Amber Williams has proven there are endless opportunities to give back to your community, if you think outside the box.
Williams, who operates a photo studio out of her home in Eden Mills, was approached three years ago by clients asking about a holiday promotion.
“I’ve always been brought up in an environment of giving back so I thought, well I don’t have a lot of abundant cash on the side, but I’ve got my time and my talents so maybe I can create a photo shoot where instead of people paying me, [they] pay in food or money, or toys or clothing [for] the local food bank,” she reflects.
“And each year it’s just kind of changed and grown.”
This year, the event raised $4,000 and collected 550 pounds of food for the East Wellington Community Services food bank.
Williams said she managed to squeeze in 70 families for photo sessions during the Nov. 30 event, but there were still many on a waiting list – evidence of the fundraiser’s growing popularity.
“I posted [the event] on Remembrance Day in the evening around 9 o’clock … and by noon the next day I was fully booked with over 70 spots taken,” she says.
Williams said to reach this year’s goal of $2,500 she suggested participants bring either two bags of food or donate $35 in cash or gift cards.
“It’s not about getting something for basically nothing and not really worrying where it’s going,” she says. “I just thought, let’s really appreciate what we’re doing here, so when I put a value on it I found that people really wanted to give and give quality food.”
As the event has become better known in the community, Williams said she was approached by local businesses wondering how they could get involved – so this year a number of door prizes were raffled off throughout the day.
Williams also invited a number of high school volunteers looking for community service hours to help out. She says it is really great to see the whole community getting involved and she hopes to expand the event next year – maybe to other photo studios.
“It [encourages people] to shop local, it promotes all sorts of local businesses … and the local food bank wins, so I’m going to put a challenge out to some of my colleagues to see who wants to take this on and all of us can have a competition to see who can raise the most money for their local food bank,” she said.
Andrea La Grand, who works with the EWCS, said Williams’ fundraiser is invaluable in offsetting the food bank’s increased need around the holidays.
“It’s definitely made a huge impact to our donations,” said La Grand.
Despite the fundraiser’s success, Williams remains humbled by the response.
“People keep saying, ‘oh you did this, you’re so great!’ but I just say, ‘you know what, the whole community did this’,” she says. “I really think that what you put out in the world is what you get back.
“Every year I drop things off at the EWCS and I leave in tears. It’s just such an overwhelming, unbelievable happy feeling to be able to do that.”
For more information visit www.amberrichmond.com.
