As some of you may or may not know my full time profession is not photography. I know...hard to believe right? I actually work as a Firefighter/EMT for the local hospital and fire department. Well, I come to find out that my very good friend Janey who is also a Firefighter/EMT has signed up for the Scott Firefighter Stair climb this coming March. For those of you who are not aware of what that is...it's a ridiculously arduous timed climb up 69 flights of stairs to the top of Columbia Center, the tallest building in downtown Seattle, in full gear.

Okay so it's not just for fun though. All the proceeds from the event go to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to help fund blood cancer research and patient services. A pretty good cause if you ask me. So here's what we are asking you to do. Please take a minute to read what Janey has to say below and give a little. It doesn't take much and I'm sure that anything you can help with would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for all your help and support,

Steve

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I will be participating in the Scott Firefighter Stairclimb on Sunday March 8th. What is this? Well it is pure torture! It is a race up 69 flights of stairs in full fire gear and SBCA (that weighs approximately 50lbs). While this will be an incredibly tough climb, the real challenge is to help fight blood cancers. All proceeds from the competition benefit The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS).

Now you are wondering how you can help. Besides forwarding this email to everyone on your contact list, you can donate to the cause. You can give as little or as much as you like. Please support me by going to http://www.firefighterstairclimb.org/ and click donate. Type in Janey Schon and then donate. It's that easy! Thanks for supporting me in the fight against blood cancers.

I find myself in a somewhat unique situation. For the past 5 years I have worked every summer at a camp for kids and for the past few years I have helped sponsor at least one kid out of my own pocket. Usually it was just some kid who showed up to register for camp and for one reason or another was short on the fees or a local kid that I knew who wanted to go to camp but couldn’t afford it.

Last year the camp director came to me and told me that he was going to appeal the board of directors for the organization that sponsors the camp to get me a pay raise because he felt that the work I did there was invaluable and blah blah blah. I told him that I thought it was great that he felt that way but that if he managed to get me a pay raise I was going to use the extra money to set up a scholarship for a camper anyway.

So yesterday I got an email with the great news. The board of directors approved the pay increase! Now I find myself in the somewhat awkward position of having to figure out how to advertise this scholarship and what criteria to set for awarding the thing. I feel kind of weird about limiting the thing to a certain group of kids or whatever but obviously it should be set aside for a kid who wouldn’t normally be able to attend for financial reasons.

Some background on the camp would be helpful I guess. It’s sponsored by NW Washington 4-H but isn’t limited to 4-H members. Anyone can attend this camp. There is no real "theme" to the camp other than having fun. Most other summer camps have some kind of theme or agenda that they focus on these days like horse camp or sailing or whatever else is out there. This one is just all about having a good time. The kids go swimming, hiking, canoing, do arts and crafts, and play games. It consists of two one week sessions in July.

So here’s what I need....I need help coming up with ideas for criteria for awarding the scholarship first and foremost. I also could use some help with coming up with ideas for advertising the thing. Maybe some of you great graphic design folks out there could help with that...you know coming up with flyers or something like that. If you’re interested in doing that let me know and I can get you more information. Maybe there could be a contest of sorts in the future for that. Don’t really have any advertising budget for the camp but perhaps a contest of sorts could be in the works there.

Soooo..any help, comments, input...HELP would be great...

HA....made you look. I got this email the other day. Fun stuff huh? So apparently the Australian Lottery awards prizes to random email address's in the US through a European representative office in Amsterdam who pays out through a branch office in Nigeria. WHO KNEW....but damn it looks like I have disqualified myself by posting this...NOBODY LOOK

                   UNI,24 HIGHER AVENUE HARRIS PARK
                                           GRANVILLE NSW  0152 SYDNEY
                                            AUSTRALIA.

Honestly this is driving me crazy. I have been trying to update the calendar on here for the past week to show my shooting schedule and it's just all screwed up. Every time I try to update it it signs me out and doesn't add the appointment. I've contacted Myspace help about it over and over again and they haven't done a damn thing about it.

Anyone else having this problem or is it just me?