Some of you may remember when, a couple months ago, I was photographed by my extremely talented cousin, Kelly Bennett. Kelly is now starting a program where she’ll be photographing deploying military members and their families free of her standard sitting fees (which, if you’ve ever worked with a good professional photographer, you should know are spendy!) and wants to provide them with professional canvas prints, called a “hero canvas,” that will look roughly like this:

(Canvas is a Limited edition Jessica Dittmer Design)The canvas will be 12×12″ with a 5×7″ photo integrated into the center, as indicated. (The “faded” part on the outside is just indicating full bleed/wrap size and won’t look like that in print.) The text reads:

I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives.
I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him.

The canvasses usually cost $70 just to print, but Kelly hopes to offer them to military families, along with her services, free of charge. She is asking for donations to help support this project, both the immediate shoots she has lined up (three in the next week alone) and in the long-term. She will be setting up a fund specifically for this project, so you can be assured your money will go directly to the cost of a hero canvas. Also, let me reiterate: Her services are being offered free of charge. You are not paying her, you’re helping defray the cost of the canvas print itself.

As an added bonus, the company Kelly contracts with for printing will donate 5% of the cost of each canvas to the USO care package program, which means your donation benefits the troops twice.

Regardless of your position on the Iraq or Afghanistan wars, the current or future administrations, candidates, politics, or anything else, I think we can agree on one thing: It’s hard for military families to spend so much time apart. I remember when Mike deployed how touched I was when people offered up acts of kindness like this, like when the good folks at Dave Smith Motors detailed his truck for free right before he came home. If you can donate even a little bit toward this cause, you’re helping fund a piece of artwork that will surely have a place of honor in a military home, both during the deployment and in the years to come.

If you’d like to give a donation of any amount, you can send funds via PayPal to Kelly Bennett at cagrownutbound@yahoo.com. Please put “hero canvas project” in the header message. You can also mail donations to:

Hero Canvas Project
c/o Kelly Bennett Photography
P.O. Box 247
Holden UT 84636 If you have any questions, you can contact Kelly or ask me and I’ll pass information along. Thanks!