As photographers, Graphic Artists and Marketers do we have something to give back?
My Grandfather worked as a floor boss at Caesars when the MDA Telethon used to be held there and my Grandmother, an avid and extremely active volunteer who used to be in the newspapers in Las Vegas all the time for her work was also connected with Jerry's telethon while she was alive. But she also did volunteer work for a number of other local and national associations, served on many boards and fund raising organizations, and promoted many worthwhile causes. Not bad for a woman who never went to college, not sure if she finished High School, could not drive a car and never learned how to swim.
But she knew how to serve others.
That in turn meant that my older brother and I regularly went out doing service projects or collecting door to door for the MDA Telethon or other programs my Grandma was working with, I think we even made it on TV a couple of times.
It also meant we attended many of telethons, charity auctions, fund raising dinners and met Jerry Lewis and many other Celebrities as kids. It was a great thing and was very "local" back when LV was still a small town of a few 100 thousand and most people new each other. Our parents often knew a lot of the local headliners personally and they did not have to travel with body guards in those days, everyone but Sinatra that is!
So what does that have to do with my mostly photography and marketing related topics you Ask?
Let me suggest it reminds me that we all have an obligation to do service ourselves and help our fellow man.
It can be a hot political topic today, some circles think we should raise more taxes and the government should dole out everything and care for everyone, forcing people to contribute to the poor, diseased or many other worthy and worthwhile causes.
Still other groups feel it's a purely personal subject, that support of the poor, funding for research of diseases, and providing for those who have been dealt a harsh life should come from ourselves, that we should be responsible as citizens, morally engaged to give and volunteer to help others as individuals and not have the government take from us to give to others.
We could go on and on all day as to the merits and evils of both and we would quickly get nowhere, meanwhile there are people in need, research that has to get done, cures to develop, and yes we can do our part regardless of the ideological positions we take.
Keep it Personal
I am of the persuasion that all things are local, politics, education, community, and service. Even if sponsored nationally or globally it's the local connection that effects us, the human factor that reaches our souls, the one on one connection that allows our mostly empathetic natures to come out.
It's does not have to cost us money to help others, in fact I would suggest that is the least valuable way we can contribute. Writing a check is easy and sterile and disconnects us from the problems of those around us.
Sure many worthy charities need money, but all too often many are caught up in the fund raising business and self aggrandizing and much of what is donated never reaches the intended cause or is deliberately spent entertaining the big shots and dragging out the cash flow for personal gain with no intention of helping at all, just sucking money from people who are in essence paying for a less guilty state of heart.
This jades many people against charitable service and giving but there is an answer to solve all these issues.
Do the Service Yourself!
Donate time, talents, and money locally where you can participate in fulfilling the needs of individuals, whose lives you can be effected by you and who can effect the way you treat the world around you.
Local is Everywhere
Local does not just mean in our own towns and cities. We all have read about photographers, doctors, or others who travel to all kinds of exotic places to do local service right where it's needed.
I love to travel and the idea of contributing to a worthwhile cause while satisfying my wanderlust is provocative.
People with creative talents have much to give, you don't have to be a doctor without a border to give of yourself or to write a check.
What are you passionate about, homelessness, breast cancer, hunger, emergency relief, conservationism? There are thousands of areas that need our help in the world, and countless ways to contribute.
Recently our church for example decided to help an Episcopal Monastery of a completely deferent church just because they needed some help. 70 people showed up on a Saturday morning to restore the grounds of a once beautiful monastery to its former state of peaceful glory providing an open retreat both for religious people and anyone who wanted to come by and meditate. Many people who I knew mostly with a shirt and tie or sunday dress and some of whom I knew were accountants, lawyers, realtors, moms and dads, kids, and people of all kinds of jobs were there digging, weeding, trimming trees doing landscaping and planting, hauling waste, and all kinds of hot and dirty manual labor. And surprisingly it seems for a group of people none of us knew or had any affiliation with just because it needed to get done.
Our religious ideologies may not have been the same but one group of people seeing another in need of some service can go far in creating greater understanding and peace in the neighborhood.
