Hi Everyone,
I have some bad and good news!
First, the bad news. All of you are aware that the financial situation lately has gone from bad to worse. Unfortunately, OPR is not immune and we took a direct hit! We have been fortunate to have grant money from the Herb Block Foundation. This grant money covered our expenses for copy runs and printing. We were scheduled to receive our yearly grant in November, but were notified yesterday there will be none coming because of current events. If we do nothing, we will be unable to continue.
Now for the good news! We were recently contacted by Nancy Massey from the Kelby Media Group and Mark Motichek from Modern Photography, both were interested in teaming up to help those hit by Hurricane Ike. Before learning of the loss of our grant money, my biggest concern was getting our large backlog down. Now I had to explain we were in dire need of donations coming in. I am going to give you the link that appeared on Twitter and also the letter posted to NAPP's membership. Because of their offer to help, we signed on 36 new members today.
Twitter Link:
http://twitter.com/ModernPhotogs/statuses/923478290And here is Nancy's letter to NAPP:
Hi Everyone,
I have been in contact with the people at Operation Photo Rescue and I told them I'd ask all of you for help.
OPR is a volunteer organization that lovingly restores family photos that have been damaged in natural disasters, floods or fires for FREE.
They are currently still backlogged from hurricane Katrina on up and are trying to mobilize a team to help Ike victims too.
At the same time, thanks to the economy they just lost their funding for 2009.
Please. If you have any skills in photo restoration (no matter how small) will you please consider becoming a volunteer?
All you need to do is register at their site and you will be granted access to ~thousands~ of photos in need of restoration. Think of it this way, if your restoration skills are in need of work, this is a GREAT way to practice!
To those of you (like me) with no photo restore skills, I hope you will consider making a small donation via their site as well. Even if it's a dollar or two; it will add up fast if we all lend a hand.
I've put a link to their site at the end of this post too. One look at their portfolio of work was enough to convince me that this is a noble cause. We are a large group of Photoshop Professionals and together, we can make a difference!
Thank you so much!
Nancy (aka: "NAPP_News" on Twitter.com)
And this is the other link from Tweeter of Modern Photography:
http://twitter.com/ModernPhotogs/statuses/923478290 We owe a big thank you to Nancy, Mark, and the NAPP membership for their offer of help. Even with times being tough, we can pull through this and by whatever means necessary help the victims of Hurricane Ike, Gustav. and the summer floods in Iowa.
Margie
