Silly Smiles for Sammy

Last month I took part in a fundraiser to raise money for The Nephcure Foundation, the leading organization dedicated to finding a cure for a kidney disease called focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS). A very good photographer friend of mine, Paul Rogers (you may recognize him from the shot of him in Seattle with a donut the size of his head as posted on my blog), has a five-year-old son who suffers from this disease with no cure. The medical bills are outrageous and there is much research that needs to be done. So Michael Barton came up with a plan to raise awareness as well as money for this cause: Silly Smiles for Sammy. The idea is simple, families/individuals are given a 15-minute "silly smiles" photo session where they make as many goofy faces at the camera as you can and let the photographers do the rest. It really is more like being in a photo booth (which I am quoted as saying in an article in the Beacon Newspaper - click here for the entire article). Here is another article from the Nephcure website.

Many different studios all over the U.S. took part in this fundraiser and our goal was to raise $5000. It was such a success that we raised over $11,000! We have big plans for this fundraiser for next year, so start practicing your silly smiles!

How cool do we look?

Some more final products:





Pretty cool, huh? If you would like to participate in this on-going fundraiser, give me a shout. I would love to make you look silly for a good cause :) Or, if you are a photographer who would like to have your studio participate that would be even better. kelly@kellyvanderploegphotography.com