As creative people we have many outlets for our creative abilities to help others; we can write stories that move people to action, we can use our marketing kills and powers of persuasion to present needs to the public in ways that is educational and entice them to get off the coach and help others, we can use our photography skills to show people the pain of hunger, the devastation of a disease, the loss of an infant, the desolation of nature abused, the terrors of war.
Another example is an organization I do service for is NILMDTS, a highly personal and emotional service that relies on the talents of photographers and retouchers to provide a service to families who have recently lost an infant or baby.
Your Contribution Matters
Just because we may not have the means to write a big fat check does not mean we do not matter or that our contributions can't make a difference.
Get out and help build housing for the homeless, volunteer at a food pantry, cancel a vacation and instead go somewhere in need and document, then communicate it to the world.
Use our Magic Powers of Enticement
We have the power to get people to buy, to shop, to be loyal to a brand, to open wallets and purchase stuff thy don't really need. Lets use some of those powers of influence to help people to do the right thing for causes we are passionate about, make it personal, and volunteer ourselves too, set the example.
The more we do locally, the more our efforts are magnified, the further our donated dollars reach, the more personal impact we can have on improving the lives of our fellow man, protecting our world, and creating more understanding and peace.
Making Time to Help
Set aside time, if you're a business owner make it part of your business plan to set aside time, talents and resources to give back to the causes and needs of your community and your world, the ones that make you feel, that pull at your heart, that make you feel.
Create a service committee that develops plans on how your office, team or group and contribute and serve. Use that to help others, I think you'll gain more from it than anyone else will from the service you do or the check that you write.
Thanks Jerry for the Service and Example
Jerry Lewis gave over 50 years of service to MDA and deserves our thanks and appreciation for the example and the memories.
I was always proud of my Grandparents volunteer service and association with MDA and other charities. It's helped me to always believe in and support volunteer service programs that help others, and taught me the importance of the personal connection we have to the world around us and the people who may need us whatever talent we have to share.
I try to set an example for my kids and hope they will pass on a spirit of service and volunteerism and a desire to help others to their kids.
Selfishly I know from experience that we will always to get more out of it than the value of our time, talents or resources and that should make us do more for others than any other motive we might have.
Now stop reading this blog and go find a way to serve and help, you'll be glad you did.
But she knew how to serve others.
That in turn meant that my older brother and I regularly went out doing service projects or collecting door to door for the MDA Telethon or other programs my Grandma was working with, I think we even made it on TV a couple of times.
It also meant we attended many of telethons, charity auctions, fund raising dinners and met Jerry Lewis and many other Celebrities as kids. It was a great thing and was very "local" back when LV was still a small town of a few 100 thousand and most people new each other. Our parents often knew a lot of the local headliners personally and they did not have to travel with body guards in those days, everyone but Sinatra that is!
So what does that have to do with my mostly photography and marketing related topics you Ask?
Let me suggest it reminds me that we all have an obligation to do service ourselves and help our fellow man.
It can be a hot political topic today, some circles think we should raise more taxes and the government should dole out everything and care for everyone, forcing people to contribute to the poor, diseased or many other worthy and worthwhile causes.
Still other groups feel it's a purely personal subject, that support of the poor, funding for research of diseases, and providing for those who have been dealt a harsh life should come from ourselves, that we should be responsible as citizens, morally engaged to give and volunteer to help others as individuals and not have the government take from us to give to others.
We could go on and on all day as to the merits and evils of both and we would quickly get nowhere, meanwhile there are people in need, research that has to get done, cures to develop, and yes we can do our part regardless of the ideological positions we take.
Keep it Personal
I am of the persuasion that all things are local, politics, education, community, and service. Even if sponsored nationally or globally it's the local connection that effects us, the human factor that reaches our souls, the one on one connection that allows our mostly empathetic natures to come out.
It's does not have to cost us money to help others, in fact I would suggest that is the least valuable way we can contribute. Writing a check is easy and sterile and disconnects us from the problems of those around us.
