Shop with a Cop I Denton, MD I Talbot County Optimist Club

For the 2012 holiday season, we had the pleasure of photographing an amazing event.  Shop with a cop is an event that the Talbot County Optimist Club puts on where they get stores around the area to sponsor a child for the event.  The child is partnered up with local police officer or trooper.  The officers take their child to Walmart and give the kid $100 to spend on whatever they would like.  Most of the children buy presents for their family and something for themselves.  It is a wonderful event and what the children get out of it is amazing, they see the police as good people not as the bad people. Watching the police work with their child is so emotional because you can see the impact they are making to the children.  

After Walmart, the police take the kids to a local resturant where their gifts are wrapped and they are fed lunch.  Some of the stories we so hard to hear, one of the little girls said she did not eat for two days, to hear this was heart-wrenching.  It was great to capture this event and be a part of helping these children.

11th Annual Cystic Fibrosis Benefit Car Show [Dublin, PA] - Sept. 9th, 2012

Every year I get the opportunity to shoot the Cystic Fibrosis Benefit Car Show in Dublin, PA.  This year was the 11th annual show and my third year shooting it.  I got the gig three years back when some of my friends asked me if I would shoot it for them.  They started a CF non-profit and use the procedes from the show to donate to a CF foundation.  Each year we progress to get larger.  This year the weather was beautiful which made for a great day.  The show brings many classes of autos, from new to old, trucks to car to bikes.  All the photos can be found in my gallery HERE.  20% of all prints and session sold from the show will be donated to their non-profit.  Help me give them a great donation this year!  

Here are some of the photos from the event.

Talbot County Optimist Club - Golf Tournament - St. Michaels, MD

The Golf Tournament that the Optimist club puts on every year is one of the best events we do. It is held at the Harbourtowne Golf Resort.  It was a very fun event to shoot with the people having a great time playing golf. After the golf outing, we have dinner for all the attendees and complete the night with a silent auction.  I donated a few items, framed print of a waterfall and two photography sessions.  All three were sold at a decent price.  To raise money, we sell tee signs, group tee times and the silent auction.  All in all it was a great event and I really loved shooting on such a beautiful course.

Talbot County Optimist Club - Awards Banquet - Easton, MD

This is the time of year that the Optimist club absolutely loves, the awards banquet. This is the event that we pass out our checks to each youth group.  During this event we invite the representative from the group and have dinner and talk about what we did this year.  Then the fun begins, when we actually get to pass out their checks that will help them push further during the year.  All of the groups have great things to say but some really go above and beyond to give us praise by telling us what special they are doing this year.  

One part that really set in was when we had everyone recite the pledge of allegiance.  To me this is normal because I say it everyday in school and we also recite it at all of our meetings.  When we gave our check to the Bayhawks Baseball Association, the father (show below in orange) started to cry as he expressed that his son is in Iraq and it really makes him feel great that people support his son. 

Talbot County Optimist Club - Oratorical Contest - Easton, MD

Since we have moved to Easton, MD, Kylie and I have been working a lot on the house and getting situated.   We wanted to meet some new people in the community so we joined the Talbot County Optimist Club (Optimist International).  We create events and fundraise to donate to local youth clubs and groups in our county.  We support many groups like the girl & boy scouts, baseball, football, senior after prom party. Some events that we host throughout the year are Christmas tree sales, Golf tournament, Oratorial contest and we help other group like the Lions club on some of their events. As you might imagine these take a lot of volunteering hours so I decided instead of just helping with time I would offer my photography service to document the club. Since the start I have created a Facebook page and shot all of their events. 

I shot the Oratorical Contest in these photos.  This contest was given to the local high school.  We had the contestants create a speech about a topic that we choose.  There are local judges who judge the event and the winner moves on to the regional event.  This year it was in Ocean City, MD. This year it was a great turnout with a variety of boys and girls of all ages.