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Portrait Freedom
Members of the MSN Group "Scroll Saw Portraits" with membership from all over the United States, Canada, and beyond are embarking on a huge project where they will create a custom wooden portrait of every fallen soldier of the Afghan/Iraqi war and donate it to the families.
Their goal is to create and cut a wooden portrait of every fallen soldier, currently numbering over 3,500. It is something they want to do to show their support of our military personnel and to honor those that have paid the ultimate sacrifice to protect our freedoms. There is no charge to the family for requesting a portrait.
The Scroll Saw Portrait Freedom Project group consists of over 480 scroll saw artists and hobbyist. There are those who will design a pattern from a photograph of each soldier, and then pass it to another member who will cut the pattern in wood using their scroll saw, frame it and send it to the family.
Their biggest challenge right now is contacting family members and getting photographs to work with. “We are appealing to individual family members or a contact person from each military base that can provide us with photographs of our fallen soldiers,” says Gary Browning, manager of the MSN Scroll Saw Portraits group.
They expect their Portrait Freedom project to take some time, depending on the participation of family members and contact points. Their main concentration is on our U.S. Military personnel.
If you are a family member or know of a family member who has lost a son, daughter, husband or wife in the Afghan/Iraqi conflict, you can request information by contacting PortraitFreedom@hotmail.com. Due to the magnitude of this project, portraits are only available to the immediate family of the Fallen Hero. Each family will receive two portraits.
Military bases are also encouraged to get in contact with them if they can help with gathering photographs of personnel they have lost from their base. A contact person who can get the word out about the Portrait Freedom project to families who may not be aware of the project and who can gather photographs, and coordinate getting the completed portrait to the families would be an immense help to the project.
For more information on Portrait Freedom, visit their web site at: http://groups.msn.com/SSPSoldierPortraits/homepage Note: There is an article in the 2007 Holiday Issue of Creative Woodworks & Crafts, titled "Sharing Your Blessings," by Jeff Zaffino, highlighting this project as well as showing some of the superb patterns and portrait cuttings created for this endeavor. |
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