For the second straight year, annual donations to PPA Charities from members and friends have allowed PPA Charities Trustees to allocate a gift of $100,000 to its charitable partner, Operation Smile. The contribution was presented at the PPA Charities Celebration gala on January 15, in San Antonio.

It takes only $240 to repair the smile of a child because the medical professionals and staff who provide these life-changing operations volunteer their services to Operation Smile. To date, PPA Charities has raised a total of $350,000 for Operation Smile. That translates into nearly 1500 smiles that have been saved through the generosity of PPA members and friends.

January’s 2011 PPA Charities Celebration at PPA's ImagingUSA national convention in San Antonio was just that: a Celebration of the fun and fund-raising successes of PPA Charities during 2010. Eager participants broke the Nashville record of 500 with a full house of between 700 and 800 PPA members, which helped boost the evening’s fund-raising profits to $26,000! The fund-raising events included raffles, over 80 silent auction items and an exciting live auction.



This year the Celebration was co-sponsored by Texas School, and one of the auction items that created the most excitement was the Texas School Instructor “Goodie Basket.” The 35 instructors for the May 1-5 edition of Texas School donated the raffle items to benefit PPACH and Operation Smile. The basket included instructional DVD’s, CD’s, books and other photography-related items worth over $11,000. Twenty dollar tickets were sold throughout the evening and at the IUSA Trade Show. These instructors’ generosity raised $4105! The super-lucky winner was Allison Bordlemay, from Nashville, TN.

It took some 60 high-energy volunteers to make the Celebration such a success. They set up the room; handled check-in and check-out; provided photo-booth photography; sold blinky hearts, raffle tickets, water bottles, kisses, t-shirts and hoodies. Plus they served as silent-auction table captains and live-auction assistants and as rovers to help where it was needed. In short, the Celebration happened because of wonderful volunteers headed by Trustees Cindy Romaguera and Randy Taylor!




Special thanks go to WHCC and SuccessWare for their sponsorship and to auctioneer extraordinaire Louis Tonsmeire. Cheers to photo booth suppliers Denny Manufacturing and Image Spectrum and to booth photographer Jamie Hayes and event photographer Peter Horn. Thanks also to Sam Puc’ who raffled off “A Day With Sam” to lucky winner Stephanie Conrad from Sam’s own home state of Colorado. Since Sam won’t have to fly to Stephanie’s studio, she’s going to treat her to “a mani/pedi session and a few “fun girl things”, too! Most of all . . . thanks to the hundreds of PPA members who turned out for the fun, fellowship and festivities in support of PPA Charities and Operation Smile!


The evening's high point was the presentation of a check for $100,000, which represents funds raised by photographers for PPACH's charitable partner, Operation Smile in 2010, which brings the total raised by PPA members to $350,000. This translates into over 1,450 smiles that have been saved through the generosity of PPA photographers. In the photo below, PPA Charities Trustees and Texas School Board members surround Beth Marshall, director of Operation Smile's Southeast Region and Senior Executive Advisor for Latin America (center left). Beth is the sister of Kathy Magee, cofounder of Operation Smile.

To relive the sights and fun of the 2010 PPACH Celebration, check out the video below:

To make sure you’re a part of the 2012 PPACH Celebration event,
mark your calendar NOW for January 14, 2011.
SEE YOU IN NEW ORLEANS!

Join us at the FREE PPA Charities Celebration event at ImagingUSA on January 15, 2011 in San Antonio! Here's the most recent list of items to be auctioned:

LIVE AUCTION: Richard Sturdevant’s “The Deadman’s Hand” 30x40 Framed Canvas
Click here to learn more.



LIVE AUCTION: Spend a Week at Deep Creek Lake!

The high bidder will win a week-long stay at Jim and Ann Monteith's lake house at Deep Creek Lake, Maryland, a 4-seasons resort in the mountains of Western Maryland (Garrett County). Offered on May 7-13, 2011, the lake-side home has 5 bedrooms and 5 baths, sleeps 12, and would be perfect for a family vacation, business meeting or for hosting your own workshop.

LIVE AUCTION: Doug Gordon - Package of all Doug Gordon Products - $1700

LIVE AUCTION:

PPA Board Member Carol Andrews and her husband Greg Jensen, of Greg Jensen Originals, have donated a one-of-a-kind sterling silver charm cast from the fingerprint of a child who received the gift of life-changing surgery during an Operation Smile medical mission photographed by PPA Charities Executive Director Bert Behnke. According to Carol the charm represents “the healing gift given through the generosity of PPA Charities participants: This simple symbol artfully personifies a touch of gratitude from the children and their families whose lives have been healed.”

RAFFLE: Sam U to You

The “Sam U to You” raffle will provide you with chances to win a visit to your studio from marketing and management guru Sam Puc.’ To learn more click here.

RAFFLE: Chicks Who Click Conference Registration
June 23 - 26 - Firesky Resort, Phoenix, Arizona

RAFFLE: Texas School “Bonanza Basket”

This amazing treasure trove (worth over $8,000!) contains educational products donated by these 2011 Texas School instructors: Click here to see the entire list of instructors and their donations.

SILENT AUCTION: Bid On Workshops, Equipment, Software, Mentoring and More!

