Operation Photo Rescue to Send Volunteer Photo Restoration Team to Galveston

Fredericksburg, VA – April 8, 2009 –

Operation Photo Rescue (OPR), a global not-for-profit organization, is sending a team of volunteers to Galveston, Texas to gather family photos damaged during Hurricane Ike.

Hosted by the Galveston Historical Foundation, the OPR team will set up operations at the Michel B. Menard House at 1605 33^rd St, Galveston,

TX from Friday, May 1, 2009 through Sunday, May 3, 2009. Hours of operation:

· Friday and Saturday: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

· Sunday: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Since OPR was founded in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in January 2006, the organization has grown into a network of nearly 2,000 volunteers from across the globe. Volunteers come from all 50 states and from 47 other countries. OPR volunteers have restored and returned several thousand damaged photos to date for victims of hurricanes, floods and wildfires.

“We’ve had an unbelievable outpouring of support from volunteers who have joined our cause from all over the world,” Ellis said. “What started out as two people trying to make a small difference has turned into a global effort that has helped more people than we ever thought possible.”

When disaster strikes, people often try desperately to retrieve their family photos, Ellis said.

“Insurance doesn’t replace memories,” he said, “but we do.”

For additional information, please contact:

Dave Ellis, Operation Photo Rescue Founder
5204 McManus Drive Fredericksburg, VA 22407
Phone: 540-834-8050 (c)
email: dellis@operationphotorescue.org
website: http://www.operationphotorescue.org

Starting out this New Year I would like to announce the good news and the bad news. First, the good news: As most of you are aware, OPR lost funding for 2009 from the Herb Block Foundation due to the financial downturn. On top of that, OPR was experiencing a huge backlog of photos that kept us from being able to take on any more disasters. Coming to our rescue was Scott Crossen of DigMyPics, Nancy Masse of the Kelby Media Group and the National Association of Professional Photoshop (NAPP) users. DigMyPics offered to print and ship our photos back to the families at no charge. What NAPP offered was publicity for our cause to get more volunteers.  Word started spreading in the NAPP Forum, Pod Casts, Katrin Eismann’s website, Matt Kloskowki at Photoshop World, Photoshop User’s magazine, Dave Cross’ Blog and the list goes on. Because of that publicity, we have as of today 450 new members. This is wonderful, because it allows us to get our backlog down and start planning a copy run for this spring.

Now for the bad news: The economic downturn has hit hard this year with virtually no one left untouched. We have members who have suffered layoffs or have had to lay off valuable employees, while others have seen their retirement dwindle in value. With all that is happening, it was not surprising when DigMyPics notified us that their source for printing was being shut down by Kodak. Since printing photos was not their prime source of business, nor was it profitable, DigMyPics was forced to make the decision to discontinue printing by mid-Feb. For now it is a race against time for us to get as many photos printed and back to the families.

Losing our source of free printing is a big loss, but the helping hand that Scott Crossen and staff gave us was a gift that we will forever be grateful. Nothing in life is a sure deal and OPR will meet this challenge and continue to grow stronger.  OPR is run on a shoe string budget that operates because of the heart of its volunteers.  Perhaps Albert Einstein said it best: “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”

Margie Hayes

OPR President