Join us and our program partner at The Cartwheel Initiative Celebration

 

 About Cartwheel

Help the artists of The Cartwheel Initiative bring the healing power of the arts to children and youth affected by war and natural disaster in Sri Lanka.  For two weeks this August we will work with a multi-ethnic group of youngsters from the north and south of Sri Lanka in a coordinated series of workshops in storytelling, filmmaking, photography, multimedia visual arts, and music composition. www.cartwheelinitiative.org

 

About the Cartwheel Event: 

Join us at Fotocare on Tuesday, June 18th from 6.30pm – 8.30pm  for an evening of wine, Sri Lankan hors d’oeuvres, music and meet The Cartwheel Initiative’s artists as well as get a taste of the art form being used in this year’s project.   Teaching artists from The Children’s Museum of the Arts in New York (our  educational partner) will guide attendees in frame-by-frame stop motion animation of themselves.  Films created during the event will be posted online for guests to share and enjoy.
 
About JHProject partnership with Cartwheel
The Josephine Herrick Project Partnership with The Cartwheel initiative was truly an enriching and exciting international  experience. We provided the Carttwheel team with 35 digital cameras and memory cards for their photography workshops with the children.  We gave permission for Cartwheel to leave  15 cameras with the schools to continue their learning and discovery about seeing the world through the camera lens.
 
Whether or not you can attend, please visit our recently launched online fundraising campaign on Indiegogo, and help us bring the power of the arts to children who have survived civil war and tsunami. As a special incentive, if you contribute to our campaign before June 18th, you will be automatically entered to win an exciting door prize at the NYC event!
 
You will also have the opportunity to bid on silent auction items as well as award-winning work from professional photographers and team members  Deborah Feingold and Ashok Sinha.
 
The money raised at this event will assist the volunteer team of The Cartwheel Initiative pay for cameras and laptops (that will be donated for the kids’ use to The Foundation of Goodness in Sri Lanka), travel, and other project expenses. 
 
The Cartwheel Initiative’s website at www.cartwheelinitiative.org will cover our trip via blog updates and videos so that you can stay connected and see first hand how your donations are working.
 
See you on the 18th!
 
 

 

New Blurb Book: The Block Institute & Josephine Herrick Project

 Buy Me Today!  http://bit.ly/14lO0vk

 

The Block Institute is a Brooklyn-based school and service provider for developmentally disabled children and adults.  A JHP partnership was launched in 2008 to teach basic photography skills to 20 adults mentored by two staff members. The program has grown to three programs for adults, doubling the number of students to 42 in four classes. This past year, with a grant from an anonymous foundation, a year-long photography program  was added for developmentally challenged children in Kindergarten through third grade, which has greatly enhanced their lives and the work of their therapists.

The photography two classes occurred over nine months, from September 2012 through May 2013. The classes took place every other week and was taught by two professional photographers: Elliott Goldstein and Charles Turner. Students learned to critique images, flash lighting, low lighting, black & white photography, close-up photography, minimalism in photography and printing and framing of photographs. The two field trips to the art galleries were cancelled and instead the students photographed in the school, yard and the local neighborhood. The annual Art Expo at the Center was impressive this year as the youngest students in the community exhibited their photographs taken over the year.

Teacher 1: “I feel my students learned a great deal about the cameras, different options on the cameras such as zooming in and out and using the timer. Charlie, the photographer was very knowledgeable and worked well with the children. He made it fun for them. It gave them an outlet to help express themselves and it allowed the adults to view their world, through their eyes. It connected the school with the environment around them.”

Teacher 2: “Charlie instructed the students and helped them not just artistically but therapeutically as well. They learned about depth perception, practiced motor skills, helped with socialization, and boosted self-esteem.

A final project for the 2012-2013 year includes a Blurb book about the program which visually tells the story of the children, their cameras, and the therapeutic reward of self-expression. The Josephine Herrick Project also created a video that can be seen on YouTube www.youtube.com/watch?v=80wvRJbMSis of Director of Special Projects,Todd Alderman’s testimony about the quality of the JHP partnership and its unique opportunity for students with special needs to learn the joy of communicating through photography.

