Beautiful Haiti

Last month my family and I sailed on the inaugural cruise of Royal Caribbean’s brand new ship, the Oasis of the Seas.  One of the places we visited was Labadee, Royal Caribbean’s private beach on Haiti’s north coast.  The private beach is completely sheltered from the rest of the country and is guarded by UN troops.  That made me incredibly sad.  The small glimpse we got of Haiti was absolutely beautiful, but it was so heartbreaking that the situation in Haiti was so bad that they had to completely isolate the tourists visiting by UN troops.  I wanted to badly to be able to see more of Haiti, the part that wasn’t sheltered for tourism.  This was before the earthquake.

Watching the aftermath of the earthquake on the news was so difficult and I couldn’t help but think of the Haitians that we met during that small glimpse we got.  Were they ok?  Did they know where their family were?  I felt so helpless watching the coverage on TV.  I really wanted to help in some meaningful way. Well, I am incredibly blessed to be a member of a local photography group called SoFly.  It’s a small group of hugely talented women that are photographers in South Florida.  We meet once a month to shoot and chat about life and business.   Our last meetup was right after the earthquake in Haiti so we decided to organize a fundraiser for Haiti Earthquake Relief.  We will be shooting mini sessions this Saturday, January 30 in downtown Hollywood and all proceeds will go to a local charity called Sow A Seed that is doing relief work in Haiti.  If you are in the South Florida area, please come out!  You’ll get amazing photos and help Haiti at the same time.  It’s truly a win-win.  Details below!