Tag Archives: fund raiser

Shooting for the American Lung Association

By Royce DeGrie | Published November 18, 2010

I’ve been working on a calendar project for the American Lung Association (ALA). They contacted me about shooting some celebrities in full clown make-up for their “Photo Calendar” which will be sold to raise money for the ALA and can be purchased here. I had the pleasure of working with some incredible people, one of which was Jim Howle. Jim is a master of his craft –transforming a person into a full blown clown. I’m not talking about rainbow wigs here, folks… I mean the real deal. Jim’s talent is self-evident when you see his work come to life.

Jim is a native of Darlington, South Carolina, where his mother was an artist, and Jim was pulled into clowning through art. While attending the Ringling School of Art, he learned of the creation of the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Clown College. He applied, was accepted, and was graduated from the original class in 1968.

He then toured with the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey for seven years as a tramp clown, working with some of the great circus clowns such as Lou Jacobs and Mark Anthony. He was selected as the Big Show‘s official artist. He left the show in 1974 to pursue his painting career. Through the Contemporary American Clowns and Red Nose Philosopher series of paintings, the first three Clown Hall of Fame Inductee posters. and other paintings, Jim has captured the heart and soul of clowning. His work is included in the Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institute and the Leningrad Gallery. A popular instructor, he has taught at Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Clown College and the University of Wisconsin Clown Camp. He was inducted into the Clown Hall of Fame in 1993.

Pleasure to meet you , Jim… you are truly one of a kind. I am in awe of your talent, my friend!

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Featured in the photos above are Katie Cook (CMT), Bucky Covington (Recording Artist), Dan Haseltine (Lead singer, Jars of Clay), Demetria Kalodimos (WSMV News Anchor), Rudy Kalis (WSMV Sports), Jeff Jarrett & family (Wrestler & founder of TNA wrestling), and Chris Sanders (NFL, former Tennessee Titan). Every one of these people were very cool to work with and graciously donated their time to support a great organization. These are all photos that did not make the calendar, so it’s okay to for me to give you a sneak peek. Go by a calendar to support the cause!

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Huge decision; Giant Leap of Faith

By Royce DeGrie | Published November 15, 2010

In one of my previous posts ( 1979 Red Corvette – My Childhood Dream Car ), I wrote about selling my dream car. I also wrote that I sold it for a reason but couldn’t tell you what the reason was yet. Take a minute to read the post and it will make a little more sense now.

Well, now it is time to reveal the big decision. Eight years ago when our youngest daughter was born, we said that if we ever decided to have more children we would adopt. I wasn’t ready to have more children until I went on the trip to Moldova and saw all of the children in orphanages who needed homes. Thousands of sweet, innocent children without loving families able to care for them. So I came back from Moldova ready to adopt and told Eve who had been ready for quite some time.

So we discussed it at length and decided to proceed. We chose a country where adoption could literally mean the difference between life and death–Ethiopia, a country with nearly 6 million orphans. I sold my Corvette and we began saving like crazy to pay for the adoption. We managed to scrape together all of the money we needed to pay for almost the entire adoption in advance. The only thing left now is the money for traveling to Ethiopia – twice. Two trips are now required to complete the adoption and we will be having a couple of fund raisers to get the money we need to offset some of the costs of travel. I will be offering photo shoots at drastically reduced rates as one of the fund-raisers and will most likely be selling t-shirts (custom designed by me and Eve). More information coming soon.

Last Friday, we accepted the referral of a beautiful little girl from Ethiopia. She is outside of the parameters we set in our application to the adoption agency, but she is exactly the child God had planned for us. Right now, we would ask that you join us in praying our child home! The courts are very slow and we were told this morning that the court date may not happen until February. I have complete faith that God will hear our prayers and the court date will happen sooner than that. Please pray that the court date will be scheduled very soon. Please pray for the protection of this sweet little girl. Pray for her health, safety, and happiness until we can get her home. Also, we offer praise to God for orchestrating the entire process. We have seen many things happen during the process that can only be explained by His presence and Him working in our lives and the life of our baby girl.

Thanks to all who have, are, and will be praying; we appreciate it more than you could know. More info about the fund-raisers coming very soon! In the meantime, if you would like to help bring our little girl home, I have created a donations post to help us offset the cost of traveling twice to Ethiopia.

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