52 Photo Challege, 2012

Our town has a wonderful program for the school kids; it's called UpBeat. On the elementary level, it sponsors family fun nights; for the middle school, there are Friday evening drop-ins where the kids can hang out in a safe environment. The program really takes off in the high school: about 300 kids are involved in social service projects, leadership training and basically being given the tools to make good decisions. Except for the director's part-time salary, the program gets no financial support from the town. That means we have to raise the money to support our activities. Our biggest fund-raiser is the annual picnic. We invite the entire town for FREE hot dogs, popcorn and soda. We collect donations, have a silent auction, and there are things like pony rides, face painting, and games for which we charge a small fee. Last year, we gave out over 6000 hot dogs!

Here's a photo of someone dressing a dog at this year's picnic tonight. I liked the weathered look of his hands. I converted the photo to B&W, then reduced the opacity and applied a touch of the Watercolor filter to bring out the seams and veins in his hands.