Celebrating with the Vancouver CEF Community
by Leah Lockhart, CEF Director of Community Relations
It was a festive atmosphere during the Vancouver get-together of CEF family and friends. The event not only helped highlight recent CEF accomplishments, but also helped launch us into another season of summer photo shoots.
The crowd included previous CEF photographers (Ali Aguirre, Steven Errico, Hamish Hamilton, Hubert Kang and Shea Pollard), Board members, volunteers, friends of CEF, project partners and others who are new to the organization.
Robert Brown, CEF’s Revenue Generation Chair, presented an overview of the many recent projects throughout the world. From building classrooms in Zambia, to grief support for children in South Africa, to peer tutoring in Sierra Leone, to a grandmothers’ program in Guatemala: CEF has helped make a difference around the world. All of the projects were made possible through the funds raised by the sales of stock photos taken at CEF photo shoots each year. At the event, Robert announced that CEF had reached the $1 million mark – an announcement that set the crowd cheering.
The very talented, Steven Errico, who was a photographer in the first CEF photo shoot and has participated in five of the last six years, shared his passion for CEF. “Participating in CEF allows me to give back to people in need with the skills that I have,” said Steven. “It involves great people and a great cause and being able to do more and have much more of an impact than I could if I was just to write a cheque,” he said. A moving presentation by Rick and Adrianne Dartnall of KIDS International really showed the impact that funds from the CEF shoots can have. Rick and Adrianne showed images from their latest trip to Cambodia where they oversaw the creation of a floating health clinic, funded by CEF, to bring essential health services to isolated communities. (Read more about their work here).
The inspiring presentations and comments left an energized an enthusiastic crowd, eagerly looking forward to this year’s shoots and new projects! Are you feeling inspired? Want to get involved with CEF? You don’t need to be a photographer to join our growing community. Visit http://www.compassionateeye.org/wishlist to learn more! Join us!
A big thank you to our gracious hosts, Mollie Massie and Hein Poulus, and our fabulous sponsors for this event: A&B Rentals, On the Rocks, Sleeman Breweries Ltd, & The Lazy Gourmet.