Calling all my mama friends (and friends of mamas)

[mamagotcha]

One of the best things about doing this calendar was getting to work with the images of twelve beautiful, smart, cool young women who volunteered to model. There wasn't, as far as I know, much more direction from the producer other than file size and preferred orientation. Other than that, these gals really seemed to get creative; they were funny, sexy, and totally adorable as they displayed both their passions and their hot bods. It was a blast trying to think of ways to best illuminate these aspects, and I think I actually did a decent job of it.

But this post isn't about tooting my own horn, or even the models'. It's about the hardest part of doing the calendar, which was working with the image of a one particular beautiful, smart, cool young woman. February's Chemistry Geek, Ava Garcia, was killed in a car accident a few weeks after she posed for her photos.

It was her image that inspired me to do a particular graphic effect that wound up being used on most of the inset photos (masking part of the image). I learned how to do that with her saucy face smiling at me for a good long time. While I only met her once, and read only a few of her stories and articles, after playing with her image for so long, I really wanted to get to know her better.

Each time I remembered that she was gone, it was another palpable wrench. I mourn her life cut short and the many contributions she'll never be able to make, the empty Ava-shaped hole in the world of all her friends... but being a mother, it's probably not surprising that the thing that keeps coming to mind is the unimaginable pain her mother has suffered.

Julia and Tamara have been in contact while the calendar has been in production, so I've heard a little bit about what she's been dealing with... making the decision to donate Ava's organs (does this mean she witnessed her daughter's removal from life support?); going through her daughter's computer and belongings, and then making a huge effort to reach as many of her myriad friends worldwide as possible; organizing a community-wide memorial for Ava in her hometown of Wickenburg, AZ. She's been entirely supportive of the calendar project the whole time, even giving Ava's Geek image to the local newspaper to use for the initial story about her accident.

From my vantage point, having only met her once and living so far away, there's not much I can offer to her as she deals with the loss of her only child. I've been trying to support Julia as she processes the death of her close friend, and have encouraged her to maintain contact with Ava's mom as much as possible, knowing that this will be cathartic and healing for both of them. I've certainly tried to do justice to the images in the calendar. And now, there's one more thing I can do.

Each of the models will receive one-thirteenth of the profits of this calendar, after expenses (Julia gets a share as producer, hence the 13). Tamara has chosen to use Ava's share to create a scholarship fund in her memory.

So I made a donation, and I'd like to ask you to do so, also. It's the PayPal button at the bottle of the "about" page on the calendargeeks.com website... couldn't be easier. And I'd like to spread the word. I want to let this mom know that other moms, and friends of those moms, acknowledge her efforts, her pain and her healing. This is one way she's chosen to memorialize her daughter... please join me to create something positive and powerful out of this terrible sadness.

Thank you so much.

(P.S. One of the comments made me realize I could do something else: ask you to pimp this donation, along with the calendar, on your own blogs. If you feel comfortable doing so, please do spread the word!)

Comments

[ex-serenejo.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's heavy. *hugs*

[vito-excalibur.livejournal.com]

Done.

[whimspiration.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

Thank you so much for helping out with this project. I just heard about it on a homeschool list I am a member of, and I'm advertising it to all my geek friends. It was a fabulous idea, and I hope it continues on into future years with different girls and varied passions portrayed, as this is a great thing to give to one's teenage daughters to show them that smart girls are also very attractive, and you don't have to be dumb to be cute.

I've even advertised it on my blog, and plan to review the calendar on my review blog as soon as I get my copy, in the hopes that I can bring them more sales, as well as encourage more contributions to the Ava Garcia scholarship fund.

[mamagotcha.livejournal.com]

Thank YOU for spreading the word! I didn't even think of that... I'll add it to the original post.

The producer and at least one of the models were homeschooled... there may have been more, but most of them are in college now and I'm not sure what their previous histories were.

Thanks for visiting!

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

Yes, I (the producer) was homeschooled, and so was the librarian geek. :)

The likelihood of future calendars depends almost entirely on sales from this one. I'm not making any decisions about that until 2009. But there has been a good deal of interest, so it's certainly a possibility.

[whimspiration.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

I actually found your blog because my homeschooled daughters hoped that Ava passed gently, and wanted to know for sure. We send our best wishes to her family and friends.

Please feel free to use the image I created to post fliers and whatnot to garner more advertising. Just click on the image to get to the bigger version, and save it for yourself. It's not much, but if I can help in any way to make this a huge success, I will.

Since the flier isn't a problem, I'm planning on making copies and posting them around the 7 college campuses in my town, a couple of my favorite grocery stores, and take them to a sci-fi convention. *grin* This is going to be big! I hope you have print-on-demand.

[zephyrofgod.livejournal.com]

I just wanted to thank you for doing what you do for us on the calendar. It really means a lot.

-Z
History Geek