The Heart of it All - Fundraiser!
Hey everyone! My name is Codie West, I'm a 23-year-old US Army veteran and the founder of Rural Royalty, ltd. Photography has been a passion of mine for the better part of a decade and, alongside my good friend and videographer Michael Meadows, I decided on October 12, 2016, to file the Articles of Organization to form an LLC to pursue my passion in a professional capacity. Between then and now, my team has been strung across the world (quite literally) for obligations other than this business, but that's about to change!
We haven't had the opportunity to create much content up to this point, so how do we define our brand in 2018? I've dedicated a significant amount of time and resources since July 2017 into planning this first major project, I'm calling The Heart of It All. If you've been following this campaign for some time now, maybe you'll notice the plans have changed quite a bit since I first announced it. At the time I didn't really know what direction it would take, and I certainly didn’t anticipate it to become something so elaborate.
Moving forward to this spring, The Heart of it All will launch as Rural Royalty's premiere YouTube series. Beginning with the Pilot episode on Thursday, March 22, 2018, the season will run for 52 weekly episodes and will cover 50 different locations all over the State of Ohio! I also plan to create a photography book following the completion of the season, as well as other items available for purchase, and a ton of exclusive content for our Patrons. 2018 is going to be a very big year!
I am starting this project following my deployment in southwest Asia in support of Operations Spartan Shield and Inherent Resolve. I’ve used my personal income during this tour to acquire the equipment I need to make The Heart of it All become a reality. It certainly hasn’t been cheap to commit to an entire business startup out of pocket. The funds raised from this campaign will go towards reimbursing my out of pocket equipment expenses while providing some additional funding for the equipment I still need to acquire!
I cannot afford to make this project happen without you, anything you can do to help would be a blessing. Being able to see my passion through into a career is something I would love nothing more than to be able to do in life, and your help genuinely means the world to me! As a thank-you, the first 500 donations of $20 or more will receive a limited number, signed 8x10 print of one of the 50 locations following the conclusion of this season.
I can't wait to get started and share with all of you the hard work of my team, and I honestly don't know how to articulate just how excited I am about all of this! Please share this campaign and consider donating.
Thank you!
- Alexander Codie West