Teacher’s Manual Curriculum Guide Now Available!

Johnna Brynn Bockover — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 16:25:07 +0000

Hello! The long awaited Teacher’s Manual is now available! Thank you all so much for three years of asking and waiting. Because of you and your desire to help kids in your own community using photography therapeutically, the vision came to put together a practical guide to get you started. Here is a peak inside the Table of Contents:

• INTRODUCTION
• ABOUT
• PHOTOTHERAPY
   What is phototherapy?
• PURPOSE
   The objectives of phototherapy workshops.
• COMMUNITY
   How and where do I get started?
• ACTIVITIES
   Your toolkit.
• APPLICATION
   How to apply this Guide.
• INSPIRATIONS
   People and organizations that inspire.

Included are twelve printable activities to use with the kids! Check out all other details and download now for a limited time offer at: http://starshooter.org/#/teacher-s-manual/

Thank you all so much again for partnering with me in this vision. I hope children’s lives are changed all over the world through the power of photography… and you!

Please send us an email to mail@starshooter.org and let us know what you think as well as where you’ll be conducting your workshop! Thanks so much.

God bless,
Johnna

2011 Year-End Update

Johnna Brynn Bockover — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 19:35:47 +0000

Star Shooter first wants to thank all of you who continue to support and believe in our vision for our next generation. Our passion still holds strong to be able to have an impact with at-risk children around the world by equipping them with a tool for expression using photography.

The move to Sarasota, Florida one year ago from Kansas City, MO allowed SS to work in a new community of children, and for that we are excited. Star Shooter continues to remain in Sarasota for 2011. Star Shooter held two local summer workshops right here in Sarasota, Florida. The first workshop over a 3-week duration with 15 children at Take Stock In Children. TSIC is a a non-profit organization in Florida that provides a unique opportunity for low-income and at-risk students, many from minority families, to escape the cycle of poverty through education. The project for the children at TSIC focused on goal setting, by reflecting and taking pictures of “who they are today and who they want to be tomorrow.”

The other summer workshop was held over an 8-week duration with 19 girls at Girls, Inc. Girls Inc. of Sarasota is a local affiliate of a national nonprofit youth organization dedicated to inspiring all girls to be strong, smart and bold. The young girls had so much fun each week exploring the project topic of “Beauty Within.” The objective of our project was to empower girls to see the beauty within themselves and learn how to express themselves confidently using the camera to be their voice. Check out the Herald Tribune newspaper article published in September that talked about the program here: http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20110906/ARCHIVES/109061014/-1/todayspaper?p=1&tc=pg

Opportunity…
If you have a used or new digital camera that you’d like to donate for future Star Shooter workshops, we’d love to put them to use! This year some of the kids had to share cameras because we didn’t have enough to go around. We currently have 10 working cameras for the kids to use, and could use at least another 10. You can mail cameras or donations to: Star Shooter, PO BOX 3795, Sarasota FL 34230, or send donation to PayPal if you’d like to donate to our camera fund HERE. Thank you!

A few very special Thank You’s…
To all the photographers who supported and worked with Star Shooter in 2011… Peter Acker, Lauren Flores, Nina Grace, Cat Pennenga, Katie Trujillo and Chris Zupo. Dana Bakich, Director of Marketing and Development at TSIC, for all the hard work she put into creating a place for SS to be apart of the kids summer program. And many amazing key ladies made it possible for SS to be a part of the “Inner Beauty” summer program at Girls, Inc. Gabrielle Beer for envisioning the program; Marisa Monroe, Director of Program Operations at Girls, Inc., for all the coordination and communication to execute our plans; and Kay Mathers, Director of Community Affairs at Girls, Inc., for all the organization and planning to bring it all together. THANK YOU so much to all these amazing people that have accepted Star Shooter with open arms into the Sarasota community. It truly is a pleasure to be here with you all. Without each you, we couldn’t have moved forward!

Enjoy a few shots below taken from this years workshops and the awesome culminating events where the children just beamed! …and be sure to FOLLOW US on FACEBOOK for all the latest happenings!

2011 Photo Contest Results

Johnna Brynn Bockover — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 17:03:29 +0000

Hello Friends, Fans and Supporters,

Thank you very much for believing in Star Shooter and the work we do with kids world-wide. The photo submissions were amazing. Each participant did a fantastic job. We are very excited to see that our 17 participants came from 8 different countries! Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, USA, New Zealand, Canada, Italy and Taiwan.

It is our regrets to announce the photo contest for this year was unlike the prior two years, and did not meet our objective goal of 40 entries. We had a total of 17 participants this year, forcing us to cancel the contest for 2011. We offered to return the submission fees in full to all the participants.

We do hope to launch a 2012 contest for next year, but we will do some major analysis into how we can proceed differently for a successful event, using more than social media, websites, blogs and forums.

Again, we appreciate all your support; and truly, without your help, we cannot do the work we do with kids around the world -empowering them to express themselves with a camera.

Thank you,
Johnna Brynn Bockover, Founder
and the Team at Star Shooter.

Your Entry Could Change A Child’s Life!

Johnna Brynn Bockover — Fri, 20 May 2011 03:42:30 +0000

It’s official! The annual 2011 Star Shooter Photo Contest is well underway. We’re almost one month in and we have some fantastic photo entries. Every year the entries are so amazing and we feel super blessed to be able to interact with so many great artists out there who want to help and support Star Shooter!

