The team has started collecting photos in Pensacola, Florida. Here's a link to news coverage:
http://www.weartv.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/free-photo-restoration-april-flood-victims-49902.shtml#.VCa4kBagt8E (http://www.weartv.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/free-photo-restoration-april-flood-victims-49902.shtml#.VCa4kBagt8E)
Thanks, Tori for the link.
Nice story. Short and sweet and to the point. Hope it attracts many clients today.
Shujen
Thanks Tori.
Working on the "no news is good news" approach so far Shujen
Athol
No kidding about the short part and don't know if the short clip before us is the same everytime, but wish it hadn't been a funeral home. Just doesn't seem like the right touch.
Good point Athol :P, but I'm sure everyone is wondering how it went. Good and bad. Very slow the first day and then after the news Saturday on TV things picked up. Both Mike and I hit as many media (TV, radio, newspaper-local and state AP),civic places, churches, etc. I had contacted the Pensacola News about us coming, but they choose to do a follow up story on our last day and their first article a couple of months previous gave information to reach us, but hinted we hadn't decided whether we were coming. Never mind we sent them a press release stating we were. Then I had a guy who brought photos in and had heard about us from NPR and he said that Florida is very conservative and that station is too liberal and the other side doesn't listen to it.
Now for the good news---with a few disclaimers. We had 24 families and a little over 300+ damaged photos (exact count later). That is far fewer than I wanted, but I knew once we left that we would get requests and I wanted to be able to help those people. Kristin Regan, head of the Photography Department at Pensacola College, is planning on having it where people can bring in their photos to the college and they will copy and upload to us. Kristen had her students helping us and they did a great job! So I'm hoping that we can collect a lot more photos.
I also had the pleasure of meeting a woman who brought in her damaged photos--some over a 100 years old. She was so impressed with OPR that she wants to help us try for a grant (has done that kind of work for nonprofits) from some foundations that would be a good match for us. This is in the planning stages, so we will see how it materializes. She also had some great ideas on how to make us more visible when disasters happen.
I will be posting more about our copy run as will Jan, Mike, and Pat. Right now I want to start cropping and getting the photos that were uploaded ready for the distributors to put in their galleries. The one "fly in the soup" is that my cat Tommy tripped me and laid me flat on the floor this afternoon after getting back from the airport and I'm kind of banged up. Once I was headed for the floor Tommy saw that he better run for his life or else he would be giving up one of his 9 lives. Oh well, what's a swollen knee and the opposite foot having a huge lump and walking with a limp. :-[
Not trying to play the sympathy card here :'( but both Jan and I had a lots of fun trying to get home. Jan had to cut out Saturday afternoon to fly home. Only problem is that come 9:30 pm at the motel I am getting text messages from her that there is mechanical problems and they keep delaying her flight. Last I heard she was going to be there till 10:20 and then I've heard no more. She maybe in the plane on the runway and unable to contact us. For myself, the flight out of Pensacola at 7:00 am was on time and I arrive on time at the Dallas/Ft Worth Airport. From there it was downhill. I had four gate changes and some of the time you had to take the tram as the distance was too far to make in time. It got so that the passengers started looking for familiar faces to be sure they hadn't missed another gate change. One young couple that had their 1st flight at 6 am was feeling tired and the girl dozed and the guy had ear plugs in listening to music. They announced the gate change, but the monitors by the gate would not change (computer down) and I decided I had better alert them. They were grateful. At the last gate change I made it before them and I guess they were discussing where I was as they didn't see me and when they did he laughed and came over and we shook hands. I guess what I really needed was a bell around my neck.
Okay enough fun stories as I need to get working on the photos to upload. Watch the Forum and keep checking the galleries.
Margie
Margie,
Congratulations to you and the team for all that was accomplished. It is encouraging to learn that a grant might be in the future.:up2: (hope your bumps & bruises are less painful today)
Thanks to all who spent time and resources on the OPR Pensacola copy run. :loveit:
betty
Great job! Looking forward to seeing the new photographs. It would be great if Kristen and the students can collect even more.
Bambi
Welcome back copy run team! Get the muck machines warmed up!! >:D
Bob
Thanks Everyone! In the coming days more about the run, but right now trying to get the photos uploaded.
Oh Bob, you will regret encouraging us as you have no idea. >:D
Margie
Great job but I think Margie needs a roll of bubble wrap or access to a cat trainer, either might reduce the injury toll
Athol
Athol, I think I already look like I have a roll of bubble wrap around me and no one trains a cat. I'm now able to walk without a limp and the Tommy has stopped looking up to see if I coming down.
Hopefully in a few days I will have some candid shots of our run, but in the meantime I have uploaded some of the photos--so check out the galleries to get first pick. There are some really neat ones.
A big thank you to Mike and Pat for spending three days on the road back and are now back at home. I know you guys have to be tired. For some reason, most of their traveling was slowed by construction.
More to come.
Margie
What an exciting and busy time, Margie. Thank you and the crew for all your hard work. The work we do here is valuable to those families that might not have any other way of getting their pictures restored. I know that during Hurricane Betsy, another time that New Orleans flooded my husband's family lost almost all of their pictures and back then there was no way to restore them digitally. You just had to start over.
