Tuesday, April 29, 2014

volunteering time



My cousin, Megan, works for The March of Dimes. Recently, she worked tirelessly to organize The March for Babies held last Saturday in Sacramento at the State Capitol.

She asked if I'd volunteer my time taking candid photos of the event. I said yes.

I got up before the alarm on a Saturday and headed to the Capitol, camera (and coffee!) in hand.

It was a big deal...vendor tents, t-shirts, balloons everywhere, a huge stage, a great DJ, kids and dogs (and a parrot!) and people, young, old and in between.

I wandered around snapping photos of teams in their matching shirts, dogs wearing purple bandannas, kids getting their faces painted and eating cotton candy, volunteers passing out free fruit and water bottles, the hosts on stage, the Sac State mascot, the Hornet (who loved the camera, by the way), officers on horseback...I snapped away.

At 9am it was time for the walkers to head to the starting line. I positioned myself on a side lawn where I could get some photos of the teams walking. The start was announced and the crowd began to move...and to my surprise, I began to cry! It was so moving...so many babies, so many families, so many miracles...all there to come together and support one thing...helping premature babies and their families. It was awesome.

At that point my work there was done. My cousin gifted me free t-shirts for my family and I gifted her 400 photos to choose from. And now...I can't wait for next year! Count me in!

(If you feel moved to donate to the March of Dimes, please follow the links above to give. Thank you)


1 comment:

Denise said...

i hope you share some of your photos here!