Sure many worthy charities need money, but all too often many are caught up in the fund raising business and self aggrandizing and much of what is donated never reaches the intended cause or is deliberately spent entertaining the big shots and dragging out the cash flow for personal gain with no intention of helping at all, just sucking money from people who are in essence paying for a less guilty state of heart.
This jades many people against charitable service and giving but there is an answer to solve all these issues.
Do the Service Yourself!
Donate time, talents, and money locally where you can participate in fulfilling the needs of individuals, whose lives you can be effected by you and who can effect the way you treat the world around you.
Local is Everywhere
Local does not just mean in our own towns and cities. We all have read about photographers, doctors, or others who travel to all kinds of exotic places to do local service right where it's needed.
I love to travel and the idea of contributing to a worthwhile cause while satisfying my wanderlust is provocative.
People with creative talents have much to give, you don't have to be a doctor without a border to give of yourself or to write a check.
What are you passionate about, homelessness, breast cancer, hunger, emergency relief, conservationism? There are thousands of areas that need our help in the world, and countless ways to contribute.
Recently our church for example decided to help an Episcopal Monastery of a completely deferent church just because they needed some help. 70 people showed up on a Saturday morning to restore the grounds of a once beautiful monastery to its former state of peaceful glory providing an open retreat both for religious people and anyone who wanted to come by and meditate. Many people who I knew mostly with a shirt and tie or sunday dress and some of whom I knew were accountants, lawyers, realtors, moms and dads, kids, and people of all kinds of jobs were there digging, weeding, trimming trees doing landscaping and planting, hauling waste, and all kinds of hot and dirty manual labor. And surprisingly it seems for a group of people none of us knew or had any affiliation with just because it needed to get done.
Our religious ideologies may not have been the same but one group of people seeing another in need of some service can go far in creating greater understanding and peace in the neighborhood.
As creative people we have many outlets for our creative abilities to help others; we can write stories that move people to action, we can use our marketing kills and powers of persuasion to present needs to the public in ways that is educational and entice them to get off the coach and help others, we can use our photography skills to show people the pain of hunger, the devastation of a disease, the loss of an infant, the desolation of nature abused, the terrors of war.
Another example is an organization I do service for is NILMDTS, a highly personal and emotional service that relies on the talents of photographers and retouchers to provide a service to families who have recently lost an infant or baby.
Your Contribution Matters
Just because we may not have the means to write a big fat check does not mean we do not matter or that our contributions can't make a difference.
Get out and help build housing for the homeless, volunteer at a food pantry, cancel a vacation and instead go somewhere in need and document, then communicate it to the world.
Use our Magic Powers of Enticement
We have the power to get people to buy, to shop, to be loyal to a brand, to open wallets and purchase stuff thy don't really need. Lets use some of those powers of influence to help people to do the right thing for causes we are passionate about, make it personal, and volunteer ourselves too, set the example.
The more we do locally, the more our efforts are magnified, the further our donated dollars reach, the more personal impact we can have on improving the lives of our fellow man, protecting our world, and creating more understanding and peace.
Making Time to Help
Set aside time, if you're a business owner make it part of your business plan to set aside time, talents and resources to give back to the causes and needs of your community and your world, the ones that make you feel, that pull at your heart, that make you feel.
Create a service committee that develops plans on how your office, team or group and contribute and serve. Use that to help others, I think you'll gain more from it than anyone else will from the service you do or the check that you write.
Thanks Jerry for the Service and Example
Jerry Lewis gave over 50 years of service to MDA and deserves our thanks and appreciation for the example and the memories.
I was always proud of my Grandparents volunteer service and association with MDA and other charities. It's helped me to always believe in and support volunteer service programs that help others, and taught me the importance of the personal connection we have to the world around us and the people who may need us whatever talent we have to share.
I try to set an example for my kids and hope they will pass on a spirit of service and volunteerism and a desire to help others to their kids.
Selfishly I know from experience that we will always to get more out of it than the value of our time, talents or resources and that should make us do more for others than any other motive we might have.
Now stop reading this blog and go find a way to serve and help, you'll be glad you did.
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