I also know of another photo restoration group that still has picture that haven't been returned after 2 years. That's a long time to wait for your pictures.
We are a great group of people, from all over, that love OPR for what it does and hopefully will continue to do for a very long time.
Thank you again!! :loveit:
Everyone in Pensacola was a pleasure to work with. Covenant Hospice and Amy Stamey could not have been more perfect hosts. Their conference room was huge with an abundance of tables and chairs and although they are normally closed on Saturdays Amy came in, opened up, and stayed the day just to accommodate us. Amy brought her son and daughter with her Saturday; it was a real treat meeting them.
While we didn't have quite the turnout we had hoped for, as Margie indicated we were so fortunate to make contact with Kristin Regan head of the Photography Department at Pensacola College. Not only did we have excellent help from Kristin and a few of her students during the copy run, but with their assistance we will be able to continue receiving damaged photos from families that missed out on the actual event. So a huge thank you goes out to Kristin and her team of students.
It was great getting to work in person again with both Margie and Jan this copy run. Pensacola is a wonderful city and all the people we had contact with were very friendly. I'm sure this copy run will remain a favorite. Shujen, you were missed and I see you have tried to slip another birthday past us while we were gone. Belated happy birthday to you; I hope it was a really good one.
Margie, I hope you have fully recovered from Tommy's extravagant welcome home :). Did Bandit give you the cold shoulder for going off and leaving her with Tommy? Maybe she was hoping you would land on top of Tommy :).
Margie, it looks like you can put the muck machines away. These photos come equipped with plenty!!!
Bob
:up:
Quote from: PhotoBob on October 01, 2014, 05:36:07 PM
Margie, it looks like you can put the muck machines away. These photos come equipped with plenty!!!
Bob
Photo Bob,
One of the journalist that came to the copy run indicated he thought the photos looked easy. I showed him several batches that already looked like they had been through the Mucking Machine. He agreed. So beware. Of course Margie was there?
Mike
Here we--Mike, Pat, and Jan--the first morning ready to load up and head out for the day. Mike and Pat brought their copy stands and all the other supplies that were needed. Jan and I had the easy part flying in, but we got ours trying to get home.
(http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z10/hayesbucket/0841_zps74062298.jpg) (http://s192.photobucket.com/user/hayesbucket/media/0841_zps74062298.jpg.html)
Here's a picture of Amy Stamey and she was wonderful. Mike Sluder had originally tried to get us a spot at a local library, but unfortunately the weekend we picked to come was during a city festival and book sales. So we were refereed to Amy who went all out to get the word about us.
(http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z10/hayesbucket/PensacolaOPR-8_zpsdb6a2a8f.jpg) (http://s192.photobucket.com/user/hayesbucket/media/PensacolaOPR-8_zpsdb6a2a8f.jpg.html)
Volunteering to help were students from Kristen Regan's Photography class as Pensacola State College
(http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z10/hayesbucket/PensacolaOPR-11_zpsb15f7584.jpg) (http://s192.photobucket.com/user/hayesbucket/media/PensacolaOPR-11_zpsb15f7584.jpg.html)
From Back to Front: Paula Turner, Erin Amis, and Diane Rutledge
Helping on the copy stand is student Omar Forty with Pat and Mike in the background.
(http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z10/hayesbucket/IMG_0843_zps7f2b04f5.jpg) (http://s192.photobucket.com/user/hayesbucket/media/IMG_0843_zps7f2b04f5.jpg.html)
John S came in with damaged photos dating back to Hurricane Ivan. Unfortunately a lot of his photos that were in plastic sleeves were toast. He returned to bring some more photos and those will be good reference for some in the first batch. He was a contractor and most of his photos were jobs he had done and the memories of his workers--some that were no longer living.
(http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z10/hayesbucket/PensacolaOPR-20_zps1299eea8.jpg) (http://s192.photobucket.com/user/hayesbucket/media/PensacolaOPR-20_zps1299eea8.jpg.html)
(http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z10/hayesbucket/PensacolaOPR-27_zpsa0df4454.jpg) (http://s192.photobucket.com/user/hayesbucket/media/PensacolaOPR-27_zpsa0df4454.jpg.html)
And the stories that went along with the photos.
More to follow in the coming days.
Margie
Thanks for posting the photos, Margie! It's always fun to see some of the 'behind the scenes' pics.
Since Jan and Margie took most of the photos I thought you would like to see them at work instead of behind the camera. These are from a low res camera phone.
(http://i1180.photobucket.com/albums/x404/mikes66/0926141551-00_zpsa1c38812.jpg) (http://s1180.photobucket.com/user/mikes66/media/0926141551-00_zpsa1c38812.jpg.html)
(http://i1180.photobucket.com/albums/x404/mikes66/0927141405-00_zps6bd9c855.jpg) (http://s1180.photobucket.com/user/mikes66/media/0927141405-00_zps6bd9c855.jpg.html)
Mike
The photos of the dedicated copy run team are nice. The facility looks like it was comfortable for both, workers & visitors.
Thanks for sharing the photos.
betty
Mike,
I would have paid you serious money $$$ for those photos to have not seen the light of day. Tomorrow I am seriously going on a diet and getting a chin strap. :funny:
Margie