Did you spot us last weekend in our green jackets around Calgary? Our intrepid group of volunteer photographers were out in force this year at the The Sports Chek Mother’s Day Run/Walk.

This was our second opportunity to volunteer our services to the run/walk and we love every second of it. It’s hard to feel cold with so many smiling faces running up to you! The Sport Check Mother’s Day Run/Walk has an amazing group of volunteers that have been putting on this event for 34 years. The only thing they had not been able to do before was capture the spirit of the run/walk through images. Last year we gave them 500 images all professionally cleaned up and easy to find. Prior to us coming on board they only had a handful of images that they reused year after year for sponsorship, recruiting and media.

This year, in addition to the handpicked images that we delivered to the charity, we also uploaded the images to our Inner Spirit Photography website.  This way everyone can download their favourite image for free.

Since we started Inner Spirit we have been passionate about giving back to the community that gives so much to us. Usually we do this with donations for charity auctions, but with this we are excited that we can get directly involved and use our skills to help support such an important cause. We do so many maternity sessions and know that some of those moms use the Neonatal Intensive Care Units at the Peter Lougheed, Rockyview or Foothills Hospitals service. I have no doubt that there are children alive today because of the equipment obtained from the donations raised by this run.

This event is very important to me, and watching the mothers walking with their kids and grandkids brings back memories of walking it with my mom, Nola Laurie, years ago.

We cannot support the race without our volunteers, who were probably hoping for a morning of sunshine but came out regardless.

My volunteer team is:

Rob Berrade
Mason Dodds
Drew Gregory
Matt Lachmouth
Jan Howells-Laurie
Philip Litke
Carol Markusse
Neil Speers
Brandie Sunley
Cendrine Tolomio
Julie Vincent
Fran Williams
Louie Zhang

If you are a professional photographer, I urge you to look for similar opportunities in your community to share your skills and give back. It’s great fun, great promotion, and great for the community, but more than anything else, it’s great for expanding the heart and spirit, and isn’t that what photography should be all about?