Michigan Municipal League Helps Southwest Solutions Families at the Holidays With Gift Baskets, Food, Family Photos, Crafts and Dinner

A few nice photo gift images I found:

Michigan Municipal League Helps Southwest Solutions Families at the Holidays With Gift Baskets, Food, Family Photos, Crafts and Dinner

Image by Michigan Municipal League (MML)
The Michigan Municipal League was honored to recently provide a dinner and gifts for the 15 family members receiving services from the Detroit-based Southwest Solutions non-profit organization. Dozens of League staff members participate in the recent event in Detroit. The League’s effort was coordinated by the League’s own Heather Van Poucker: www.mml.org/newsroom/about_bios.html/. Heather and League staff donated their personal time and financial resources to provide a holiday dinner and gifts to 15 Detroit families – about 70 people total. The following information about the event is from the Southwest Solutions Facebook page: www.facebook.com/southwest-solutions/#!/pages/Southwest-S.... Read more here: www.facebook.com/notes/southwest-solutions/michigan-munic.... All 15 families currently in our Family Skills program benefited from the generosity of the Michigan Municipal League, which threw a special holiday party for them. The festive event featured a full-course dinner, holiday decorations, arts and crafts activities, keepsake family photos, family-fun gift bags, and gift food packages to prepare a complete holiday meal at home. The impetus for the party came from Heather Van Poucker, Director of Information and Policy Research at the Michigan Municipal League (MML). MML works to create better and vibrant communities in Michigan. Heather attended Solutions at Sunrise in October as a guest of Sean Mann, of the Let’s Save Michigan campaign and a member of the MML staff. Heather says she was inspired by Solutions at Sunrise to do something “hands on” to help some of the families served by Southwest Solutions. “The holiday party was all done through our staff’s personal donations and time, but I really think we took away more than we left,” said Heather. “We had a wonderful experience working with the Family Skills program and are already dreaming of what we’ll do next!” The Family Skills program serves “high-risk” families in southwest Detroit. These families are often referred to the program by the Department of Human Services (DHS) or other community agencies. All the families are in crisis from significant stresses that threaten the wellbeing of the children. The Family Skills program serves to strengthen families by providing intensive home-based counseling to improve family stability and functioning. The program is based upon a national model that is proven to be effective in helping families set positive goals and develop the skills to meet those goals. The take-home food package was donated by Busch’s Fresh Food Market in Ann Arbor. It contained a frozen turkey, frozen pie, vegetables, stuffing and potatoes. The holiday party took place on December 8 at our Early Childhood & Family Literacy Building on Larkins Street. To learn more about the Family Skills program, contact Vicki Dawson at vdawson@swsol.org or 313-963-2266 ext. 3377.
Read more about the event here: www.facebook.com/notes/southwest-solutions/michigan-munic.... For more about the Michigan Municipal League and what we do go to www.mml.org.

Michigan Municipal League Helps Southwest Solutions Families at the Holidays With Gift Baskets, Food, Family Photos, Crafts and Dinner

Image by Michigan Municipal League (MML)
The Michigan Municipal League was honored to recently provide a dinner and gifts for the 15 family members receiving services from the Detroit-based Southwest Solutions non-profit organization. Dozens of League staff members participate in the recent event in Detroit. The League’s effort was coordinated by the League’s own Heather Van Poucker: www.mml.org/newsroom/about_bios.html/. Heather and League staff donated their personal time and financial resources to provide a holiday dinner and gifts to 15 Detroit families – about 70 people total. The following information about the event is from the Southwest Solutions Facebook page: www.facebook.com/southwest-solutions/#!/pages/Southwest-S.... Read more here: www.facebook.com/notes/southwest-solutions/michigan-munic.... All 15 families currently in our Family Skills program benefited from the generosity of the Michigan Municipal League, which threw a special holiday party for them. The festive event featured a full-course dinner, holiday decorations, arts and crafts activities, keepsake family photos, family-fun gift bags, and gift food packages to prepare a complete holiday meal at home. The impetus for the party came from Heather Van Poucker, Director of Information and Policy Research at the Michigan Municipal League (MML). MML works to create better and vibrant communities in Michigan. Heather attended Solutions at Sunrise in October as a guest of Sean Mann, of the Let’s Save Michigan campaign and a member of the MML staff. Heather says she was inspired by Solutions at Sunrise to do something “hands on” to help some of the families served by Southwest Solutions. “The holiday party was all done through our staff’s personal donations and time, but I really think we took away more than we left,” said Heather. “We had a wonderful experience working with the Family Skills program and are already dreaming of what we’ll do next!” The Family Skills program serves “high-risk” families in southwest Detroit. These families are often referred to the program by the Department of Human Services (DHS) or other community agencies. All the families are in crisis from significant stresses that threaten the wellbeing of the children. The Family Skills program serves to strengthen families by providing intensive home-based counseling to improve family stability and functioning. The program is based upon a national model that is proven to be effective in helping families set positive goals and develop the skills to meet those goals. The take-home food package was donated by Busch’s Fresh Food Market in Ann Arbor. It contained a frozen turkey, frozen pie, vegetables, stuffing and potatoes. The holiday party took place on December 8 at our Early Childhood & Family Literacy Building on Larkins Street. To learn more about the Family Skills program, contact Vicki Dawson at vdawson@swsol.org or 313-963-2266 ext. 3377.
Read more about the event here: www.facebook.com/notes/southwest-solutions/michigan-munic.... For more about the Michigan Municipal League and what we do go to www.mml.org.

