PPA Today

Family Portrait Month Slideshow

Take a look at the smiles that are created when you participate in Family Portrait Month. When you participate in Family Portrait Month, you help PPA Charities raise funds for Operation Smile, allowing them to continue their work with children around the world.

Since 1982, more than 115,000 children and young adults have been treated by thousands of volunteers worldwide and thousands of healthcare professionals have been trained globally. For as little as $240 Operation Smile can change a child's life by giving the gift of a surgery. Revenue in excess of surgical costs is invested into our sustainability programs, empowering our partner countries to treat more children on their own and making your investment go even farther. In as little as 45 minutes, one cleft lip surgery can change a child's life forever.

For More information, or to participate, visit www.PPACharities.com.

Slideshow prepared by Angie Weedon for PPA Charities.

Imaging USA…Celebrate with PPA Charities

PPA Charities hosts a “Celebration” event Saturday evening before PPA’s Imaging USA (the national convention in January) officially begins. The celebration event will take place at Alice Coopers Town in Phoenix, just two blocks from Convention Center and features fun, fellowship, and food. The evening kicks off with a VIP Cocktail Hour from 8-9pm. VIP Cocktail Hour tickets are only $35 and include hors d'oeuvres and an open bar. The doors open to all convention attendees at 9pm, and the fun continues with the live/silent auction, the check presentation to Operation Smile, and music and dancing.

Mark your calendar now to attend the PPA Charities' Celebration on January 10, 2009, in Phoenix. Order your VIP ticket when you register for Imaging USA.

PPA Charities Golf Tournament

Join fellow PPA photographers and exhibitors at the first annual PPA Charities Golf Tournament. We will be playing at the ASU Karsten Golf Course in Tempe on Saturday, January 10, 2009, with an 8:00am Shotgun Start. Your $150 registration fee (or $550 for a foursome) will include:

• Golf fee and car fees
• Practice balls before your event
• Official scoring by professional staff
• Sun Devil Patio Awards BBQ Awards Luncheon following golf
• Prizes, goodie bag of gifts from PPA vendors, and much more.

Download this registration form to sign up now.

Create a smile: Family Portrait Month

October is PPA Charities' Family Portrait Month

A smile is universal in meaning...and it's pretty contagious! But what about  children who cannot smile? Those who find it difficult to even speak or eat?  Now's your chance to give them a smile.

Participate in Family Portrait Month, a national fund-raising effort in  October to benefit Operation Smile, a worldwide children's medical charity  dedicated to improving the health and lives of children born with cleft lips,  cleft palates, and other facial deformities.

It's easy. Pledge to contribute a portion of each October Family Portrait  Month sale to PPA  Charities, which has chosen Operation Smile as its charitable partner. Just sign up online and make the small $25 donation, and you're on your way to making  a difference.

Photographers Join Together to Give Children New Smiles

During October 2007, participating member studios of Professional Photographers of America (PPA) from across the country joined together for “Family Portrait Month,” a national fund-raising effort to benefit Operation Smile. On January 5, during PPA's Imaging USA 2008 convention in Tampa, Fl., PPA Charities presented a $52,000 check to Carl Treleaven, Operation Smile Board of Directors Treasurer. This was the third year this campaign took place and this year’s donation to Operation Smile was the highest to date.

(from left) Bert Behnke, Development Director; Sandy Puc; Randy Taylor; Harvey Goldstein; Doug Peninger, Vice President; Carl Treleaven, Operation Smile Board of Directors Treasurer; Helen Yancy; Ann Monteith; Mary Fisk-Taylor, President; and David Grupa. Photo courtesy of PPA Charities

PPA Charities Newsletter online

The newest edition of the PPA Charities Newsletter is now available online.

In this issue:

• Discover  whose haircut helped raise $3,500 for PPA Charities.
• Sneak a peak at the Celebration Event Auction in Tampa
• See everyone who helped raise a whopping $50,000 for Operation  Smile
• Become an honorary trustee—get involved with PPA Charities
• and much more...       

