Charity backyard BBQ promoted with Glowforge

Hi all, I get so busy making and experimenting when not at my day job that I forget to post. So here goes a long one, with my most recent activities.

There is a local charity we love here in ATL called Love Not Lost. They support families facing a terminal diagnosis by providing free family portrait sessions with professional and grief trained photographer. After the session the family is presented with an heirloom quality photo book to cherish. Can sound a bit sad at first but it’s really beautiful…they are awesome.

We have a big backyard with a deck that looks sort of like a stage so my fiend said we should host a BBQ & Music event. We agreed and I got to work making fun support items on my GF.

A selfie sign in front of the band, wanted the charity visible in all the photos that people would post.

Directional signs to get people in the backyard from cardboard. Didn’t mention that a torrential thunderstorm popped up out of nowhere and drenched all our best laid plans (hence the crepe myrtle covered wonky sign).


Also some fun things. I engraved some logo rocks and placed them around the yard. Anyone that found one, I intended to offer a family name sign from my GF, if they gave an extra donation to the charity. The rain kind of messed that one up.

Also engraved the logo and donation QR code on some ornament blanks that hung from trees and the bathroom mirror to encourage giving.


The sun finally came out and we raised a little over $3k, enough to serve nearly 4 families as they face a very tough time.


Hope all these pics show up.

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It sounds like a great cause. :heart:

When there’s not a pandemic raging in my state, I hold small music gatherings. I’m looking forward to making signs and infographics with my GF too.

Thanks for sharing these!

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You’ll get back to it. We were outside and quite spread out. We had one bathroom in the house peeps could use as long as they were masked up. Trying to stay safe and sane.

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Forgot the charity website is https://lovenotlost.org/. The band playing is the amazing Nikki and the Phantom Callers.

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Can’t wait! P.S. Your deck is fabulous too! :blush:

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Thanks the deck is from what would have been the 2020 vacation fund.

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This is great! What a nice thing for those struggling.

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OUTSTANDING! Great work.

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That’s awesome! The world needs more angels like you! :innocent:

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These are all so lovely, the stones are really beautiful in particular but everything is wonderful. Congrats on raising so much especially in these times!

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Good on you for the whole concept and implementation. I’m glad your event was so successful.

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That is awe-inspiring. For bad weather, it sounds like you still had a great turnout. Maybe you should make it a yearly event? And I like the crepe myrtle covered sign - it looks like you meant it to be that way.

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That is great work.

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Maybe I’ll have to try that next time :nerd_face:

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You had some really great ideas. Glad your event was so successful.

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OMG—— I do the same thing here in Knoxville except the loved ones are older or terminal dogs. I charge NOTHING and have been photographing them since 2014.

I am also a one woman charity. In the past other photographers have called wanting to help and when I told them I do not charge for photography sessions—— I hear crickets and never hear from them again.

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What a wonderful event you ran! Your fundraiser for the group gives a gift to people that will treasure that forever.

I had to google what a Crepe Myrtle sign was (I have a brown thumb and that’s my excuse for not knowing). I really thought you had designed the sign that way and was admiring your creativity.

That looks like a corrugated plastic sign; did you engrave on it (is it safe?) or is that maybe adhesive vinyl on the sign? I’m really curious.

The tree bark engravings are they done on fresh cut wood or aged wood? You just gave me a money saving idea for a project if it can be used on fresh branch cuttings. I’m guessing you used a drill to get the hole all the way through?

Again, what a great fundraiser to help families dealing with this.

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That’s awesome. I just posted a post Halloween thread talking about the dog we adopted anger he was hit by a car and took refuge in our driveway.

You should check out to www.LoveNotLost.org. At least see what they do and how they get photographers to participate. The founder Ashley now lives in Chattanooga. As a matter I’m originally from Athens and my hubby is from Alcoa.

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Sorry for the late reply, no I didn’t engrave on the corrugated plastic, assuming that would be dangerous. The letters/logo were cut Amazon boxes and stuck to the plastic with my new fav material Gorilla putty.

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Btw, I love party signs from cardboard because I reused a box, made something new and cool and can then recycle it. The perfect material for a short term project.

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