Buy Me Today!  http://bit.ly/14lO0vk

 

 

 

 

 

Akeem Bonaparte receives the President’s Volunteer Service Award from President Barack Obama

 

 

The Board and Staff of The Josephine Herrick Project are very proud of our recent intern and former Birch Family Services program member, who was recently honored by President Barack Obama for his volunteer service in 2012 with New York Cares.  Akeem received the prestigious, President’s Volunteer’s Service Award.  Congratulations Akeem on receiving the award and for giving back to New York Cares and The Josephine Herrick Foundation.  Here’s an inside look at Akeem’s award from his new blog:

President Volunteer Award from President Barack Obama and Why I volunteer with New York Cares 

Posted on by

On May 31,2013  I received an award from the President’s volunteer service award thanking me for doing 100 hours of community services  in 2012 with New York Cares. I’m so proud of myself that I received this award. I’ve done over 98 New York Cares projects for the past two years which I’m so happy about. The reason Why I volunteer with New York Cares is  working with Children who have Developmental Delay disabilities which is Keen Recreation Center. I love playing with the children teaching them how to play sports and having fun. I also like volunteering at St John the Divine serving food to the homeless. By taking my free time going out there in the community, volunteering for projects that need to be done, and also making people happy for the tasks that are being done every single day I was meant to get this award.

I also want to thank my two job coaches Menroy Cambell and Marsha Bennet  that always go with me when I sign up for a New York Cares project and that when I arrive to the destination to start the project on time. They are always there for me and I appreciate so much that I just want to say a Big Thank you Menroy and Marsha for always being there with me during a volunteer project. I would always remember the both of you and how you play your role as being a job coach for me. Thank you very much for helping me out when I needed help. You probably helped more than you think you did. Thank you.”

Thanks for being there when I needed you

Thanks for everything

Akeem Bonaparte

 

Read more about Akeem’s Photography experiences on his blog:  Akeem’s Photography World http://akabonaparte2013.wordpress.com/

 

JHP’s Trip to Buffalo to Meet Skip Herrick, Our Founder’s Nephew

 

By Maureen McNeil – June 4, 2013 

On May 21, Josephine Herrick Project’s executive Director Maureen McNeil and videographer Kristen Jensen made a trip to Buffalo, New York to visit Josephine Herrick’s nephew, Skip Herrick to talk about his “Beloved Aunt Josephine,” our organizations incredible founding woman.

Skip and and his wife Joy live on what was once Skip’s father’s 100 acre estate, a serene setting with a large pond where his father took his daily swim. Skip described Josephine as well educated and well traveled, like the rest of the Herrick clan. She was also fiercely independent, a brilliant business woman, and did not like to have her photograph taken. Skip and Aunt Josephine or “Doe Bun” as the family called her, bonded at age six when she took him to downtown Cleveland to watch the steam engines roll in. As he grew older, he sensed that she was doing important work in New York City, associating with famous photographers, working in the city she loved, but there were subjects “Aunt Josephine” never talked about: her secret work on the Manhattan Project during WWII, and boyfriends. He doesn’t know what became of her favorite Leica camera or her photographs exhibited in the Cleveland Museum of Art. When Josephine died age 75, Skip accompanied her casket to the family burial ground in Cleveland.

Learning about Josephine Herrick’s accomplishments is one of the many goals at JHP. As an artist and changemaker, she enhanced the lives of over 100,000 Americans by providing photography programs to people in-need, and today she continues to be a role model for people everywhere. If you have stories you would like to share about Volunteer Service Photographers, Rehabilitation Through Photography, Josephine Herrick, or Jean Lewis, who worked at the organization from 1947 to 2009, please contact us at maureen@jhproject.org.

Resource Magazine Features JHProject in Snapping Photography for Good Causes

Snapping Photography For Good Causes

Vanessa_Oswald May 3, 2013 IMAGE MAKERS
 

The art of photography can be many things to a person—a job, a passion, a creative outlet, or a way to voice your opinion on an issue. Whether photography is something you practice just for fun or has become your profession, it’s worthwhile to remember the possibilities of using photography to give back.

