When a Dream Becomes a Reality

I have always been a strong believer of making lemonade with the lemons that life hands you. Just add a little sugar and water to sweeten it up! Combine that with the fact that I believe everything in life happens for a reason and you get one bubbly, optimistic person that you just love to hate haha...yeah, that's me :) It just drops my jaw when I look back at what may have seemed like an insignificant decision at the time but ended up changing the path of my life so drastically. 

One of the first major life-changing choices came to be at the age of 17. That morning I chose to continue driving my car even though I knew I was extremely tired. That decision led to an accident that claimed the life of my only brother and almost my own. It still boggles me how I even made it through the first few years. But I did, and I owe it all to Hospice. Dale Marie Clark welcomed me with open arms and saved my life. I got involved with Hospice over the years by eventually going through their training program to become a co-facilitating counselor at Hope's Place for Grieving Children. 

It was then I found my calling...working with children. I then broadened my horizon and became a Behavioral Health Professional and specialized in working with children diagnosed with autism. These families were strong and amazing. They welcomed me as one of their own children and I spent years learning more than I could ever put into words. And though I was happy doing what I was doing, I felt like something was missing.

Then another fateful twist in life landed me in the arms of the man of my dreams. I had had my eyes set on the Air Force. I took the ASVAB and scored a 92. Needless to say, they wanted me as bad as I wanted in. But the day I was to be shipped off, my recruiter called to tell me that he thought he could have squeezed me through admissions through a loop hole, but in the end I couldn't go. It turns out that not having a thyroid and taking replacement medication puts me as a medical liability. As much as I was devastated, I quickly realized the reasoning behind fate when I met the love of my life later that same day. Though we've had our ins and outs, 8 years later we are together and happy and created the most amazing son ever! Vincent was a major turning point for the both of us!

I know so many of you have heard the same ol' story of how a women became a mother and got an "fancy" camera and then suddenly they have their own photography business. Soooo, yeah, that's me. I admit, I have always been obsessed with landscape photography and as the daughter of one of the most amazing photographers I know, it's no wonder...it's in my blood! I had just never thought of photographing people. So along comes Vincent and I gain the courage. I also gained the support of my sweetheart, Dominic, along with friends and family. I slowly built my photography business from the ground up and what started off as a little idea soon became a big deal. After just over 1 year in business, I have over 100 clients and 85% of them have already been to me more than once! Talk about blessed and being more thankful than I could ever express. But, I swear, something was STILL missing!

Then fate gives me one more twist that puts me in the place that I am now...just following a dream. I had seen a "Space for Rent" on the sign outside of a local business for months and decided to stop in one day to inquire. I got no answers. Then another month or so passes and I am with my bestie, Maribeth, who agrees we should give it another try. The quest for the answer brought me to Faye's office at REM (Revitalizing the Energy in Maine). REM is an all volunteer organization serving as an umbrella for community action. It turns out that the sign has been up for practically years and no one has ever bothered to take it down. We had a good laugh and as I looked around the office I saw banners hanging all over the wall. The ones that stood out the most to me were Good Will Hinckley, Hospice and Hope's Place. I have worked or volunteered at these places at some point in my life and here they all were among dozens of other banners. One questions led to another and Faye blew my mind!

She is the granter of dreams! I still can't believe fate led me to the exact office at the exact point in my life that I needed it. I told Faye my dream and she fell in love with it! She immediately set up a meeting with me to further discuss my dream in detail. She fell in love with it even more! She made tons of calls and set up another meeting for me to present my dream to the board of directors of REM. I spent weeks doing in depth research in order to write a detailed business plan (something I wouldn't wish on anyone hahaha) and began building the foundation of my dream. I created a mission statement, website, logo, branding, and strategy for getting the word out to the community about my dream and wanting people to join together to make it a reality.

Am I driving you nuts yet? Hahaha "dream" blah-blah-blah..."dream" blah-blah-blah I promise I'm getting to the point :) I've always loved telling a good story!

So during the weeks of trying to organize everything for the board meeting I also began reaching out to other local businesses that I felt could help my cause the most. The one that has stood out the most is Hospice. My life seems to have made a 360 degree turn back to where I feel my life truly began 13 years ago. Sue Roy at Hospice also fell in love with the idea before I even finished my sentence! It felt great to have my first partner and I am currently in the process of recruiting more! It certainly gave me the confidence to present my business plan and my dream before the REM committee this morning at 8am (and I hadn't even had a cup of coffee yet)! As I presented my plan, myself along with a few others were teary eyed. They welcomed my dream with open arms! In fact, I can expect a final decision and permission to push forward within the next week or two!

Ok...ok...so I think after reading this long blabbery story that you deserve to at least know the name of my dream...

The Hope Captured Foundation is a non-profit organization I founded to offer complimentary portraiture to Maine families experiencing a child or young parent with a life threatening or terminal illness. This will be a chance for the family to get their mind off things by giving them a one of a kind portrait experience that they normally wouldn't be able to afford or even consider while going through life's medical and financial struggles. They would be provided with pictures that will be treasured forever and hopefully play an important role in the healing process. I will also be reaching out to Maine families who lost all of their belongings in a house fire...especially precious family photos. I want to be the one to offer complimentary portrait sessions to these families to help start their family album all over again with the beautiful pictures they deserve. In turn, giving them hope that they can start anew and that with every end there is a beginning. I just want to spread hope and healing through breath taking portraiture.

Now, I'm sure you all have a lot of questions and I will try to quickly release more updates as they come, but in the mean time have a little patience! It will be a couple weeks before the website is up and running and able to accept donations. I will be also maintaining a Facebook page and blog dedicated to Hope Capture's cause. I will be working hard on getting the word out about this new organization and starting a couple fundraising projects. When funds allow me to do so, I will also be looking for volunteers to cover the roles of office assistants, photographer assistants and professional photographers. I know Maine can pull together to support such a worthy cause! And a debt of gratitude for REM for believing in my dream and helping to make it a reality! It means so much that they would be so willing to help start, fund and help me learn to successfully run my foundation!

I am hoping for huge community involvement  not only because it will mean the world to me, but it will mean the world to the families you will be helping. God forbid, that could be my family...or your family...and we all deserve the have our last moments together beautifully captured and documented. We all deserve to have a family album even if we have to start from scratch after years of building it up just to have it burned away. 

PLEASE consider commenting below with anything from advice, feedback, and spiritual response...or to just show your all around support!