This year, 27 brave individuals volunteered up their locks to raise money to fight the battle against cancer. I was really impressed to see so many women offer to have their heads shaved to raise funds this year. In one case, a biddig war broke out between co-workers to see who would get to shave one of their female co-workers hair off. Yukon Jack from 100.3 The Bear volunteered his time again this year to MC the event and did another outstanding job. I was glad to hear that his mom is fully recovered after a battle with colarectal cancer this past year. The girls from Jagged Edges  hair salon were on-hand for the 10th consecutive year and offered up their time and talent to provide everyone with their new hair styles. Fat Franks setup their hot dog cart on-site and donated 15% of their sales towards the cause as well. In addition, several volunteers from the Alberta Government were on-hand to help raise additional funds by selling hair braids, coloring hair, and collecting donations.

Hats off to everyone who came out to support the event and big tip of the hat to those who participated by shaving their heads and to those who supported their fundraising efforts. Togethter, cancer can be beaten. Here are a few photos from the event.

This year’s celebrity dancers included news anchor Marni Kuhlmann from CTV, former NFL & CFL player Sean Fleming, runner-up of Canada’s next top model Linsay Willier, former CEO of Stantec – Tony Franceschini, and radio host from EZ Rock – Ron Clark. Each were paired with a professional dancer who included Daina Moy Sanchez, Dominic Lacroix, David Lam, Delphine Romaire, and Elena Sinelnikova. The judges included last year’s winner and news anchor from CTV – Darryl McIntyre, Benoit Drolet, and Cynthia Dea. There were some great performances and at the end of the night, Marni Kuhlmann was crowned the 2009 champion after her energetic jive with her partner David Lam.

Of course the real winner of this event is the Kids with Cancer Society. This year’s spokesperson for the Kids with Cancer Society was Sarah Weidmann. Sarah is the sweetest and bravest little 6 year old girl I’ve ever met. Sarah was diagnosed with a brain tumor last year and has undergone countless surgeries and radiation treatments. She gave an amazing speech and used words that a six year should not have to know let alone include in a speech to a large audience but she handled it with remarkable poise. At only six she has already decided that she wants to be a neurosurgeon when she grows up and I’m confident that she’ll get there.

For more information on how you can support this great event, visit the websites for Kids with Cancer Society or Dancing for the Kids. Here are a few photos from the evenings event.

The Marr-Mac Musical Theatre Group warms up the crowd.

Sarah Weidmann, spokesperson for the Kids with Cancer Society, watches the performances from the sidelines.

Kat Brandon along with Tom Gilbert from the Edmonton Oilers, instruct the audience on how to use the voting system.

Ron Clark and his partner Dephine Romaire perform the Paso Doble.

Sean Fleming performs the Tango with his partner Daiana Moy Sanchez.

Tony Franceschini performs the Waltz with his professional partner Elena Sinelnikova.

Linsay Willier performs with her partner Dominic Lacroix

Marni Kuhlmann and her partner David Lam catch their breath after performing the Jive.

The pairs line up to hear the results.

Marni Kuhlmann and her partner David Lam are crowned the winners of Dancing for the Kids 2009 and awarded the prestigious Mirror Ball Trophy.

The promotion is entitled “Expressions of Hunger” – An Interactive Photo and Literary Contest. The public will be invited to submit their photographs, short stories, poems, or prose expressing the following elements of hunger: Mental, Emotional, Physical, Environmental, and Spiritual. The photographs and literary pieces will be displayed online for the public to choose their favourites and then there will be exhibition of the winning pieces on display in conjunction with World Hunger Day in June.

To promote the campaign, Tamara and Fay from the Foodbank wanted to put together a poster depicting the various elements and approached me to produce a photograph that captured as many of these elements as possible. After some brainstorming I kept coming back to a vision I had of an empty fridge in the middle of a farmer’s field. Tapping into the local community, we managed to locate a retro fridge courtesy of the Edmonton’s Eco Station. Once we had that in place, we needed a location for the photo shoot and Jesse from the Edmonton Corn Maze stepped up to the plate to offer up his property for us to do the shoot on. The final piece of the puzzle was to find some volunteers to be our models. Once again, Tamara and Fay located a fabulous group of volunteers who braved a chilly Sunday afternoon to stand around in a field.

A big thanks to my wife Sarah and to Owen Law from Naked Eye Photography for your help during the photo shoot. Here is the final image we wound up selecting for the campaign poster:

Once the image had been selected, the next step was to hand it over to the talented ladies at Woodward Design – Amanda and Kristin, to produce the final poster for the campaign.  You can see the results of their work in this PDF.