There are several organizations out there that make it their mission to use photography for the sole purpose of helping those in need and bringing a smile to their faces. Below are twelve ways to use your camera for the power of good.

© Tonee Lawrence

Operation Love Reunited

For the men and women overseas serving our countries Operation Love Reunited is a way for photographers to give back before these soldiers are about to leave for deployment or are already deployed. Professional photographer Tonee Lawrence started the organization, which is a charity to benefit military members and their families. They provide them with free photo sessions with them and their families before they leave for deployment, mid-deployment, and/or when they come home from deployment. After the photos are printed they also send a photo album, free of charge, to the military members. Any photographers interested in becoming a part of this organization can fill out a form here.

Josephine Herrick Project

The Josephine Herrick Project was started in 1941 by Josephine Herrick as a way to bring a voice to those who might never have the opportunity otherwise. This organization gives children and adults, ages eight to eighty, the chance to use a camera and to express themselves freely. They partner with hospitals, social services agencies, schools, non-profits and receive support from the photography community to bring photography into the lives of the less fortunate. “Through free programs, exhibits and publications, students connect with their communities through their talents rather than their disabilities,” Maureen McNeil, Executive Director of the Josephine Herrick Project. To get involved with the Josephine Herrick Project photographers can volunteer their time by teaching an eight-week photo class. To sign up to teach send your resume and a letter to Maureen McNeil

Read more: 

http://resourcemagonline.com/2013/05/photography-shot-for-good-causes/

Tee Off For JHP At The PMDA 63rd Annual Golf Outing

 

Tee Off For Charity At The PMDA 63rd Annual Golf Outing

Featuring the 2nd Annual Industry Challenge for the PMDA CUP  

Proceeds to Benefit The Josephine Herrick Project (RTP)

        12:00 PM  Registration/Brunch/Warm-Up

       12:45 PM  Putting Contest

        1:30 PM  Shotgun Start- Individual Stroke Play- Callaway Scoring

      6:30 PM  Cocktail Reception

         7:30 PM   Dinner and Awards Ceremony

       __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 When

Tuesday July 16, 2013 at 12:00 PM

 

Where 

North Hempstead Country Club 
291 Port Washington Blvd.
Port Washington, NY 11050 

 

For all Event Information and Sponsorship Information Contact:

Michelle Tramantano     PhotoImaging Manufacturers & Distributors Association, Inc. 

michelle@pmda.com

 

 

Sponsorship Opportunities

We’d like to thank our PMDA Member sponsors who have already contributed to this event.  If you would like to become a sponsor at the outing, the following opportunities are available: 

Sponsors will receive prominent signage at venue and recognition during the awards ceremony.  

  • Diamond Sponsors $2,500: Logo on Golf Carts, Scorecards, Caddie Bibs, or Putting Contest   
  • Platinum Sponsors $1,500: Logo at Brunch, “Lunch at the Turn”, Cocktail Party, Steak & Lobster Dinner, Dessert or Snacks & Beverage areas 
  • Gold Sponsors $750: Logo on Pin Flag
  • Silver Sponsors $500: Logo at Driving Range or Tee off

Golf packages:

  • JHP Benefactor Package: Foursome, Brunch, Dinner & recognition at Event $1500
  • JHP Benefactor Single: Brunch, Golf & Dinner per person $380
  • Industry Networking Special: Brunch, Dinner, and Awards Ceremony per person $195

 

 Please make check payable to PMDA

Sponsorships will be assigned on a first come, first served basis.

 

 

When registering your foursome, please include each player’s name.  Should you not have that informaion now, you may forward it when we are closer to the event date.  Please indicate “TBD” in the appropriate fields.

Golf Carts and One Caddie per Foursome Included 

Your payment MUST be made prior to event. 

