I am thrilled to pass on incredible news! I am honored to announce that my fundraising for people in the event industry is giving out our first grant.
I am happy to announce our first recipient of a $1000.00 grant is Cyndi Hardy of Cyndi Hardy Photography. Her incredible journey and story is below. Please see the links to the fundraisers below the story and continue to share. We can make a difference.
Hello my name is Cyndi Hardy….
I moved to Arizona in 2004, shortly after my father was in a car accident and became a quadriplegic. I bought a house and had my parents move in with me and worked on building my business in the Scottsdale area. In 2017, my mom was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and has now beat it 3 times in almost 3 years. I am her caregiver, which entails taking her to all doctor’s appointments and infusions, helping her get through the side effects and most importantly keeping her positive throughout it all.
While going to college for commercial photography, I started working for a wedding photographer and fell in love with telling people’s visual stories. My favorite part of photographing weddings is how they are all about the couple and what they love, it makes every wedding different and fresh. After graduating cum laude with a Bachelor of the Arts degree in commercial photography, I started my own photography business specializing in weddings and portraits.
When Covid-19 hit, weddings and events were the first thing to be shut down which just happened to be in the middle of the busy season here. During March, April and May I work extra hard to bring in extra income to get me through the very slow and hot summer season. I had a total of 14 weddings and numerous portrait and engagement sessions cancel or postpone, which was my entire summer income gone.
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I started this fund to make sure those of us in the event industry weren’t forgotten. So many of us slipped through the cracks during the assistance packages that were sent out. Small businesses who weren’t classified in the correct way or being told your 1099 employees don’t count as “payroll”
Our industry was the first hit, the hardest hit AND will be the last to rebuild. Meetings and events have a lot of unknowns for people to get their heads around before feeling comfortable. But if any industry can come through it, we can.
If you can, please contribute to the links below and make sure the people who were there for your before, will be there to celebrate with you after.
Thank you,
David
