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OUR VOLUNTEERS

The heart of our work comes from the generosity of our volunteers and their efforts to create little moments of peace around the globe.

CINDY FUCHSWANZ

Cindy (pictured on left) was one of our very first volunteers for Picture Us®. In 2003, she went to Zambia to build homes with Habitat for Humanity. Cindy stayed an extra week to share Picture Us with the children in a local orphanage. She brought one of our photo albums to them and introduced the children there to the joy and fun of photography. Thank you Cindy!

In Cindy's Words...

"I told her about the Picture Us® program, and

I asked her if she would like to take some pictures with the polaroid camera. She had never seen a polaroid camera, and was so very excited to take a picture and watch it appear right in her hand. Her eyes widened, a big beautiful smile on her face, and she said "this is magic!"

Meanwhile, the children from the orphanage ran over to see what all the excitement was about, and other friends came out into the yard to see what was going on. Everyone wanted their pictures taken because cameras and pictures are too expensive, and most people do not have any pictures of themselves or their families. Then the children wanted their pictures taken, and laughed and giggled, with a look of complete amazement on their faces as they watched their pictures appear. They had never seen anything like this before! We had such a wonderful time laughing and taking pictures.

We finally had to say good-bye and get home because the sun was going down. We had spent an entire afternoon sharing complete joy and laughter, making new friends, and making memories that we will all never forget. Everyone wants pen pals in America! What an absolutely awesome afternoon!

I was so blessed by this whole experience in a way I could not have ever imagined, and it is even difficult to put into words. To be able to bring joy and laughter to children, who everyday are hungry because they do not have enough food and thirsty because they do not have enough water and who experience so much pain, sadness, disease and death as a way of life, was so meaningful to me."

BECKY HERRINGTON

These photos and words come to us from Becky Herrington, an Everyday Joy volunteer and a NASA employee in Alabama. Becky shared her gift of photography and dedicated Mother’s Day 2005 to creating photos for service members now being deployed to Iraq and their families. Here's her story. Great job, Becky!

Becky's comments

Mother's Day was INCREDIBLE! We had 2 people taking snapshots, one shooting video, 3 people running the computers (downloading the pictures from my memory cards, burning CDs and printing pictures that were requested) and then my daughter was helping me out by getting all the forms filled out while I did the portrait shots.

It was amazing!

The soldiers and their families were so grateful. They just kept coming to me and telling me how much they appreciated it all.

It was really a lot of fun. It was a lot of work and I was totally exhausted at the end of the day but it was well worth it. I'm truly thankful to God for giving me the opportunity to do something like this for Him.

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