 

 

About the Josephine Herrick Project (formerly Rehabilitation Through Photography)

Today, the Josephine Herrick Project, Enhancing Lives through Photography, continues to partner with Veteran Administrations as well as schools, social service agencies and like-minded nonprofits.  Following her model, volunteer photographers educate underserved populations throughout the New York City area.  Thanks to the support of the photography industry and corporate and foundation grants, JHP continues Herrick’s mission with free programs, exhibitions and publications that inspire children, teens, adults and seniors with the visual language of photography, enabling them to transform communities through their artistic vision.  Some of the current partners include: Birch Susser School for Exceptional Children, the Block Institute, Cartwheel Initiative, Creedmoor Psychiatric Center, Fresh Art, IUDU School for Students with Special Needs, Jewish Union Foundation, University Settlement House, Millennium High School, International High School, Warrior StillShots, and U.S. veterans in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx.

Josephine Herrick Project is entirely supported by tax-deductible donations from individuals, corporations and foundations and is a registered 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization.

  

Enhancing Lives Through Photography: RTP is now “Josephine Herrick Project”

We Use Photography to Enhance Those in Need

RTP announces spring appeal in honor of our founder and our name change to:

Did you know that photography can heal, enhance and have a positive influence on people’s lives? Our Founder Josephine Herrick understood that in 1941 when she used photography to help WWII soldiers overcome the emotional effects of war. We have continued that tradition for over 72 years as we enhance the lives of veterans, autistic children, mentally challenged adults, as well as others. Today Rehabilitation Through Photography (RTP) has become the Josephine Herrick Project (JHP), to honor of our founder and inspirational pioneer Josephine Herrick.

The new name is just the latest initiative in the organization’s achievements over the last six months. Important milestones have included naming a new Executive Director, attracting new members of the Board of Directors, adding six new photo programs, and mounting the organization’s first exhibit in many years, “Portraits of Courage”, photography by the Veterans at the Brooklyn VA, at St. Francis College.

Maureen McNeil, Executive Director of Josephine Herrick Project stated, “Josephine Herrick is a great role model for young people today. Her dedication gained the support of master photographers of the day, like Ansel Adams and Margaret Bourke-White. Today we continue in her footsteps to reach underserved populations with free photography programs, and the goal of providing an opportunity for everyone to participate in society.”

There is only one way to sustain, and build on these initiatives—that’s with the donations of our supporters, colleagues and friends. This will be our only appeal for your support until the fall. There will not be a better chance than right now to reward this progress and help us continue to provide the gift of photography to our students.

As an added incentive to help us continue our work, the Board of Directors, many who have supported RTP for over twenty years, has decided to celebrate the new name and progress with a ‘Directors Matching Grant’—Board members will match a portion of all donations made before June 30, 2013. This will add tremendous value to every dollar you give.

Matt Sweetwood, Director: “Josephine Herrick was a unique individual and a woman who was way ahead of her time. We are simply carrying out the mission that Josephine started in 1941. We want to exhibit how strongly we feel about the reinvigorated Josephine Herrick Project with our matching grant offer.”
So please help us celebrate the progress of the past and our promising future by making a donation now, which will help us take advantage of our Director’s Matching Grant.

-Randy Bourne, Chair, Development Committee

 

Giving Thanks to Our Fallen Heroes this Memorial Day

 

Photo: Memorial Tribute by Cindy Seigle

 

From The White House Blog – May 25, 2013 

In this week’s address, President Obama commemorates Memorial Day by paying tribute to the men and women in uniform who have given their lives in service to our country

“On Memorial Day, we honor and remember the men and women who gave their lives in service of our country. And while our commitment to those who serve and their families remains important every day, Memorial Day is the perfect time to offer a simple act of kindness to our veterans and military families. You can send a message of thanks to our troops or a military family. Or pledge hours of service. Or even start your own volunteer project. And afterward, please share your story — tell us how you made a difference in your community in support of military families.”

Josephine Herrick Project (formerly Rehabilitation Through Photography) started over 70 years ago to help returning veterans from World War II recuperate and heal using photography. We  want to take a moment to thank all our veterans for their service. 

