Since we just had Thanksgiving last week and December started just a few days ago we figured we’d talk about our favorite places to donate our money, time, and resources to! We are both animal and plant lovers, so a good 80% of our donations and volunteering go places that save animals or care for nature/ plants. Some of our donations & volunteering involve kids or the Logan Center as well, so we’ll chat about those things as well.
This time of year is rife with high stress, capitalism, rushing, etc. (encapsulated best in “Black Friday,” "Shop Saturday,” “Cyber Monday,” and “Giving Tuesday” all being slammed into 4 days back-to-back through yesterday), but it’s important that through all of this noise and chaos that you step back to realize what’s important. Amidst December photography work we like to reflect back on the year and look to the future year to see how we can continue to donate to and volunteer with the organizations that we love. Helping others outside of yourself and OUTSIDE of your family/ friend/ work circles is a great way make a big difference without expecting anything in return. We do not do photography work for free (especially not for anyone who asks for it since that usually includes literally everyone from our 100+ family members to people we don’t even know), so we always hand select our own favorite organizations to donate our business money or photography to. Here are our favorite local organizations that we love and have donated to over the years. Feel free to check them out since they’re all some of our favorite places-! You never know- you may want to help them out too if their message speaks to you-!
1) The St. Joseph County Humane Society:
Only a few months after we moved back from California we adopted our elderly cat Kevin from the local humane society. We love the organization, so that week we also photographed ALL of their adoptable pets for free over 3 full days. We set up our entire studio there and captured over 100 pets in cute pet costumes. They have many events annually, so over the years we’ve volunteered at their annual golf tournament/ silent auction, have sponsored the holes there a few times, and have photographed it for them before. We also printed large photos for them to adorn their waiting room walls as of last year and continue to attend their events where funds go right back to the shelter-!
>> Our other 2 pets are also from local rescues: Our dog Coco hailing from the Elkhart Humane Society and our dog Rizzo from Heartland Small Animal Rescue (who has adoption events from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. every Saturday at the PetSmart in Mishawaka on Grape Road)! We love all animals and deeply believe that pets should be rescued. There are so many amazing animals yearning for love and safety, so we’re very thankful that in our area overrun by strays that there are many organizations looking to save these animals’ lives! All of these great organizations gave our pets microchips (for if they were ever lost), their shots, and fixed them. They make sure that owners are responsible and many require that you visit a vet within just a couple weeks of adoption-! These organizations also run annual or bi-annual free rabies clinic shots for the community (sometimes also including microchipping for free too) and we’re just so thankful for everything that they do for our local animals!
2) St. Joseph County Parks Department:
The parks department here in St. Joseph County does a lot to enrich our communities. We are avid nature lovers (duh, we own a vintage pop-up trailer and have a massive double-wide closet called our “adventure closet” FULL of camping supplies), so we fully support the parks. Every Spring they tap the trees and sell the local maple syrup, then hold “Sugar Camp Days” in very early spring to celebrate the new batches of syrup! We as a business have sponsored a maple syrup bucket before and it was great-! (They astonishingly give you a bottle of the fresh local syrup and other amazing goodies for sponsoring-!) We go to these events annually, photograph our couples’ Engagement Sessions and Family Portrait Sessions in many of their parks, and spend some of our favorite personal time in the parks, so we love any and all events that help the parks departments!
