When you have a need...

When you have a need, plant a seed.

More than two decades ago, we both felt we needed to do something to give back to our community. Although we were not able to give the most money, we felt we could give something to the families with children in hospice and that was a black and white Relationship style portrait that was beautifully printed and framed. 

This portrait would be done in the same manner as our top-of-the-line portraits and most importantly, be archival, as memories of these amazing children whose lives ended much too soon.

At the beginning of this venture, we had a pediatric arm of hospice named Daniel's Care as this was named after Rick Pitino's son, Daniel, who passed away as a child. For those who don't know who Rick Pitino is, he was our UK Basketball coach many years ago.

These days, it is simply known as the pediatric arm of hospice and we deal only with the children, from infants on up, who have a life-limiting illness.

What we needed to work out was what to do and how to do it properly so that the families felt comfortable with us and knew that we were not taking advantage of them. 

Our first step was to meet with the woman in charge. 

We talked about what we wanted to accomplish and how we saw it playing out. 

This is what was decided that day long ago and is still the way we work with our local pediatric hospice, although we haven't been as busy this past year due to COVID. 

~We allow one Black and White "Relationship" portrait per month (or more if needed) of a critically ill child with their family which our pediatric hospice chooses based on health factors. 

~All portraits are done in our studio due to time constraints (most come to Lexington for doctor's appointments so we try to schedule them on those days) and the others live here.

~After the session, we select and print a 16x16 archival fine art black and white portrait which is then framed and ready to hang.

~The social worker in charge sets up the appointment, passes along our information packet, picks up the portrait and delivers it to the family. 

No money ever changes hands...EVER! 

We choose to stay out of it other than doing the portrait since each family is already comfortable with their social worker.