This year we’re introducing a “two for one” submission opportunity! You can enter two photos for one submission fee of $25. Just Tweet, Facebook or Blog information about the contest, send us a link and then you’re set! It gives you twice the chance of winning the grand prize of an awesome Canon 7d digital camera with a lens, or $1,000 in cash! You can find complete information about the contest HERE and enter your photos into 1 of 6 categories.

All the proceeds collected during the contest go towards helping kids. On our Facebook page this week, we posted an article from psychologist Kenneth Condrell supporting the idea that Phototherapy helps kids gain confidence and endure tough times. Photography helps them view the world through a different perspective, impacting them in a positive way.

We’d love to see your photo entries and are so thankful for all the donations, support and love we get from around the world! The contest runs through August 1, so get out there this summer and create an awesome photo……or two!

2010 Photo Contest Winner!

Johnna Brynn Bockover — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 22:45:32 +0000

Congratulations, Chan Kwok Hung from Hong Kong for being the grand prize winner in our 2nd Annal Star Shooter Photo Contest! Chan has chosen the $1000 US dollar prize, over the Canon 7D camera. A very big thank you to all who participated and supported Star Shooter in this year’s contest. We can’t wait until next year to launch again, so stay tuned! …This shot was taken in Myanmar and is titled “Goal.”

Another big round of applause for the second place winner, a 6-year old Italian boy, Giorgio Caporaletti. This photo was taken in Rome when Giorgio was just 3-years old! His mother being a professional photographer, trusted him with her pro camera! Read more HERE. Image title, “Drive by Hi“.

Last but not least, the third place winner is from Switzerland! We are lovin’ all the international submissions! Enjoy “Kitschest Bear” by Antoine Beyeler.

View the five honorable mentions on the website http://contest.starshooter.org and click “view 2010 winners”. Thanks again, everyone, and hope to see you again next year!

Kansas City, China and South Africa Updates

Johnna Brynn Bockover — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 08:57:05 +0000

A lot has happened with Star Shooter this summer. After the transition to Kansas City last winter, Star Shooter quickly saw a handful of great individuals hold up our vision and we’ve had some excellent support and results to share. Two local workshops here in Kansas City with over thirty children at a residential home, Ozanam, were a complete success as the students created auto-biography photobooks! (see image below) A few of the students stated that the photography workshop helped them with their “coping skills, attitude, expressing feelings, encouragement and setting future goals.”

In July, we had a Star Shooter representative, David Hsieh from Taiwan, go to Yangshuo, China to conduct photography workshops with 75 Chinese children. Over thirty volunteers from China, Taiwan and the USA helped out in the four workshops over a two-day period. A nonprofit organization from the US, Blessing Hands, hosted Star Shooter at Yangshuo Experimental Middle School. The project emphasis for the Chinese workshop was “Peace.” Betty Cutts, the founder of Blessing Hands, states “The kids had a great time and produced great pictures. Some had never used a camera before.” We are very excited to be putting together a book of the children’s images from China and will have it for sale soon in our store. If you’d like to pre-order this book, please email us at mail@starshooter.org. It should be for sale before Christmas. Enjoy the pictures from China… a few of the children and images the children took.

About South Africa… unfortunately, not enough funding came in to conduct photography workshops with the aids-affected children in Mossel Bay, South Africa this year. Although, we definitely have established a great connection in South Africa and hope to touch the lives of children there in the coming future. If you’d like to donate towards this S. Africa mission, click here.

Thank you so much to all of our supporters that have made all of this possible this summer! We truly are grateful and recognize that none of this is possible without your support. …Stay tuned in for the announcement of the photography contest winners… soon to be announced here on this blog!

PHOTO CONTEST still going!

Johnna Brynn Bockover — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 01:08:09 +0000

PHOTO CONTEST with a Canon 7D prize!

Johnna Brynn Bockover — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:43:49 +0000

Still time to participate in the Star Shooter Annual Photo Contest open to the public for all ages… all details here: http://contest.starshooter.org.

Second Workshop in Kansas City

Johnna Brynn Bockover — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:38:14 +0000

The first workshop at Ozanam went really well and the children all created their very own photo auto-biography albums with their own digital images. The second workshop is already in progress at Ozanam. Enjoy the pictures below. (Due to HIPPA privacy act laws, their faces are not to be shown.) We will have a culminating event with both groups of children (about 40), to praise them for their hard work. The therapist and SS volunteers are stating they are watching the kids blossom and change through the phototherapy workshop, and to see the smiles on the kids’ faces makes it all worth it. ***Stay tuned for another post about China soon. The workshop has been completed in China and I (Johnna) will have a Skype session next week to receive the report from the Star Shooter instructor, David Hsieh, and retrieve the images from an ftp server that the Chinese children captured! I will be designing the album that will be for sale, with the children’s images from China. This is very exciting!

Star Shooter Workshop in Kansas City!

Johnna Brynn Bockover — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 15:37:18 +0000

Star Shooter has begun the first workshop in Kansas City! We plan to conduct two 4-week sessions with about 40 children residing at residential treatment facility, Ozanam: Home for boys and girls. Enjoy a few photographs below of the children in action in the first workshop. (Due to privacy laws, photographs of their faces are not allowed.) The kids just loved it and displayed incredibly positive behaviors! Many of them said they enjoyed it because they learned that taking pictures is a healthy coping skill and experienced being calm as they walked around campus looking for subjects to photograph. Stay tuned in the coming weeks to see their final project of a “photo autobiography” as the children express themselves with the camera!!!