 

Josephine Herrick Project currently has several veterans’ programs. Last month we were very excited to have the “Portaits of Courage” exhibit open at St. Francis College.  The Portraits of Courage exhibit, featured photographs by veterans from the Vietnam, Korean, Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The show is a mix of portrait and still lives, with writing both somber and poignant. 19 men and one woman depict wars that have stuck with them physically and mentally, a weight to every moment and thought. And yet, that they shared these personal feelings with the crowd of strangers who were interested and cared, brought them a measure of honor and comfort.

Read more about the exhibit at:

http://jhproject.org/2013/04/portraits-of-courage-exhibit-opens-at-st-francis-college/

 

How you can help:

For more information: contact Maureen McNeil @ maureen@jhproject.org

 

Read President Obama’s full address:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/05/25/weekly-address-giving-thanks-our-fallen-heroes-memorial-day

 

 

Pop Photo Editor’s Letter: A Photographer’s Legacy

 

 
 

Popular Photography Editor in Chief Miriam Leuchter explains the importance of giving back through photography

 

Josephine Herrick started her organization in 1941, by photographing young men going to war, and sending the photographs to their loved ones.
 
The ground-floor gallery at St. Francis College in Brooklyn Heights was buzzing one night this spring. Black-and-white photographs—portraits and close-up details of objects—lined the walls, along with heartfelt statements from the 20 photographers. The crowd included the artists’ friends and family, a famous photographer or two, scores of well-wishers, and even a service dog. I was one of two featured speakers (the other was Brendon Stanton, the photographer/founder of the popular Humans of New York street portrait site).The show, “Portraits of Courage,” was the culmination of a photography class for veterans taught at Brooklyn’s V.A. hospital. The vets had spent 10 weeks working with pro photographer Camille Tokerud and creative arts therapist Beryl Brenner to move beyond the snapshot and make images with a voice all their own. Partnering with the V.A. to create, teach, and support the program with cameras and printing was the Josephine Herrick Project.I wrote about this organization here about three years ago, before I joined its board of directors. Then it was called Rehabilitation Through Photography, a name that served it well for much of its 72 years. But we recently decided to change the name to honor its founder. Photographer Josephine Herrick started it by marshalling volunteers to take portraits of servicemen at the dawn of the World War II, and later retooled it to teach photography to wounded veterans. While extending instruction and equipment to a variety of other underserved people—including kids and adults with autism, at-risk teens, and the formerly homeless—Herrick and those directors who followed hewed to the same mission. It’s enshrined in our new tagline: “Enhancing lives through photography.”Thanks to incredibly generous donations by Canon, Fujifilm, Pentax, Sony, and other camera makers and members of the Photoimaging Manufacturers and Distributors Association (PMDA), I no longer have to repeat my request for your old cameras. We have new ones! But I urge you to think about how you might be able to help, whether as a donor or a volunteer. Visit our website at jhproject.org and follow us on social media. Order our books of photos from recent students—including the Brooklyn veterans—and from its fascinating archives on Blurb.com. Keep an eye out this fall for a show at the Leica Gallery in New York City and for the photography auction we’re putting together.

The Josephine Herrick Project, though small on funding, has a very big impact on the lives of those it touches. With your support it will flourish, grow, and keep enhancing lives through photography for decades to come.

http://www.popphoto.com/news/2013/05/editors-letter-photographers-legacy

 

Josephine Herrick’s Letter to Eastman Kodak Company, 1959

(Above, WWII soldiers at a VA hospital participating in JHP’s, photography services, hand coloring their photographs from hospital beds)

The beginnings of the Josephine Herrick Project, as you know, started with Josephine Herrick’s founding of VSP, or Volunteer Service Photographers.

In 1959, Josephine wrote to Eastman Kodak to petition to hang photographs of student work at the Eastman Information Bureau in Grand Central Station. The photographs she wished to have displayed were hand oil-colored by students of VSP because they were originally shot in black and white. Many times students would paint from their hospital beds, as well as many other unconventional situations. This way, participants were able to create and keep busy while confined under less than ideal circumstances.

Today, Josephine Herrick Project, formerly VSP, follows that same philosophy of bringing equipment and material directly to the student’s environment, whether a hospital, school, community center or housing shelter.

Below is the actual letter. Click to enlarge.