Download the  PPA Charities newsletter now.

Family Portrait Month, October 2007

You photograph smiling faces every day.

But what about those who can’t smile? Those who find it difficult to even speak or eat? You can help them smile, too.

Participate in Family Portrait Month, a national fund-raising effort in October to benefit Operation Smile, which provides free reconstructive surgery to children and young adults around the world suffering with cleft lips, cleft palates and other facial deformities.

Those who join pledge to contribute a portion of each October Family Portrait Month sale to PPA Charities, which has chosen Operation Smile as its charitable partner. What a chance to do cause-related marketing—it really boosts your reputation! And besides helping children in need, this fund-raising effort gives families a good reason to have their portrait created with the holiday season coming up. 

When you participate in Family Portrait Month, you will change the lives of children who would otherwise face a lifetime of pain and rejection. It is hard to understand the true problems such children face. Last year, Angela Weedon, a participant in Family Portrait Month, was able to travel
with Operation Smile to Tegucigalpa, Honduras. "It was a privilege to document the mission...these precious children received their new smiles from a team of incredible medical volunteers, and it was an honor to join them," says Weedon.

But October is coming quickly, too! There’s still time to implement your marketing campaign for Family Portrait Month with help from the membership kit…but you’ll want to get started soon. Just sign up with the annual membership fee and get your kit, full of success stories, photographer-led
marketing designs, before and after images of children, and a video from Operation Smile. Sign up today and help create a smile!

For more information about Family Portrait Month, please visit http://familyportraitmonth.com, or contact Bert Behnke at (708) 267-0657 or bbehnke(at)ppa.com. To sign up, please visit
www.ppa.com/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=429.

PPA Charities and Operation Smile Celebration Event at Imaging USA

PPA Charities and Operation Smile Celebration Event at Imaging USA

The annual gala to benefit PPA Charities and Operation Smile will be held just prior to Imaging USA (www.ImagingUSA.org) on Saturday, January 13, 2007 at the Corte Real Room on the 22nd Floor of the Hilton Hotel in San Antonio, Texas. The event will include a VIP reception from 8:00 pm until 9:00 pm, followed by an open auction and celebration from 9:00 pm until midnight.

The required $25 ticket for the VIP reception includes a preview of items in the evening’s silent and live auctions, hors d’oeuvres, entry into a special prize drawing, and preferred seating for the premiere of the new PPA Legends series.

PPA Charities’ Celebration Event will be open to everyone at no charge beginning at 9:00 pm, and will feature silent and live auctions with items such as photographic equipment, fine art images, and sports and rock & roll memorabilia. Guests will also enjoy a program by well-known photographer Hanson Fong, who will kick-off the new PPA Legends series with a tribute to the late Rocky Gunn. Fong’s stunning audiovisual program shows how Gunn influenced Fong’s work and features images created by them both.  The celebration will conclude when Mary Fisk-Taylor, President of PPA Charities, presents a contribution to their selected charity, Operation Smile.

PPA Announces Family Portrait Month in October

 October will be a month of a thousand smiles for families across the country as Professional Photographers of America (PPA) designated it as Family Portrait Month.  Studios from across the country will join together to participate in the benefit to assist Operation Smile, a nonprofit organization that helps children with facial deformities such as cleft lips and cleft palates.

More than $15,000 was raised during last year’s drive and PPA member studios have pledged to contribute a portion of each Family Portrait sale to the cause. “October is an ideal time for families to have their portraits created, because the holiday season is just around the corner,” said Ann Monteith, Chairman of the PPA Board of Directors. “Few gifts are appreciated as much as portraits of family members.”

Care Clicks: Holiday Shopping Benefits Charities

If you are planning on shopping online this holiday season, please consider making CareClicks.com your first stop. When you begin shopping online from one of CareClicks.com store links, that merchant will donate a portion of the sale to charity. PPA Charities is just one of the many charities supported by CareClicks.com.

Go to  http://www.careclicks.com/group.php?groupID=662 to shop and support PPA Charities.