to Brother David at St. Benedict’s for allowing us to do this.

Rob

So instead enjoy some fantastic photos that we took for the site and for everyone to see who is behind this wonderful cause!

Enjoy

Last night (10.28.2010) we had another get together to hash out some details and figure out the state of where we are currently at.

We have a comprehensive list of locations that we will be setting up at, I will post those locations as they become final in the up coming days/weeks.

During the meeting we were also able to figure out what we need in terms of donations and volunteers. At each site we will need approx 5 people with specific roles and duties to keep things running smoothly.

The positions and duties are as follows:

Team Lead

Responsible for the over all happenings of the site. Managing other team members and making sure everything runs smoothly.

Admin

Responsible for making sure releases are signed and information that is needed is gathered and filled out correctly

Responsible for the flow of the line and making sure the in and out process runs smoothly

Photographers (Two per location)

Photograph clients and provide the images on flash memory to be printed

Printer

Responsible for taking images on flash memory and using the provided printers to print and deliver images to the clients

Needed Donations

Ink (Epson 99 or 98 cartridges )

Paper (8x10in  or 4x6in )

Frames (8x10in  or 4x6in )

Blankets & sleeping bags ( For donation to the shelters)

Cash ( To buy supplies – A cash donation would not be able to be written off as a charitable donation because we are not officially a non profit organization at this time)

If you would be interested in participating or donating  please send an email to RobG@HelpPortraitMKE.com

Also don’t forget to “Like” us on face book!

We will be discussing a whole boat load of items from locations (Yes multiple locations), fund raising, marketing, clients, and etc.

If you would like to join please feel free to show up and see what its all about. Meet some new people, gab about cameras, have a tasty drink, and help a cause dedicated to making people smile

If you have any questions please feel free to email me at RobG@HelpPortraitMKE.com

All the best,

Rob