May 1, 2020
New Canaan Community
Update: following resounding success and exceptional response to the initiative, The Front Steps Project is no longer scheduling family sessions after May 4. Thank you for making this campaign a success. Stay tuned for our next partnership, which will be announced very soon!
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Families are home together in New Canaan because of the COVID-19 health crisis and the Front Steps Project is an effort to take photographs of families who are sheltering in place while benefiting a local charity.
For a $75 donation to the New Canaan Moms Collective Fund, a local photographer will come to your home and take an outdoor portrait of your family! The hope is the portrait becomes a treasured memory of your family’s time together during this unprecedented period.
The portrait will be used on social media to promote the hashtag #thefrontstepsprojects and on the New Canaan Moms Collective Fund website page where a daily slideshow will feature portraits of local families, neighbors and friends.
The goal of the Front Steps Project is to bring the community together at a time when people are isolated and highlight the faces of friends and neighbors who can’t be seen physically. Participation in the project is also an opportunity to step up for people in the community who need help.
Here’s how to have a portrait taken. Use the following link https://bit.ly/NewCanaanMoms to make a $75 donation before the photo shoot is scheduled. Once you’ve signed up, a local photographer will contact you. At the shoot, social distancing will be followed. The photographer will meet your family outside, coordinate the portrait and depart. A digital file of the portrait will be emailed to each family.
Photo sessions can only be scheduled between 3:30 and 5 p.m. The sessions are set up based on neighborhoods so photographers can easily get from one location to another. Photo times will be determined after people register and make the suggested $75 donation. Please remember that the photos may not be perfect. Studio photographers are not being used and since the photos are being taken outside, the lighting and weather may not be perfect.
People can dress however they like. The project is meant to be fun, so if people want to pose in pajamas, that’s OK. If families want to get glammed-up, that’s OK too.
Proceeds from the project will be used to support local efforts by the New Canaan Moms Collective Fund. It has partnered with the town’s Department of Health and Human Services, local schools and other agencies to identify needs within the community.
If the suggested donation of $75 is more than a family’s means, arrangements can be made. “Gifting” a session to a struggling family that is welcomed. If a family would like to donate more than $75, larger donations will certainly be accepted.
Some of the local photographers who are donating their time include; Maria Altamura, Andrea Ceraso, Andrea Chalon, Mariola Galavis, Meghan Murphy Gould, Lorah Haskins, Katie Kinsley and Christina Saburro.
We look forward to seeing your family on the front steps of your home!