Season’s Greetings
Hi Everyone,
“As this year comes to a close, I’d like to thank all of you and wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Somewhere in the commercialization of the holidays, the true spirit of giving gets lost. Operation Photo Rescue (OPR) is giving the best gift of all—memories restored.” I wrote this in December 24, 2008, the first year that I took over as president of Operation Photo Rescue and the thoughts I expressed back then are true today.
Back then we had just gotten a flood of new volunteers after Nancy Massey put out a message on the NAPP forum that we needed help. This time the message went out on Adobe’s Facebook page about us during Thanksgiving. The response was overwhelming and our website crashed for a short spell from all the traffic. We signed up over 700+ new volunteers from all over the U.S and 75 countries worldwide. That is mind boggling, because it shows that despite our differences we are united by our humanity. December is a month that holds special meaning for different cultures and religions and while we may each celebrate differently we share the same love of photos that are a reflection of ourselves and the ones we love.
Back in 2008 OPR had lost its only grant and from that point on OPR would be dependent on donations and the generosity of our sponsors: Photo Shelter and DigMyPics. Today, same story and like the children’s story of the Little Engine that Could, OPR is the little engine pulling the cars up the steep incline. Once again we are asking for donation to help us sponsor our copy runs to the Northeast following the destruction left by Hurricane Sandy. https://www.operationphotorescue.org/current-fundraiser/ For all those donating $15 or more (except the inner team) a drawing will be held at each copy run for a free 1 year membership to NAPP and that includes Photoshop User Magazine. The money for the membership was donated by two in the inner team and does not come from the donation collection.
The first run will be tentatively set for the first weekend in February at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) with Katrin Eismann and her students helping with the run. OPR is thrilled to have Katrin sign on as she is responsible for a large number of our volunteers coming to OPR through her best selling books and her NAPP connection. Joining her will be close friend Ken Allen of “Ken Allen Studios, L.L.C. is a dedicated digital studio that offers archival digitization of collections, exhibit prints and exhibition display printing, and consultation.”
In the coming days and weeks more details will be posted. At the present time we are almost finished with past runs except for clearing Quality Control. I would like to thank all of you that have helped with restoring, donating, and helping with plans for our New York copy run. I would like especially to thank all of the OPR inner team volunteers that have in the last few months spent long hours each day processing in new volunteers and the distributors getting the photos out and back in for printing. Thanks to Hannie, Jan, Jonas, Kiska, Mike, Pat, Shujen, Tess, and Victoria for your friendship and whose help I could not do without.
As a special thanks and to give all of us a chance to enjoy the holidays and catch our breath, OPR will be taking a week off from Saturday December 22 to Friday December 28, 2012. During that time the galleries will be closed.
Look forward to seeing you in 2013!
Margie Hayes
