When Family Voices, Inc. invited me to shoot their event, I was excited and happy to oblige. I enjoy shooting for not-for-profit organizations, since they always have such great staff and unique mission statements. The goal of Family Voices is to “achieve family-centered care for all children and youth with special health care needs and/or disabilities.” As a friend of several parents who have children with special needs, I can certainly appreciate their goals and applaud their efforts to create health systems that work for families and children, to form partnerships between families and professionals, and to support the disabled youth through self-advocacy and empowerment.

The Family Voices Gala is an event to celebrate “families that thrive, not just survive, in the face of great and varied challenges. Families that include moms, dads, babies, teens, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends that support, love, and advocate not only for their own, but also for others…to celebrate the shared success of all families – especially those that include children and youth with special health care needs and/or disabilities.”

The event honored several advocates, including Peters Willson, who has worked for more than 20 years for improved hospital policies; the Fialka-Feldman family for their active work in social justice for the mentally and physically disabled; and Jim Kelly, the former Buffalo Bills quarterback, whose son was diagnosed with a life threatening disease, and has been a very vocal advocate for universal newborn screening on a national level. Jim was very nice to me; he’s also a great and entertaining speaker.

The following are a selection of images from the evening, but a full gallery of images from the night are available here.

The Family Voices Gala was held in a massive ballroom at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C. Despite the size, the atmosphere felt comfortable and pleasant. The hotel staff did a fantastic job of decorating the place and arranging the tables.

These two fine ladies from Family Voices helped everyone get their name tags and registration for the event.

The honorees were all given a beautiful piece of artwork, that was nicely framed with a small inscription. The art was created by Jessica Vohs, an artist from Brookline, Massachusetts. She studies at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and Mass College of Art. Her work has been exhibited nationally and she frequently contributes her art to organizations working on behalf of people with disabilities. You can see more of her work at jessicavohs.com.

As I mentioned earlier, Jim Kelly (left) was was one of the night’s honorees. He was introduced and presented by R. Rodney Howell, M.D. (right). Jim chided me for taking several photos at a time, saying great photographers only take one. I replied I like to have a backup. People blink, maybe something is distracting in the background, or sometimes people just look a little goofy from one shot to the next. Thus, when time allows, it never hurts to get that one extra image.

The emcee for the night was Mark Trombino, an actor living in Phoenix, Arizona, who has worked in commercials, voice-overs, television, movies and theater. He was a lot of fun and a great motivational speaker. He did a fantastic job welcoming everyone, sharing stories from his life and introducing the presenters and honorees.

Despite some distracting elements, I just love this shot of Mark’s head poking up above the table. Mark is 3′ 3″ tall and is considered short among other dwarfs, but he’s got great energy and charisma.

The first presenter of the night was Mallory Cyr, a talented member of the Family Voices’ Kids as Self Advocates National Advisory Board. She graduated from the University of Maine at Farmington with a degree in Creative Writing. As evidenced in the photos, she is extremely kind and happy.

This next image could have been so much cooler if the large placard and easel weren’t in the way, but I wanted to share it anyway. I love how the spotlight lights up Mallory.

She presented the Family Voices’ Lifetime Achievement Award to Peters Willson for his advocacy work.

Peters Willson led government relations in Washington, D.C., working as vice president for public policy with the National Association of Children’s Hospitals and Related Institutions. He is a founding member of the board of directors of the Children’s Inn at NIH and a member of the board of Family Voices.

The next honoree was introduced by Yoshiko Dart, who has an incredible story. Living in Japan, she took over care for her impoverished family when she was only 13 years old. Eventually, she worked her way through a prestigious Tokyo university and became the first woman in her rural Nagano village to graduate from a four-year university. She helped found Japan Tupperware and became one of the leading women executives in Japan. She has been an advocate for ADA and is active in mentoring youth with disabilities for their independence and empowerment. She did a great job in engaging the audience and was entertaining as well.

Yoshiko presented the Family Voices’ Lifetime Achievement Award to Micah, Janice, Emma, and Richard Fialka-Feldman, an exceptional family working extensively to facilitate rights for those living with disabilities. The family shared one of their favorite quotes from Dan Wilkens, “A community that excludes even one of its members is no community at all.” This was a solemn reminder to me to always be kind and accepting of everyone.

