My New foundation and Blepharophimosis

[Guest guest]

Hi all, its been a long time since I STARTED a topic here in the group. My name

is Tonikka and my son Lynden is 13 with BPES, I have been part of this group for

years!!! I am a Nurse and also taking med school classes.

Anyway I wanted to let everyone know (I have Shireen's permission) about my new

Non-Profit organization I started. It is called The Maple Leaf Mission and we

offer free photography to families that are in need, families that are dealing

with diagnosis's that change their life, We have a session called a " Your

Moment " session that I think would be perfect for BPES families, this session

deals with diagnosis's etc that you are living with but living life to its

fullest despite your diagnosis, I will copy and paste more about us below. We

have 3 sessions and some in the group may also benefit from our other sessions

that are unrelated to BPES.

We are international, so we offer sessions anywhere in the world and if there is

not a photographer in your area we will find one for you. We are still

recruiting photographers and will always be looking for families to gift these

sessions too. our website is http://www.themapleleafmission.com and we also have

a facebook page http://www.facebook.com/themapleleafmission feel free to " like "

our facebook page.

Here is why I started it (short version) I started it because for the past 2

years I have been sick and being the matriarch in the family as soon as I became

sick our whole world fell apart. I went into organ failure (Kidneys) and had a

multi organ infection that we could not clear up, so I was scared that if

something happened to me I would not have enough memories for my kids, so I

thought why not make it international, let other families benefit from making

beautiful memories, now I am doing better and I thought why not do photography

for families in a positive way by celebrating life no matter what life brings

you.

Here is a bit about us

OUR MISSION AND WHAT WE DO

We offer free photography and we want to give you " The Gift Of Life In Pictures

" . We want to help you capture those precious moments and make beautiful

memories.

Our sole purpose is to make those moments with a loved one be it a final moment

session, a your moment session or a deployment overseas/homecoming reunion some

of the best moments that you can look back on for years to come

YOUR MOMENT SESSIONS

These sessions are our newest sessions that are for the families/individuals

that have any debilitating or life altering illness's a genetic condition, or

disability but are living your everyday life to the fullest despite your

diagnosis. Examples are you have Seizures, Blepharophimosis, Down Syndrome,

Cerebral Palsy, Paralysis, Stroke, you are in remission from cancer (best

reason to celebrate) you had open heart surgery, you had an amputation, any sort

of transplant (kidney, heart, lung, liver ) sky's the limit for this category.

FINAL MOMENT SESSIONS

For a " Terminal Prognosis or a Devastating Diagnosis " (All age groups) of a

family member, yourself or friends, even of a pet its hard to want to pick up

your camera and capture that wonderful look of love, that single tear from a

mother holding her child or just capturing that pure joy of any family together

after such a devastating diagnosis.

Pictures are often the only tangible items that we have left when our precious

gifts are taken away or altered in any way. We know how hard this time is for

you and your family and know that memories are one of the most important things

a person can keep forever.

We would be absolutely honoured to help you in making those memories come true.

We offer Photography sessions absolutely free of charge at any time after a

prognosis/diagnosis has been made. These sessions can be taken from your/their

healthiest to your/their sickest and there is NO limitation on who has to be

terminally ill to qualify as we accept any/all situations and any ages. This

session does not have to be taken during your loved ones final moments but can

be requested if that is what is needed.

MILITARY MOMENT SESSIONS

For homecoming reunions we strive to capture the pure love and joy that you show

the world when you see your loved one for the first time after their journey

abroad. Its absolutely unbelievable capturing those beautiful faces that light

up as a mother or father, sister or brother, son or daughter even aunt or uncle

walks off the airplane after a long period of time of not being able to see or

touch each other.

For deployments majority of individuals are overcome with their own emotion that

the camera is often forgotten in their hand as they give kisses and hugs for the

last time as they leave for their deployment.

If you are part of any branch of the Canadian Military then our goal is to

capture those moments that can never be captured again for you. We are going to

make a difference in many families lives that are dealing with deployments and

homecoming reunions.

We also offer regular sessions as a pre deployment or after a homecoming as we

know not everyone is able to participate in and actual homecoming/deployment

We would really love to offer some of these sessions to our BPES family, if you

are interested please head over to the website and fill out the application,

just mention BPES so we know where you heard about us. Please help us get the

word out there, and thank you Shireen for allowing me to post this here.

Tonikka & (Lynden)

Edmonton CANADA