nws_27_mar

April 28, 2006

In this issue of our newsletter, we'd like to tell you about some of the Outreach projects we've been working on.

FOSTER ANGELS
Using our photography skills to help benefit others brings us great joy, and led us into a recent partnership with "Foster Angels of Arizona Serving Together" (FAAST). The Foster Angels' mission is to give children in foster care activities that will let them enjoy happier, more fulfilling childhoods, and we brainstormed ways we could help them fulfill that mission.

Ten kids were selected to participate in a teaching series that included camera instruction, a shoot at the Phoenix Zoo and a classroom critique. A handful of our volunteers, Michelle Pelberg and myself helped conduct sessions on three consecutive Wednesdays. The kids had a ball, especially at the zoo, and each was given 4x6 copies of their images and 3 large prints of their best work. The prints will end up on display at Arizona State University in an exhibit this summer, and it's likely that they will be displayed with some of the kids' writing, which is the next fun activity Foster Angels has lined up for them.

We encourage you to view some of the great photos these kids took at a new online gallery:
http://www.friendsofazhighways.com/gal_outreach_01.htm

And if you would like to learn more about the Foster Angels themselves, the link is:
http://www.fosterangelsaz.org/

Foster Angels already wants us to do another teaching series in the fall, and in the fall we will also team with Free Arts of Arizona on a similar project. These sorts of partnerships are rewarding on a lot of levels, and we hope that the kids we're working with get something meaningful and fun from the experiences.

HIGH SCHOOL LECTURE SERIES
Helping encourage, support and direct young high school students is another way we've found to fulfill our non-profit mission. The high school lecture series that we started late last year is growing by leaps and bounds and is getting tremendous response from teachers. We are pairing Arizona Highways photographers with photography classes and school assemblies around the state. Besides landscape photography, the classes get a bit of instruction in the business side of photography, as well as portfolio reviews when possible. The teachers love having the pros visit and talk about real-world experience, and we think the kids have a good time, too.

So far we've visited a few schools in the Phoenix Metropolitan area, as well as one school in Colorado City. We've received interest from schools in Kingman, Tucson, Sierra Vista and other places around Arizona, as well, and hope to have photographers visit there in the fall.

SHARING WEBSITES
Participant Bill Jagde has some tremendous photos up on his website, and would like to share them with you. His current website is:
http://www.trianglereflections.com
and he will soon have work posted here as well:
http://www.northernexposuresgallery.com

That's it for now. We have a number of workshops launching in the next month and hope that if you're going on one of them that you HAVE FUN!

Kind regards,
Robyn Noll
Director
Friends of Arizona Highways
2039 W. Lewis Ave.
Phoenix, AZ 85009
Phone: toll-free (888) 790-7042

NEWSLETTER