The last presenter was R. Rodney Howell, M.D., a Professor of Pediatrics and Chairman Emeritus at the Miller School of Medicine of the University of Miami in Florida. Among his many credentials, he chaired the Expert Advisory Panel for the Health Resources and Services Administration/American College of Medical Genetics working groups that produced the report “Newborn Screening: Toward a Uniform Screening Panel and Systems.”

He introduced Jim Kelly, an NFL football Hall of Fame member and former quarterback for the Buffalo Bills.

Jim Kelly was the last honoree of the night. When his son Hunter was diagnosed with Krabbe disease (an inherited, fatal, nervous system disease), shortly after his birth in 1997, Jim and his wife established Hunter’s Hope Foundation, with the goal that every newborn in every state be tested for every treatable disease through the Universal Newborn Screening program. Ultimately, his son passed away after an eight year struggle with the disease. Nevertheless, Jim has worked tirelessly with state governments to increase the number of diseases for which newborns are tested.

LJ Nguyen, a high school senior from Albuquerque, NM, provided entertainment for the evening. He sang two songs which were inspiring and uplifting.

And finally, many thanks to Rachel (left), for inviting me to photograph the event and to Dorian (right), for filming the event. Family Voices plans to add video clips of the speakers to their site soon.

I really like these quotes from the article and wanted to share them here:

Stress levels fall within minutes of seeing green spaces…even filling a home with flowers and plants can improve concentration and lower stress.

If children haven’t had contact with nature, they never develop a relationship with natural environment and they are unable to use it to cope with stress…

Studies have shown that people deprived of contact with nature were at greater risk of depression and anxiety. Children are getting less and less unsupervised time in the natural environment.

They need time playing in the countryside, in parks and in gardens where they can explore, dig up the ground and build dens.

To that end, The Conservation Fund in 2007 started The National Forum on Children and Nature, a 54-member Forum consisting of corporate CEOs, three mayors, four governors, parks officials and others dedicated to reconnecting kids with nature.

The Fund held a kick-off meeting in June 2007 at the Evermay House, an historic 3.5 acre estate in Washington D.C. In Sept. 2008 it was put on the market for $49 million dollars. I was invited to photograph the event.

Larry Selzer, CEO of The Conservation Fund and Director of The Forum on Children and Nature, addresses the group.

Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods, and Honorary Co-Chair of the Forum.

The Everymay house is simply stunning inside and I loved the light that was flowing through the hallway in these next two shots.

As most photographers shooting a large group know, it’s difficult to gather everyone together and get their attention; this group was no exception. After having to raise my voice a bit to get everyone listening, they managed to organize themselves into a respectable looking group. Still, this was a challenging shot. I was standing on a wobbly chair (I would have preferred a ladder for additional elevation), the fountain was still flowing and there was a lot of contrast, but in the end this turned into a decent group shot.

Many thanks to The Conservation Fund for inviting me to spend an afternoon with an amazing group of people. I wish you much success in this great initiative.

The event is held at the National Geographic headquarters in Washington D.C., and while I may never become a National Geographic photographer, I at least had the opportunity to take photographs in their hallowed halls.

I’ve attended this event in previous years and this one by far was the most fun and entertaining. The Fund rented a long green carpet and Kodak, one of the key sponsors, hung a backdrop against the wall.

I was asked to photograph the guests and participants as they arrived at the event and Kodak would print out 4×6 images on a mobile print kiosk they brought along. Many of the attendees were happy to mug for the camera, like this group of lovely ladies.

After taking over a hundred photos of the guests, I turned my attention to the awards ceremony and was faced with a tricky glass background that tended to make the heads of dark haired individuals disappear.

Adjusting the angle helped a bit, but the background was a little busy. Here, Mary Bomar, Director of the National Park Service, discusses the importance of greenways.

Finally, I’m so impressed with the sharpness of both my new Nikon 50mm 1.4D lens and Nikon D700 camera, as shown by the photo of these two Conservation Fund staffers. Editorial note: names have been slightly blurred on the name tags.

Located just behind and to the right of these ladies is a gallery in the National Geographic headquarters where top quality photography and other exhibits are featured. I highly recommend a visit here to see what’s on display.