One Love Minis Update | Charity | Fayetteville, N.C. Photographer

As mentioned in an earlier post, I teamed up with two other photographers to offer a mini-session special at the beach in hopes of raising money to help those who fell victim of the Moore, Oklahoma tornadoes back in May. Many families were affected and lost everything. Thanks to my good friend, Kristen Huntley, I got to be part of her brilliant idea (along with Jenifer Fennell) — give free sessions at the beach in return for a donation of at least a $50 gift card donation to Walmart, Lowes, Target ... ect. I was overwhelmed with the amount of support we received. We raised $475 worth of gift cards and were able to help out four families in Oklahoma. Thank you to those who participated and those who donated just to donate! You can see the original post, HERE.

This post is an update on three of those families that received our gift cards. Still waiting to hear about the fourth!

First, a long-time friend who currently lives in Moore and thankfully wasn't affected by the tornadoes, promised to hand the gift cards out and here's what he had to say:

"Jason and Mady just returned from their wedding at Disneyland and had their reception tonight. We were able to catch them and hand off their card and gift cards. They were tickled to death."

Jason and Mady were interviewed by the media and you can see it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QOGcj8Reuw

Jason and Mady lost EVERYTHING, but we determined to keep their wedding date and move on from the disaster. Please listen to their story, they are incredibly strong!

Next was a young family:

"Joey and Johnna (and of course, baby Liam) also lost their home. Joey and Liam rode it out in a shelter in their garage. They crawled out to find a concrete slab. They have become awesome friends of ours here and we thank you for allowing us to pass off your card and gift cards to them."

Then, another young couple:

"We were happy to share your gifts with our neighbor's son Tod and his wife Logan who lost their home in the May 20th tornado. Logan was also in a vehicle accident and totaled her car. It's been a rough time for this young couple."

So, again, we helped out some wonderful people who were given some hard times. Thank you to everyone who participated and thank you to my friend, Dustin and his wife Allison, for personally handing out the gift cards. I cannot wait to give another update on the final family we were able to help.

** Please remember that all images are copyrighted to Sharilyn Wells Photography, LLC. Please do not copy or alter any images without SWP, LLC consent. ***