there are a million ways one can give, from a one-time giving project to long-term.  i wanted to share about one of my personal projects, a long-term project, where i gave to a family, who had a young boy battling stage IV neuroblastoma–an aggressive, difficult-to-treat, under-researched and under-funded childhood cancer.

my  journey with max and his family actually began with another story of giving.  i had heard of a seven year old, sam, battling neuroblastoma, through my daughter’s deaf itinerant.  sam had become hearing impaired due to the chemotherapy.  during a period that sam was doing and feeling well, i longed to photograph him for his family.  i emailed a note to kiele’s deaf itinerant, who in turn forwarded it to sam’s parents.  i didn’t hear back from them, which was okay (i knew how busy they were); i just wanted them to know the offer was there.  then one day, i was at the school doing photos of kiele’s classmates for a holiday project.  on my way out, i stopped by sam’s class to see if i could take a few photos of him.  i was able to and a couple weeks later, i gave sam’s teacher a box of photos, to give to sam’s parents.  that was only the beginning.

a few weeks later, i was contacted by sam’s parents, to see if i would be willing to do some marketing photos for their foundation.  i didn’t hesitate for a second.  and it’s there that i met max and his parents.

not long after, i had read on max’s blog that he was not doing well; he was urinating blood clots and hospitalized.  it was at that point that i wanted to do and give more to max and his family.  and i had an idea…i emailed max’s parents to see if they would be interested in my photographing max weekly.  we would look at our schedules, figure out a time when we could get together, and i would shoot max and whoever else was there at the time–no matter where they were or what was happening.  i had hoped, in doing this, that i could facilitate increased awareness for neuroblastoma and max’s fight.  i wanted to show more than just a child’s portrait.  i wanted to show the world a glimpse of what max and his family were really going through.  shortly after getting started, max’s dad emailed me, sharing that he had created a blog, where i could journal and post max’s photos– mashed potatoes for breakfast.

our journey together continued until august, when max so sadly lost his battle with neuroblastoma.  i still keep in touch with max’s parents and do for them what i can.  max and his family will forever have a special place in my heart.  and i’m so happy that what i did for max’s family has the ability to keep on giving, as they continue to use max’s photographs for a variety of websites, projects, etc.

one of my favorite photos of max

at the celebration of max’s life, two biplanes flew by, to honor max

at max’s school, every tree had an orange ribbon tied around it.  orange was max’s favorite color.

do you have a special story of giving that you would like featured here?  email us.  we’d love to hear from you!