New York
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After a successful but unfulfilling career in real estate I decided I would never work at a career I didn't enjoy. I was an avid and accomplished amateur photographer showing work regularly in gallery and museum group shows. I decided to turn my avocation into a vocation, following my passion. Since graduating college I... { more }

After a successful but unfulfilling career in real estate I decided I would never work at a career I didn't enjoy. I was an avid and accomplished amateur photographer showing work regularly in gallery and museum group shows. I decided to turn my avocation into a vocation, following my passion.

Since graduating college I have always volunteered working with kids. I have had long tenures with the NYC Board of Ed (literacy volunteer), Catholic Big Brothers (big brother) and AFS (hosting foreign exchange students). Even though my motives have been altruistic, but I always found incredible personal growth and reward through the work.

I am not sure how I first heard about Flashes of Hope but recall being immediately drawn to the mission: kids and photography, perfect. My first shoot was transforming. The kids and their families are incredible. In a fifteen minute portrait session they openly share their intense strength, vulnerability, joy, sadness, and love. At the end of the session I was thanked for gifting my time and talent. Them thanking me? Don't they realize that they are the ones giving me a gift?

Being a parent of a teen, I am continually tested and challenged. Volunteering with Flashes of Hope helps put my issues in perspective and deal with them in a more gracious way.