Check Another One Off The List

Remember my list of goals for 2011? Well, maybe you don't, but they haven't stopped haunting me since I posted them for all to see on the right sidebar of this blog. I'm slowing working on a few of them (I'm up to book #5 or 6) while others are falling by the wayside (I chewed right through my fingernails this morning, eew!). In an effort not to fail miserably on my goals for the year (and to avoid writing a pathetic "recap of 2011" post in December), I decided to pick one and focus on completing it as soon as possible. So I went online and Googled "volunteer opportunities in CT" and found myself browsing through a list of wanted ads for various organizations on the VolunteerMatch website. One of the first listings I came across was for an organization in New Haven looking for a volunteer photographer to take pictures for them. Hold the phone? You mean I can get in my volunteer hours (goal #3) AND practice my photography craft (unlisted goal) all at once?! Yes, please!!

The organization is called the Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven (NHS). NHS works to rehabilitate houses and revitalize neighborhoods in the city of New Haven. They buy and renovate run down houses and sell them to low and moderate income families. We toured a few of their houses and I took pictures for them for their website and educational materials.

The NHS is also collaborating with the Yale University School of Architecture to design and build a new home in New Haven. I took a few pictures for them of the building progress, which was really interesting because they are only a few steps ahead of us in our own house project. The student project is really neat because they designed the house and are doing all of the building themselves.

I hope to work with the NHS again (notice the goal says volunteer more than once) in the near future. It's given me the opportunity to not only give back to a community organization but it has also allowed me to work on my photography skills. And now I can finally scratch another goal off the list. Yes!