Grand Central on a Rainy Night During the Holidays

A few nice best image images I found:

Grand Central on a Rainy Night During the Holidays

Image by Stuck in Customs

I started www.hdrspotting.com/ (and see the Editor's Picks too) with a friend to help bring more attention to other HDR photographers out there. We developed a cutting-edge "attention generation engine", designed to increase traffic for new and old artists all over the world. The site is still in beta, and thus, invite only. You have to know someone to get an invite (don't ask me - I don't hand them out). But you can pick up extra in the HDR group on Facebook, Flickr, and keep searching Twitter for when people have extras to give away.

Here is a testimonial from Brian Matiash:
I was first drawn to HDR Spotting because of the high quality HDR images that were shared by some very talented photographers. Since then, posting my best HDR images to HDR Spotting has become a natural part of my post-processing workflow. When a shot is finalized and ready to share, one of its first stops is at HDR Spotting. Now, most of my images average at least 1,500 views and my Editor's Choice shots average between 7,000 - 8,500 extra views!! I really am loving this added visibility to my work. Great job with the site, keep up the great work!

Daily Photo - Grand Central on a Rainy Night During the Holidays

I took this about the same time I went into Grand Central Station and performed my unique star-pattern maneuver to evade security guards. I described it in detail the next day when I spoke at B&H.

I've perfected a panoply of techniques to circumnavigate and befuddle security guards who don't like tripods. Maybe I will write a little e-book on this some day.

from the blog www.stuckincustoms.com

Prospect Bay Evening

Image by Property#1
Best Viewed Large

This is another shot of Prospect Bay bathed in early evening sunlight


It seems I had been tagged a week or two back I had originally said I would never participate in the tagging but as I was asked nicely and the person who tagged be apologized after she tagged me I decided to do a list. Ten things most of you don't know about me hmmmmm ! Anyone else tags me I will hunt you down and sing to you for four hours straight and believe I can't carry a tune even in a bucket !!!!!

1: I am a two time cancer survivor, and when I hear of people undergoing chemo it becomes very personal to me whether I know them or not !


2: My best friend, who is also my photography companion, also happens to be my wonderful wife Ann


3: Further to number two we will be renewing our vows on Aug 29th, our anniversary, this Saturday. (I did give her a chance to run, but she refused)


4: I am as avid a fly tier, as I am a photographer, and I do fish with the flies I tie
catch and release only

5: I was a police officer (Military)


6: A car accident ended my Military Career and put me in the hospial for ten months, almost like Evel Knievel have had just about every bone in my body broken. Now everyone knows why I walk funny I really am not drunk !


7: I really enjoy my evening drink of wine or maybe a Brandy or Appleton Estate 21 year Old Rum


8: I am an environmentalist is every sense of the word.


9: I am a blueberry addict, love them however I can get them and I eat them everyday in one way or another


10: Lastly I am an adrenalin junky, have done a bungee jump, sky diving, hang gliding and para gliding, too old for most of this now but plan to do a solo sky dive on my 65th birthday.