If you are like most, you rode the excitement wave of digital cameras right after you bought your new computer to avoid any Y2K issues TEN YEARS AGO.  Can you believe it has been ten years?  You remember your first digital camera, you know the 1.5 mega pixel camera that finally released the shutter 2.4 seconds after you pushed the button.  The one that supplied more pictures of your subject half out of the frame than it did with them smiling for the photographer.

Well now that digital cameras are at rock bottom prices you are probably collecting your old cameras and chargers in a drawer for the day you are going to “need” them.  Let’s be honest, that day will never come. It is estimated that the average household has 3-4 old digital cameras collecting dust in their home. Your top of the line Pentex Optio 3.2  that fits inside of an Altoids case can not hold a candle to what you can now buy for under a hundred bucks.  So what are you going to do with all of these? Someone has to want them, right? …YES! you are correct.

Kids Path of Greensboro wants them, and there is no organization that will put them to better use. Kids Path is the children’s program of Hospice and Palliative Care of Greensboro and provides home care for children living with potentially life threatening conditions as well as grief support for any child in the community coping with the serious illness or death of a loved one. Kids Path Counselors provide individual grief counseling support as well as Support Groups, a special overnight Grief Camp and workshops.

Pathfinders, the 6 week grief group for teens coping with the death of a loved one, is currently underway at Kids Path and the focus is on Photography.  20 teens have been learning how to use photography not only to express their feelings and reactions related to the loss but also to use photographs as a way of establishing their own voice.  Grieving teens often have a lot to say but no words to say it.  Creating images with digital cameras and working with the Kids Path Counselors and local photographers gives the teens the freedom and creativity of expression that they may not have been exposed to before.  The group culminates in a final Photography exhibit at Kids Path and the teens invite their friends and family to attend.

Most of the families in the program own a digital camera, and Mastercolor wants to help provide each individual with a camera to use and to take home during the program.  Please ship or bring by any older working digital camera that you no longer use.  If you ship a camera in, please include a disk with some of your favorite images and we will be happy to print them and ship them to you for free.  If you want to stop in and drop off a camera, we will be happy to give you a $20.00 gift certificate for any printing needs you may have in the future.

Please help Kids Path of Greensboro, they certainly could use your support.

Our ship to address:  Mastercolor Labs * 2006 N. Church Street * Greensboro NC 27405

There is not much that makes me want to use a vacation day when it’s raining, but going to the Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield County Club is one of them.  I certainly did not get to watch all the golf I had hoped for on Thursday due to the weather delays, but what I did get to see were lots of Greensboro and Triad residents coming together to put on a great show for the whole world to see.  I saw Mastercolor customers as volunteers, I saw them as corporate sponsors, and I saw what I hope to be future customers with smuggled cameras snapping photos of the new “hotties” on tour.  My favorite, easy call, Webb Simpson.  Webb grew up playing in Raleigh and reached the #1 amateur in the world rankings while playing at Wake Forest.  Webb also happens to be the younger brother of one of my best friends, so it makes my decision on who is my favorite that much easier.  I hope anyone in the area who has the chance will get out and support the community, the PGA Tour and most importantly, Webb Simpson.  And if you go, and if you smuggle your Digital Camera, and if you need the finest Digital Prints made, please come visit us at Mastercolor Labs.

FORE!