Camera and Lens

UPDATE: Through to the power of the community and social media sharing, the camera and lens were found at a local pawn shop. Unfortunately, my bag and memory cards are gone.

The emotional uplift I have felt from the community in such a short period of time, is something that will never leave me.

I would love to turn to these funds into something impactful for the Arts in our community and transfer every cent over as a donation to Art Pop. However, I respect anyone's wishes who would like to see their donation returned, since the original use is no longer needed. I believe I have reached out to everyone of the generous donors below, but please reach to me if you have any concerns or questions!

++++++++++++++++++

Anyone that knows me, know it is extremely hard for me to ask for help, but I am learning, especially in this moment. Life hit me hard today and I feel completely lost as to what to do. I need my community.

At 1:30pm today, I had just finished up a newborn photo session, had to run some errands, I decided my car was long overdue for a good vacuuming. I unloaded everything out of my car, vacuumed it out, and reloaded everything BUT my camera bag. Not only did it contain my own camera body and lens, that I saved up super hard for, but my good friend's Jeff lens was also in there that he was letting me borrow for a couple of days. Most importantly, the photos of of the family's newborn baby were on the memory cards. Those are irreplaceable from today. Everything is gone. I filed a police report, but things do not look good.

To get really vulnerable here, I have been working extra hard taking on sessions the last 6 months to solely fund the start up of Art Pop. Pretty much all my money that I make from Photography this past months have gone to keep Art Pop's lights on during this start up season. As a small business owner, you do what you have to do to keep things going. I have not stopped. I always turn to myself to solve the problems, never want to feel a victim of any challenges and never expect a handout or for things to be easy. But this season has been a great sacrifice. I know how patient my husband and family has been with my absence and my income not going to our own household. Friends, I am backed into a corner with this one. I have zero funds to buy a new camera, lens and replace Jeff's lens. In fact, sessions I had lined up this weekend were going straight into the Art Pop account to make payroll for next week. I want to cry, want to throw up, want to yell at the top of my lungs and quite honestly disappear. However, after all that this is my reality. Here it is. I need to help. I am so sorry this is so difficult to ask. There are so many more valuable reasons to start a GoFundMe and I feel completely vulnerable right now doing this, but I have no idea what else to do.