Thank You Note

A few weeks ago, I participated as a volunteer in Scouting University to teach Girl Scouts between the ages of 11-13 about photography so that they could earn their "photo badge". I cannot stress what a thrill this was as someone who has always admired the teachers who dedicated themselves to learning every single day.

My father has always encouraged me to volunteer, and while I'm certainly no sergeant of the Salvation Army, I decided Scout U would be the perfect starting point for volunteer work. It started out as a bit of an emergency. One of the photography teachers had canceled less than a week before the event and Danielle was scrambling to find a replacement. I offered to teach or assist, and she immediately recruited me. Two days later, Danielle called me and said that the other two photo teachers had quit. Holy crap, I thought. The average class was 20 kids. Was I supposed to teach a class of 60 scouts?

I offered to try to find a replacement, and thank God, Taylor Emannuelson completely came to the rescue. Taylor is a great friend of mine who used to work devotedly to hone her craft as a photographer "back in the day".

So when the class began, my secondary and I began the lessons and I tried to make it as fun as possible. A big thank-you goes out to Zac Lehr, assistant photo editor of the Morning News, for coming as a guest speaker.

I know it's silly, but one of the coolest parts of Scout U was when the kids all called me "Mr. Putt" What a trip! I'm a Mister? Ha ha haaa.

So the entire event was a total success and just recently I received a Thank-You note from the organization, which included a couple of "Teacher Evaluations" written by the Scouts. They were:
"I learned a lot about the Camera"
"It was cool to meet a real photographer"
and my favorite... "Mr. Putt is really fun and knows how to make us laugh."

I'll see if I can round up a photo soon!