Day 340/365

     Friday/day 340 had me covering a benefit for Brian Martindale, 10-year-old Jessica Schwerin's kidney donor who's fallen on hard times recently both medically and financially. Luckily he has a great support network of friends, family, and people who've taken note of what he did for Jessica, and thanks to donations he'll be able to keep things going a bit longer. 

Day 276/365

     This morning I got to shoot a pretty fun assignment; the national "Shoes that Fit" campaign being hosted at two local schools. The campaign gets new pairs of shoes for children in need. I shot the shoes being handed out to elementary school kids this morning, and they were absolutely ecstatic. My ears were ringing for about a good hour after I left the school from their squealing and cheering. It was really such a great story to be a part of.

Day 254/365

     A few months ago, on day 186, I took photos of a 10 year-old Bay City girl who had been diagnosed with stage five kidney failure earlier this year. Her mother gained local and national attention with her attempts to get the word out that her daughter needed a donor, whether it was by contacting us at the newspaper, or standing on street corners asking people to help get the word out and get tested to be donors. Her efforts paid off.

     Her daughter, Jessica, has received a donor anonymously and will have the kidney transplant in the first or second week of January. Local Bay Cit businesses are now helping the pair out with medical bills by holding donation days this Saturday, where beauty salons, Jessica's favorite candy store, and other shops will donate and profits and proceeds taken in directly to Jessica and her mother, Stacey. A benefit is being held for them Friday night at a local theater with food and music as well.

     This girl is by far one of my most favorite people I've photographed. She's so much fun, and such a spunky little kid. I had to remind myself how serious her problems were, because you'd never know it by meeting her. I met her and her mom at the aforementioned candy store this evening, and after we had taken pictures and I was going to leave, Jessica came up to me and gave me a giant hug. Then, her mother thanked me for helping to get her story out, and that she didn't think they could've done without the paper's publicity. The article that I took today's photos for should be up tomorrow, but in the meantime you can see all the photos from today in this MLive gallery here, and once the article's up there should be a link to it under the photos when you look at them individually. 

Have I mentioned before that I love my job?

     

Day 102/365

     Today's post is from a food giveaway that a local group up here in Michigan organized. A bunch of volunteers got together in this hot 100º day to give food donations to the under-privilidged. 800-900 people were estimated to have received the donations, and cars were lining up as early as six o'clock this morning - five hours before the giveaway started. To see the article that I shot the photos for, written by another intern, you can go here.