April 19, 2022
It’s been an exciting six months at FreshLens and we want to share some of our good news.
Benefit
In October, we hosted our 2nd benefit “Focus On The Future 2021.” The proceeds from our first benefit were $10,000 and we are proud to announce that we were able to raise $60,000! Thanks to all of the artists who donated over 80 pieces of art and services for our silent auction, our generous first time corporate sponsors, businesses that made monetary donations and purchased ads, patrons who made donations, those who attended and of course our talented students who sold their wonderful work.
Expanded Support From Corporate Sponsors
In addition to the generous financial donations from corporate sponsors we have received state of the art equipment including camera straps from Blackrapid, new mirrorless cameras from Sony and a years supply of memory cards, thumb drives and portable hard drives from Sandisk/Western Digital.
Grants
We have received 2 DCASE grants from the City of Chicago for general operating expenses and another to support three middle school sessions with our partners in Englewood “A Knock At Midnight”.
Expanded Classes
In addition to adding more Basic and Advanced classes we are completing a 16-week Event and Storytelling class. Students successfully completing each of our three courses receive increasingly advanced equipment to continue their photography. Students have gained classroom experience and instruction from professional event photographers and students had the opportunity to photograph 5 events around the city.
Event Corp
We are establishing an Event Corp through which our students can be hired to photograph private and corporate events. Need a photographer for your 3 year olds birthday party? Contact us for more information to secure our students photography services at freshlenschicago@gmail.com.
Advanced Class
This year the students in our advanced class will again be creating a body of work with mentorship from professional photographers. They will also assemble a personal book with their photographs and writing.
Staff
We continue to add to the infrastructure of FreshLens with a talented and diverse staff of teachers. We have also added an administrative assistant and bookkeeper as our organizational needs and responsibilities increase.
In Kind Donations
Thank you to the donors from across the country who have donated equipment to FreshLens. We accept most equipment and use it for our students whenever possible. If we can’t use it we sell it on ebay to purchase equipment for our students to keep. Moving to mirrorless cameras and finding that you can’t sell your equipment for what it’s worth, please consider donating it to FreshLens Chicago.
Next Benefit Will be in the Spring of 2023.