The official poster will be revealed to the public at the Edmonton Foodbank’s Harvest Lunch which will be held on Thursday, October 22nd, 2009. Full details on how to enter the contest will be found on the Foodbank’s website at www.edmontonsfoodbank.com.

On Tuesday, Global TV’s Lynda Steele (www.twitter.com/lyndasteele) sat down with Tamara and Fay from the Foodbank to talk about the campaign and provide a sneek peek at the final poster. Here is the segment that aired on Tuesday.

Thanks again to everyone who helped with this project and a special thanks to Tamara and Fay from the Foodbank for inviting me to contribute to such a worthwhile cause. For more information head on over to www.edmontonsfoodbank.com and be sure to follow the Foodbank on Twitter at www.twitter.com/yegfoodbank.

Congratulations to the organizing committee on another successful event and I look forward to attending next year’s event. Here are a few photos from this year’s event. Enjoy!

I’ve been using Twitter for just over a year now and find it’s a great way to network with fellow photographers and meet a lot of great people involved in a variety of other professions. The local Twitter community in Edmonton has been quite active organizing Tweetups throughout this past year.

Why am I talking about all this? Well, on February 12th, 2009, the local Edmonton Twitter community will be joining over 160 other cities around the world for a Twestival (get it – Twitter + Festival + Twestival) to raise money for Charity Water. Charity Water is a non-profit organization with a mission to bring clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations.

Now besides coming out to support a great cause and meet new people, there will also be some great door prizes up for grabs including a framed 8×10 print of my ‘Cigar Man’ photo which was selected as the Best in Show during the 2008 Metro Photography Competition.

WHAT: Edmonton Twestival 2009

WHEN: Thursday, February 12th at 6:30pm

WHERE: Vintage Lounge, 10124 124th Street – map

COST: A $20 donation which will go entirely to charity: water.

Visit http://edmonton.twestival.com/ for more details and to register for the event. Thanks to Mack Male and Sharon Yeo for organizing the event. You can follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bruceclarke

It was a great night of dancing and all of the celebrity dancers put forth an amazing effort. Dances included the Salsa, Fox Trot, Cha Cha, Argentine Tango, Lindy Hop and the Rumba. Video of each performance is available on CTV’s website at:

http://edmonton.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20081126/edm_dancing_with_the_stars_081126/20081126/?hub=EdmontonHome#TopVideoAn

After each couple performed their dance, the panel of judges provided their feedback and then presented their scores. Once the judges had their say, the audience then had the ability to vote using a remote control voting system at each table. After all of the couples had performed and the results were tallied, Daryl McIntyre was crowned as the eventual champion with Gillian Foote taking 2nd place overall.

On a side-note, Daryl’s partner Samantha Gotlib was actually our dance instructor when my wife and I went to Arthur Murray to take some dance lessons for our wedding so it was great to run into her again after all these years.

Once the mirror ball trophy had been handed out, the dance floor was opened up to everyone to get up and strut their stuff. While out shooting the dances for my friend Anna Posteraro, I was approached by representatives of the Edmonton Oilers and asked to take a few photos of some of the Oiler’s players including Steve Staios and Jason Strudwick with his wife Shoena who was one of the celebrity dancers this year.

Pictured above: Steve Staios with 14 year-old Jennifer Taite who represented the Kids with Cancer Society.

Edmonton Oiler Jason Strudwick with his wife and celebrity dancer Shoena Strudwick.

More photos of Shoena’s performance can be found on the Edmonton Oilers website at http://oilers.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=MediaGalleryPlayer&galleryId=8614

For more information on this event, visit http://www.dancingforthekids.com/

Last weekend one of my fellow photographers invited me to help her with a photo shoot she is working on for Q Hair Design. The girls from the studio have decided to create their own calendar which they will sell to raise money for Juvenile Diabetes. It was a great opportunity to get in some fall shooting at a beautiful location while helping out a great charity.

We had perfect weather for the day and the setting could not have been more perfect. Ray and Lynne opened up their farm for us to do the shoot and this place was a photographers paradise. Ray has built his own version of Fort Edmonton Park complete with bunk house, barber shop and an authentic saloon from 1902. We started out in the recently cut wheat field and got some great photos of the girls in amongst the wheat stubble. This particular photo is one of my favourites from the day. We had a great time and the girls were a lot of fun to work with. There were so many possibilities for great shots but before we knew it we were out of time. I hope to return to the farm one day just to shoot some of the great structures and old cars on the property.