[Leica] calling on the LUG to do a good deed: leica scholarship

[Kyle Cassidy <KCassidy@asc.upenn.edu>]

Okay, I promise, just this once and I'll leave everybody along for a long
time. But I think right now we have an opportunity to do something Good here
and I think that this body, with the collective power has a unique ability
to do something other than just talk. 

In any event, you may recall that at the conclusion of the LUG's last
charity fundraiser ("Christmas in Bucharest" which raised $2,500 for
homeless kids living in Romania) I proposed that our next charity event
should be photography related -- a LUG scholarship for sending a young
photojournalist student somewhere to take photos.

Well, a week ago I got an email from just such a person.

Scott Squire is a LUGger and a photojournalism student at Berkeley who, at
classes end finds himself looking out over 100 days of summer lying before
him like a raft of empty time which makes me weep for my youth. Mr. Squire
is gung ho to do a long term doccumentary project overseas and, after
looking at his portfolio, I think he has quite a considerable talent and it
would be a Very Good Thing if we could sponser him.

What I'm proposing:

1) Scott can contribute money of his own, but I'd like to come up with AT
LEAST $1000 to defray the cost of his travel.
2) He's interested in going to Romania to cover the homeless situation,
which I think would be excellent as we would be able to see the results of
the money we sent over in December.
3) If the LUG agrees to this, I'll call B&H, Freetyle, and several other
places to see if I can get them to donate film and equipment.
4) I'd like to get either a) 10 luggers to contribute $100 or, that that
doesn't happen, 20 luggers to contribute $50 -- the price of a photo book --
towards getting him over there and maybe some food and film.

BUT WHAT DO WE GET IN RETURN?	
Ah, nothing, of course, is free. The LUG will have specific requirements for
the use of our funds. 

1) Scott will be asked to keep a photo-journal on line, updated weekly, that
we can log into and follow his progress -- get to know his subjects and
their lives. The web page will also have a contributors section, if you care
to make a gift in someone's name, what better place to memorialize them? or
yourself for that matter.

2) Upon returning also, he will make a traveling exhibit (i'm thinking
unmatted, unframed) which can then be sent from city to city, a LUGGER in
each city taking the responsibility of finding a place to hang it so nearby
luggers can see it. Even if this is nothing more than a show at someone's
house, if it gets the LUG meeting one another, what could be better?

3) A tax write off? who knows. I'll defer to one of the Lugyers who may have
specific expertise in the itchy field of charitable donations and taxes and
how this might be achieved if people want to make larger contributions.

I know I've personally longed to spend months living in a $20 a week hotel
filled with rats and bugs, sleeping in sewers and really getting to do
serious doccumentary work. I think a lot of the LUG has too, but when those
two paths diverged in the wood, other careers have come in the way and
somewhere in the years that have passed, we find that we own SUV's and white
picket fences and suddenly our lives are too complicated to take three
months to go anywhere. Imagine the impact this could have made on any of us
when we were 24. I'm not unhappy with my life as an armchair photographer,
and I really would enjoy living vicariously a little through this project.

Please look at Scott's portfolios and get back to me if you're interested:

	
http://journalism.berkeley.edu/students/squire/ecuastories/FrameSet.html

	
http://journalism.berkeley.edu/students/squire/ecuasingles/FrameSet.html

I don't want to turn this forum into a telethon and I PROMISE that if we do
this, I'll leave everybody alone. At least until next summer. We can make
this happen; I'll be the first to throw $50 into the ring. Anybody else?

Thanks for your time and attention, I now return you to your regularly
scheduled Summilux-R discussion,

Kyle
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