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In its first year of operations Shutterbugs 4 Charity (S4C), through the support of so many like you via donations and the purchase of products, has been able to raise over $35,000 for the support of causes serving the areas of mental health, homelessness, children/teens, animal welfare, and more.
The success of our first year has inspired us to be thoughtful as to how we lend our support in moving forward. In addition to providing financial support to areas of need we also aim to do such things as providing “TED” like talks for youth where our board shares their love and benefits of photography in hopes of inspiring others to discover their own passion in this area or one of their own as well as providing slide-shows to residents of nursing homes who’s days of travel and exploration are behind them.
Additionally, our board of directors and board of ambassadors will continue in nonprofit fundraising efforts by participating in charity events, such as the Center of Grieving Children’s annual gala and Fair Tide’s (homeless shelter) gala.
One of S4C’s largest financial commitments in 2020 is “Royal Family Kids Camp.” The camp provides a week of summer camp to children ages 7-11 who have a documented history of abuse, neglect, and abandonment. The camp is held in Ocean Park, ME and provides these children an opportunity to be a kid for a week, let their guard down and just have fun.
The impact of camp has been evidenced by campers as they provide us insight as to how important this one week of camp has been on their life. A 10 year old boy shared, “This has been the best week of my life.” Well, until next year when I come back.” Each child goes home with a photo album of their week and a returning camper said, “I slept with my photo album every night this past year waiting for camp again!” One past camper came back to many years later as a young lady and shared, “Camp was so important in my life as a child that I want to pay it forward by being a counselor myself for a hurting child.”
Royal Family Kids Camp just completed its 20th year of camp. We are pleased to be supporting them in their fundraising efforts for 2020.
We have also provided significant financial support to the Center for Grieving Children were we made a monetary donation of $2,000 plus provided two panoramic prints of the work of our board chair Chris Lawrence which sold at the gala for $4,800 bringing the total raised to $6,800. We have supported the cross country bike ride of S4C ambassador Chris Bennett in support of suicide awareness with a donation of $1,200 to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and provided a monetary donation of $2,000 to My Place Teen Center who has been distributing food to area teens and their families during this challenging and concerning Covid pandemic.
Next, we have been busy at work seeking further ways to support the above organizations plus researching additional nonprofits (that do not have large endowments or state or federal funding) that we can help. Our Executive Director, Barbie Jones has been further collaborating with “My Place Teen Center” ( a teen center in Westbrook, soon to have a presence in Biddeford), “The Betsy Ann Ross House of Hope”( in Augusta which serves homeless female veterans and their families), FairTide (in Kittery, which provides transitional and permanent housing for the homeless along with case management and aftercare services), and The Center of Grieving Children (in Portland, which provides a full array of services to children in their families)
If you would like to nominate a nonprofit please feel free to do so in the comment section. We will continue to keep our donors updated on where we have decided to designate our donations in the future.
Thanks again for all of your support. We hope to make you all proud to be involved!
Sincerely,
The Shutterbugs 4 Charity Team
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