Funding Cameras for the Slideluck Youth Initiative

UPDATE :  I've reached my funding goal to get 2 more cameras for the class!  Waho!  Thank you SO MUCH to my AMAZING backers!  Now my funds will be going towards getting a projector for the class to display the student's work every week so they can critique each other's images!  Critical discussion among the students will be the catalyst for enthuasiasm, enrichment, and progression in the class and getting a projector would be a great aid for this! I've only got to make it to $550 to do this and I'm so close!  Thanks again for your help and look-out for a blog on this class coming soon!

Also, the organization that gave me the oppurtunity to do this class, Slideluck, just finished their reel and it's awesome!  Check it out to see how your donation would help =)

https://vimeo.com/86150289

---------------UPDATE #2 :  The kids want to say thank you to out donors!  And they want to introduce you to themselves also!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6FVo3lxTzc

We are still looking to save enough for a projector though and we are getting closer to reaching that!

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For the past 10 weeks, I’ve been teaching Photography to a group of kids in low-income housing in Brooklyn, New York, with the Slideluck Youth Initiative.  Slideluck is a global non-profit bringing communities together through art and food, and their Youth Initiative aims to foster creative expression to those who would not otherwise have the oppurtunity.  After our last semester, we saw the kids enriched in their own story-telling abilities and they asked us to come back for a another semester!  So we are, and this time I’ve been promoted to be the teacher.

Last semester, the class took a trip to a professional photo studio where they got to see a full-scale fashion photography production. The photos that the kids took at the studio are now on display in the middle of the Wholefoods Union Square cafe (one the busiest Whole Foods in the nation), where they are currently being seen by more than 5,000 cafe-visitors everyday!

In addition to the class I'll be teaching in Brooklyn, next semester the Slideluck Youth Initiative will be expanding and teaching another class in Harlem.

For the class in Brooklyn, one improvement I’d like to make for next semester is to have one camera per student.  Last semester, we were short on cameras, and saw some kids without a camera for weeks, missing out on opportunities to grow their photographic eye.  This semester we’d like to give them weekly assignments, and to do so, we would like to have one camera per student.

I only need two cameras to do this, and the cameras I’ll be buying are basic $100 digital cameras.  For just $200, I can supply the class with two more cameras, enabling me to give each of the students their own camera for the semester, maximizing each of their creative potential.

The kids would be incredibly grateful for your help, as would I.  After helping the class out last semester, I’m feeling like discovering a passionfor helping others grow their own creative talent.  I'm finding this experience of teaching creative skills to kids not only immensely rewarding, but also incredibly beneficial to me as a young, growing, learning creative myself.  To see some evidence of how successful last semester was, please have a look at this quick slideshow!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni53jseKdf0

Thanks in advance!
_Winston

[email protected]