Portraitpress Fundraising

Sweet as sugar….

wordpress-admin — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 12:55:02 +0000

For a new business like ours support and encouragement from anywhere is a major factor in keeping things moving forward, but when it comes from such a great and influential site as “Daily Candy Kids” it really pushes things over the edge. We were thrilled when “Daily Candy Kids” featured Portrait Press as part of its “Back to School” coverage… yes its that time already … yikes!

Local support! Thank you!

wordpress-admin — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 14:24:02 +0000

One of the moms at our kids’ school has an awesome blog called shinybrite, totally recommended for families living in the Brooklyn area. It’s a practical but creative and inspiring blend of “what to do” tips, recipes, photo stories and personal insights. It has become one of my invaluable resources for fun things to do over the weekend and menu inspiration, two areas that I can definitely get stuck in a rut over.

Yesterday they posted a fun interview I did for shinybrite. It was great to have the opportunity to talk about what Portrait Press Fundraising means to me as a Mom and a parent, and share that with their subscribers. It is my first taste of the support and encouragement Mom businesses get from the Mom blogging community, now I understand when they say how powerful and supportive the Mom community is! Thanks Melissa and Chrissy.

Less is More…….

wordpress-admin — Wed, 25 May 2011 15:33:21 +0000

We loved finding this post on the PBSparents blog that expresses very nicely one of the values Portrait Press Fundraising holds dear: ‘stuff’ should be useful, ‘stuff’ should be meaningful, we should appreciate the “stuff” we have and to really push ‘stuff’ over the edge it should be a means to achieving something beyond itself.

The post was written by Annie Leonard, the Director of the Story of Stuff Project and author of the book, The Story of Stuff (Free Press, March 2010). You can check out the videos on YouTube.
Story of Stuff

Its not that we shouldn’t have “stuff”, but encourage a more aware and balanced relationship with stuff. Do we really want to be fundraising for our kids’ schools by buying products that we don’t need, won’t use, that end up in a landfill or give a mixed message and encourage unhealthy eating?

Making connections….

wordpress-admin — Wed, 18 May 2011 16:13:39 +0000

While we were formulating the values for Portrait Press I had a rare moment to sit down with the Sunday Magazine and came across this article about a new breed of women social entrepreneurs or “D.I.Y. Foreign-Aid” as the title puts it. The women profiled in the article are insanely inspiring, selfless and 110% committed to their personal vision of making a positive impact in the world.

Obviously, most of us with families and the demands that come with that, have limits on what we can do to save the world. But even so, the motivation of the women profiled didn’t seem so far removed from the motivation of many of the parents I have met on PTA boards. These parents dedicate their precious ‘free’ time to make the school community better with no compensation and very little acknowledgement.

Seeing this made us decide that beyond establishing a grant to support the Arts in the United States, Portrait Press should also aim to support organizations such as Maggie Doyne’s Blink Now Foundation and make the connection between altruism on any scale, large and small, local and global. We look forward to seeing how this will develop.

Kopila Valley Children's Home founded by Maggie Doyne

Seriously Creative Classroom

wordpress-admin — Mon, 16 May 2011 13:58:50 +0000

Loving to see wildly creative, fearless art in the classroom as much as we at Portrait Press do, we were thrilled to see what goes on in the classroom of teacher Tom at his blog. We especially loved what he does with “paint Squirt bottles“, how many teachers are bold enough to give kindergardeners spray bottles loaded with paint to use in class? The resulting classroom transformation is awesome, and just to push things over the limit, he got his hands on some upcyled coffee filter ribbon to incorporate into the project, that’s a seriously inventive teacher.
from this….

to this….

Have any seriously creative classroom stories? Please share them with us and spread the inspiration!

The Truck Farm is flourishing

wordpress-admin — Thu, 12 May 2011 18:59:23 +0000

My kids’ school just happens to be the lucky one and have the Truck Farm parked on its block.
I hadn’t paid it much mind during the winter months, but now that Spring has definitely sprung its
been great to see how excited the kids are to peer into the green house on the back and see the
gorgeous green herbs and vegetables growing. Makes me happy that kids can still get excited about something as simply beautiful as growing food… attracting a crowd at pick up and drop off the truck has become quite the rock star of the block.

If you haven’t heard about the Truck Farm check out the website here or see the film. The Huffington Post wrote a nice little piece on it for a little background.

And the winners are…..

wordpress-admin — Mon, 02 May 2011 16:14:04 +0000

Ok, so you don’t get to nuzzle up to Sean Penn in $ 12,000 frock, holding an oscar but still winning is winning… and it feels good to win something, especially if its for your school community, so let’s hear it for the winners of the Portrait Press Fundraising 2011 raffel!!!!!!!

King Street School, Danbury, CT
Walnut Grove Elementary, Pleasanton, CA

Each school will receive up to 150 pieces of any Portrait Press Fundraiser: tea towel, pillow case or tote bag worth up $ 1,250.00, printed with their unique design.

And the winners are.....

Second Leg….. San Francisco

wordpress-admin — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 01:42:49 +0000

After the fantastic response Portrait Press Fundraising received at the NY PTO expo we decided to go for it and take the show on to San Francisco. It was a wonderful experience, I went solo, so too busy to take a photo, hence the shot of the Golden Gate Bridge to illustrate this entry, but what a great day it was. I met a lot of likeminded PTO/PTA parents who were excited to find a fundraiser that didn’t push the sugar or plastic but instead celebrated the wonderfully precious creative development of their students and the school community. Since meeting all these motivated and energetic parents I am totally excited to grow Portrait Press and build a community around it and its art funding grant in the US and beyond!

Taking the show on the road…..

wordpress-admin — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 17:42:44 +0000

With the new website up and fully functional we took Portrait Press Fundraising on the road
to show at the PTO expo in White Plains, NY. It was a great meeting lots of motivated PTO/PTA parents taking the time to see what’s out there for them to help meet their fundraising goals. Luckily for us
Portrait Press Fundraising got an enthusiastic response! I was pleased to see so many PTA members excited that there was something in the market that was creative, eco friendly, community minded and definitely not generic schlock. What we got most of all that day is ….. “This is sooooo cute! we have to do it for our graduating year/christmas fair/mother’s day gift etc. etc. etc.”

Local Inspiration!

wordpress-admin — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 14:33:31 +0000

A small group of parents from my children’s school put on an amazing event this weekend…. “Touch-A-Truck”. It was a phenomonal success with a line around the block that just didn’t give for two hours solid and brought in all sorts of families from the community and beyond. Not only did it raise a bundle to support arts in our school but was also an inspirational example of what just a few people with vision, energy, creativity and determination can achieve for a community. The sense of achievement and pride in the school this morning was palpable!

(unfortunately I don’t have a picture of the event because I was too busy collecting $$$$ at the gate … )

Check out the blog of the two visionaries behind the even here…Shinybrite!