• Adobe - Lightroom 3 - $299
• After Dark - 4 tuitions - $499 each
• American Photographic Resources toy basket (with all APR toys) - $165, plus certificate for 25% off any prop
• Animoto - 3-month pass
• Animoto - 1-year pass
• Asuka Book - $250 Gift Certificate
• Backdrop Outlet - Theme Basket - 7 items
• Backgrounds by Maheu - 10x20 Fine Art Background
• Barbour Background - 6x8 Stratton Backdrop
• Beth Forester Photo Duds design package $500
• Chromaluxe - 16x20 Metal Photo Float Mount - $250
• Collages.net - Album design - $350
• Collages.net - $250 printing credit
• Collages.net - $150 high-gloss books credit
• Collages.net - $150 - card credit
• Craig’s Actions - gift certificate - $150
• Dahle trimmer 20" and 12"
• Digital Anarchy - Plug-ins, Designer Toonit - $654
• Drurys - Radio Poppers PX set - $500
• Excel Picture Frames
• Firesky Resort, Phoenix, for 3 room nights during “Chicks Who Click” conference - June 23-26, 2011
• Gina Alexander Bag - $273
• Kimbra Studios - Photo Wine Stopper - two charms - $65
• Kobota Image Tools - Full Creative Pak - $899
• Kodak Film 3-$765.00= $2295
• Larson Enterprise - 4-$250 gift cards
• Leather Craftsman
• Lens Baby $125 gift card
• MAC Group - Temba Sling Bag
• MAC Group - Temba Messenger Laptop Bag
• MAC Group - Temba Messenger Camer Bag
• Marathon Marketing & Design Workshop
• Marathon Make Money Now! Workshop
• Mid-South Color Labs - Back-lit 24x36 print
• Millers Professional Lab - Album $750
• New England Institute of Professional Photography - Gift Certificate for a week-long course at the 50th anniversary of the 2011 New England Institute of Professional Photography, Resort and Conference Center, Hyannis, MA, April 10-15, 2011. See course listings at www.neipp.com.

• Neil 6899 Briefcase and album
• NIK software - $599
• Oklahoma City Thunder NBA game - 4 on-the-floor tickets
• PPA - 2 PPA memberships
• Precision Camera and Video - $300 photolab credit
• Professional Photographers of Oklahoma - Oklahoma School Tuition - $400 - June 5-9 - June 14-16
• Send-Out Cards - $49
• Showcase Photo & Video - Lowepro Magnum 400 AW - $230.00
• Sigma $350 Flash EF-530
• Simply Canvas $100
• Snap Totes 100 Gift card
• Special Kids Photography Workshop
• SuccessWare - 1 year of leasing
• Texas School scholarship (May 1-6, 2011) even for sold-out class. See course listings at www.texasschool.org.
• Tamrac Zipshot tripod- $60, Evolution Backpack-$200, Rally 5 bag-$80.00
• John Travolta - Signed print
• Rick Trummer - Geeks Tour Workshop - $59
• Think Tank - Airport Takeoff Backpack - $299
• Viewfinder Masks (formerly CropLines) - Sensor cleaning

• Wacom Intuous 4 mediumTablet - $349
• Wescott lighting kit - $750
• WHCC - 4 theme baskets including $500 lab credit
• WHCC - 2 theme baskets including 3-month Pickpic Pro
• Wicker by Design - $50 gift certificate
• Wild Sorbet - $200 gift certificate

Can you imagine how much your business would benefit to have marketing and management guru, Sandy Puc’ spend a day at your studio! It will happen if you are the lucky winner of the “Sam U to You” raffle at the PPA Charities Gala on January 15 at IUSA!

Your best bet to be a total winner is to get to the PPACH Gala on time so that you can buy one of 100 water bottles containing a $25 gift certificate that can be redeemed for good stuff on Sam’s website, www.ukandu.com. That way you’ll get a water bottle to use for the rest of IUSA and be entered into a drawing for a FREE full-day consultation from Sam at YOUR studio. Sam will pay for her own transportation, visit YOUR studio, help you with your marketing – and buy you lunch! It simply couldn’t get any better than that! If the bottles run out, certificates will still be available.

The certificates can be redeemed at Sam’s website, www.ukandu.com, which features a wealth of marketing information. Many of the marketing kits are only $20 so you can apply the difference towards more than one kit. Why buy just one certificate? Why not purchase two or three and stock up on marketing ideas for the New Year?

The Charities Celebration Event will take place at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in the Lone Star Ballroom on Level 2, beginning at 8:00 p.m. Hope to see y’all there!!

A very large THANK YOU goes out to Jennifer Jamieson of San Francisco on a recent donation of $10,000 to PPA Charities. The donation came from the Jamieson Foundation in San Francisco, founded in 1984 by her grandfather. The family business has been in sand and gravel since 1903, and was prominent in much of the rebuilding of San Francisco following the 1906 earthquake.

Jennifer graduated from Santa Clara University in 2001 with a bachelor’s degree in marketing and earned her masters degree in business administration from the University of San Francisco. After working as an Enterprise Account Manager at Wyse Technology in San Jose and an Account Manager for Microsoft, Jennifer decided to follow her dream to become a professional photographer, opening her studio in 2009.

“I became excited about PPA Charities after spending time with Britney Fullgraf at the PPA Charities booth in Nashville and attending the Charitable Marketing classes presented by Sandy Puc and Vicki Taufer. I love the integration of the passion of photography and what we do to make people’s lives brighter with our talents. I am excited about our role with Operation Smile and helping those less fortunate and blessed to be a part of such a wonderful experience.”

…and PPA Charities is blessed to have Jennifer Jamieson. Thank you Jennifer for your generosity!