photo credit: Barbara Keeler

In June I had the incredibly rewarding opportunity of serving our community at the International Rescue Committee’s annual World Refugee Day celebration. We organized the photography volunteers and were able to capture family photos for hundreds of refugee families living in the Dallas and Fort Worth Metroplex. With the help of my cute boy scout son we collected donations for over 500 frames and photo paper and were able to give each family their very own framed family photo to take home and put on their wall.  The family photos were a huge hit during the event and we had a line of families waiting for their photos throughout the day. We had three rooms with three photographers constantly shooting throughout the day, photo printers in each room and a score of volunteers helping with all of the logistics.The children especially were excited and proud to show of their darling images. An awesome team of volunteers were there to help after the photos were taken to print, trim the photos to fit and place them in a frame. It was such an amazing experience to meet families from all over the world, hear their stories, see their smiles and send them home with something so deeply meaningful to them. We are thrilled that we have already been invited to return next year to provide family photos again to the many deserving refugee families in our community.We are continuously looking for opportunities for serving our community. Right now we are collecting diapers in sizes 4, 5 and 6 for Texas Refugee Services. If you would like to help by donating please contact us. You are welcome to drop diapers off at the studio or have them shipped to us. We will be delivering the diapers to Texas Refugee Services early in August.

If you are a photographer and would like to know how you can volunteer at next year’s event please email us at lindsay@lindsaywaldenphotography.com.