Dear Friends,
A little over a week ago I sent out an announcement of a project I’ve been working on for the past few months photographing Cape Ann World War II Veterans in anticipation of an exhibition at City Hall in Gloucester for Veterans Day in November.
Since then I’ve photographed an additional eight veterans ranging from a member of the Army’s 10th Mountain division; a 96-year-old Army nurse; a married couple who both served in the Navy; a 93-year-old Essex Marine who landed on Okinawa; a life-long Annisquam resident who was part of the first Army Air Corps search and rescue squad and the Mondello brothers, two of five Gloucester Mondellos who served during the war.
This project is an effort to ensure that their stories and portraits are preserved, remembered and honored.
I need the community’s help in two important ways:
• If you know of any World War II veterans living on Cape Ann (Gloucester, Rockport, Manchester, Essex) who might want to be included in this project, please let me know. I hope to have everyone photographed by the end of September. Please get in touch 978.884.7964, or email jason@jasongrow.com There is no cost to the veterans and each will receive a print as a thank you for their participation.
• I need to raise funds for the exhibition. My target is $10,000 for printing, framing and the exhibition of the portraits (50 prints @ $200/print). I’ve had a tremendous start with many generous donations. Thank you if you’ve already contributed. However, I am still some ways away from the goal. If I can’t raise the funds to cover the cost of the show, I won’t be able to complete the project. Please consider giving anything you can to help make this exhibition a success. Any funds raised above and beyond the cost of the exhibition will be donated to benefit Cape Ann veterans.
• If you would like to help support this project, or know someone who might, please consider sending a contribution (made out to Jason Grow Photography) to the address below. I’ve also started a GoFundMe campaign if you’d prefer to contribute that way: http://www.gofund.me/ww2vetsportraits
I would be grateful for any contributions that help this project succeed.
Thank you and please forward this on to anyone you think might be interested.
Jason
Jason Grow Photography
Carol Thistle forwards-
US Department of Housing and Urban Development Selects Gloucester in Highly Competitive Grant
Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken announced today that US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has awarded $1,285,280 to the City of Gloucester to eliminate lead paint from Gloucester’s homes. The grant is highly competitive, and Gloucester is one of only 32 communities in the country to receive funding.
Mayor Romeo Theken stated, “The funding from HUD will reduce the risk of lead paint poisoning in our children. HUD has been a great partner for the City, and these additional monies will allow us to do even more to support our families and their homes.”
“Every family deserves to live in a safe and healthy home where they can see their children thrive and excel,” said HUD Secretary Julián Castro. “Communities will use these grants to help eliminate home-related hazards in neighborhoods across the country. A healthy home is vital to the American Dream.”
The City’s Community Development Department will be working with HUD to finalize the grant agreement over the next month. The City will publicize when the program is ready to accept applications.
The Unitarian Universalist Society of Rockport’s Thrift Shop is having its end-of-season HALF PRICE SALE this Friday and Saturday, September 4 and 5. The shop is open from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00. We will also be open Friday night from 4 to 8 for Rockport’s First Friday event, Customers will find great treasures..old tools, fine crystal, sporting equipment, games and puzzles, art and collectibles..something for all ages!
The money from the Thrift Shop goes toward the matching funds the church is required by the Community Preservation Fund to raise for the repair of the church steeple.
Come, browse…you might be surprised at what you might find and you will be helping with the restoration of one of Rockport’s treasures. We are located at 4 Cleaves Street in downtown Rockport.
Thank you for posting this….Liz Spaulding
Good Morning Gloucester 
I can’t say I am one-hundred percent comfortable with the way this is being presented on social media. A blurb on Facebook shows up in between news about singers that don’t like wearing clothes, peach cobbler recipes and rock concerts. The final image that is prepared from this project arranges several heads and bodies like they are so many action figures you can add to your collection.The line between showing proper respect for people and history, and packaging for the purposes of marketing is being crossed here, it seems to me.
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You could create a better way to do it. Start a Facebook competitor, and garner as many eyeballs as Facebook does and do your own project to preserve memories and make sure all the hosting is done on your own servers so you can exclude any marketing efforts to pay for any of the infrastructure, and when you’re successful with all that, it will be a perfect world. 🙂
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Listen and Learn I’m all ears thank you Capt Joe for everything you and team GMG do for us! 🙂 Dave & Kim 🙂
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For better, or worse, social media is the means of getting the message out. Without it, I never would have been connected with some of the folks I’ve been lucky enough to photograph. For instance, it was directly from GMG that I received a call from a gentleman in Virginia alerting me to his cousin, who just happens to be my neighbor up the street, but someone I did not know is a WWII Veteran. Without social media, we probably wouldn’t have connected for this project.
I’m not sure how to respond to your objections to the “packaging” except to say that it’s there to give a sense of the project, in a finite amount of space and time, so that people can see what it’s all about. The final project will be online and with luck and funding, at City Hall.
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UPDATE UPDATE: The Gloucester Fund has agreed to accept donations on the project’s behalf. Checks should be made out to:
The Gloucester Fund (with a memo indicating the WWII Veterans Portrait Project)
and sent to:
The Gloucester Fund
45 Middle Street
Gloucester MA 01930
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Excellent post Capt Joe and Jason Grow! From across the big pond yes as a retired veteran myself this is vital word out!
hat time of year and a project is so meaningful thanks for the posts! 🙂 Dave & Kim 🙂
“September Song ～ Come September” – Santo & Johnny.” (2) Here!
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I have to re-iterate my strong negative feelings associated with this cover photo. It seems at odds with all the lofty text regarding this ambitious important project. I am not going to deny the usefulness of social media, but with that new utility also comes a new somewhat haphazard and cheap way of experiencing the world, that people who use social media should acknowledge. People who package social media need to get up to speed RIGHT NOW, about how THEY control the means of how all of us are making sense of history, and they need to show proper respect, especially when dealing with the non-wired. The non-wired are in some real sense being disenfranchised. When I look at that image, I am immediately drawn to the person who is holding a case with his war medals.
I see that image, squeezed in with all the others, and I imagine the physical presence of this person, who would like to tell me what it was like, and I feel compelled to shout, in frustration, on his behalf, “don’t aggregate me, bro!”
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Compelling images composed in a a beautiful and sensitive manner. Very best wishes with the project Jason.
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🙂 Dave & Kim 🙂 100% correct!
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