3) The Potawatomi Conservatories:
We absolutely LOVE the local plant conservatory! We ourselves have over 100 exotic and semi rare plants in our own household, so visiting the conservatory is a DREAM! The entrance fee to the lovely, warm conservatory is only $3 (or $2 for 14 & under/ FREE for kids 3 & under) and it’s lovely especially in the winter. They sell a few things in the free portion of the conservatory at the entrance INCLUDING amazing & very affordable exotic plants that they’ve grown from trimmings of the plants within the conservatory, so we’ve indulged and bought at least 6 of our plants there. We have also as a business donated a brick to them (a flat sum which in turn results in them engraving a brick with your business name on it to be placed on the floor within the conservatory). We plan on donating a couple more at least, so if you have any genuinely funny things that we could have engraved on our bricks (since one already says “Jenny and Jason Photography, LLC), PLEASE pass along those suggestions to: info@jennyandjasonphoto.com
If visiting, feel free to say hi to the resident cat Inky and the amazing staff (hey, Emily)-! We’ve spent many a lovely afternoon chatting with both :) If you have any extremely exotic plants or even cacti to donate, they have also taken some of those, so feel free to reach out to them or visit to find out if they may have a place for the said plants-! They got hit pretty hard this year in the Polar Vortex with their water pipe bursting and many of the plants freezing to death literally overnight in the -20 temps due to that (killing 20% of their plants), so monsteras, cacti, and more are welcomed. We just donated a “pitcher plant” to them that we special ordered along with ours, so we’re excited to see it grow there in the wonderful habitat!
4) Middle School Sports:
Not all of our volunteering has to do with plants & animals. A lot of the local schools have no money to pay coaches, so they are most are fully volunteer coach based! Though she hadn’t played since her 4-year Varsity days in high school a whopping 10 years prior & we have no kids of our own (other than our 100 plants & 3 fur babies), Jenny coached girls volleyball for Christ the King grade school ever since we moved back to the Midwest and Jason helped coach at many, many practices- especially all of last year! Though extremely taxing when running a small business full-time and rushing off to often 4-times-a-week practices & games it was amazing to see the girls grow over the years and lend them unbiased life lessons, teach them skills in physical & mental strength (which ALL girls need), and in turn learn from them as well. The coaching has now ended and after these 4 years have now ended for them, the girls will be moving on to high school after this next final semester of school. We’re excited to see how they all continue to grow, will be buying things from them at their Economic Fair next week (Friday Dec 13th at CKS- they all make their own products to sell), and will be there for them if they need anything in the future!
5) The Logan Center:
This year we volunteered with the Logan Center to teach 6 adults about how to run your own business-! We chatted with everyone about their passions, talked about what they could do to put their plans into action, and talked a bit about our business of photography. We had our studio set up, so we photographed everyone and also let some of them do a bit of photographing as well which some of them really thrived at-! Some of them immediately jumped in, started directing us on how to pose, and more-! We were really excited to hear all about the professions many were interested in and were thrilled that their leader Beth had already planned field trips & courses with businesses in those fields for everyone-!
The Logan Center helps those who are differently abled achieve quality of life. Jenny’s own family dating back to her grandpa through her sister all volunteered and worked there to help those of Michiana. They have provided Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Speech Language Pathology, and more as well as life enriching activities, art, and more! Local Catholic elementary schools and the community also participate in “the Logan Nose On” wherein around St. Patrick’s Day they purchase Logan Center’s green noses, green hats, and more with the proceeds going to The Logan Center. If you haven’t already, make sure to check them out-!
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Remember during this “Season of Giving” that you have the ability to lend a hand to others around you and that you and only you get to decide which of your top favorite places are those that you’d like to volunteer at or give to. Volunteering is free and helps us connect with one another, but if you don’t have the time or energy, donating is just as important. The giving isn’t limited to December and may be easier if you plan it out in advance for 2020, so don’t feel bad if resources are limited this December! There is so much that you can do in the coming year both small and large that will go a long way for many charity and non-profit groups that are something different than the Salvation Army greeter ringing their bell outside a department store. Think outside the box about what things you may find truly important or meaningful and there’s almost certainly an organization in your area that would love to hear from you. Donations and volunteering in any form are a great way of “giving” that doesn’t have to strain your bank account or buy more junk that can eventually end up in a landfill. You can also take solace in the fact that someone (or some animal, nature, etc.) is being helped. Needless to say there’s no reason to simply restrict donations or volunteerism to the holiday season, but it does coincide nicely with the holiday spirit. Until next week, thank you so much for taking the time to read the blog and Happy Holidays!