Once in a great while, something comes along that gets your attention, touches your heart and makes you want to get involved. That’s exactly what happened to me when I met Stacy Kamin…

Read More

Drawn To Serve

Stacy and Jackie painting at CalVet


Stacy Kamin
, a professional fine artist, told me about Drawn To Serve, a project that she and her mother Jacqueline Kamin, also a professional artist, have been working on this year.

Each week, Stacy and Jackie visited the CalVet Home in Los Angeles. During their visits, Stacy and Jackie have painted portraits of World War II veterans who live at the CalVet home.

They have now completed over 100 portraits of these great Americans.

Here in Stacy’s words is how it all began:

“About a year ago,my friend Leah asked me if I wanted to volunteer at CalVet for Thanksgiving. She said I could draw the veterans. I said ‘Yes’, and that’s how I met John Knight (pictured here). He wanted a portrait and sat for me.

“Once a week after that, John arranged for 3 or 4 more veterans to pose for me. And as simply as that, Drawn To Serve began. But it would never have happened without John’s  tireless efforts.

“When my mother, Jacqueline Kamin, decided to join me, Drawn To Serve really began to grow.

“Every week, my mother and I looked forward to the day we got to spend painting and drawing and getting to know more men and women veterans.

“We heard their stories. We discovered how they were drawn to serve as we shared our lives with them on these magical inspiring days.

“Pretty soon we had enough artwork to have a show. That’s when my friend Daniel Gamburg, Producer, Director and Founder of Enlightened Pictures Inc. heard about our project and was inspired to create a documentary.”

As the Drawn To Serve project began gaining momentum, it set out to accomplish several things.

Naturally the first was to paint and preserve the images of these amazing men and women.  In addition, their stories are being recorded which will be included in exhibitions and in the “Drawn to Serve” documentary which is currently in production.

The hope is that this collection of portraits and stories will become a traveling exhibit so that it can be shared with friends, family, historians, veterans and the general public.

FACT

It is estimated that there are

600,000

World War II Veterans still living

FACT

It is also estimated that we are losing 

1,000

World War II Veterans

Per Day

This coming Veterans Day, November 11, the Drawn to Serve portraits will literally come alive in a pop-up art gallery located in the lobby of the Cal-Vets Home in West Los Angeles. In addition to the portraits and printed personal stories, many of the men and women whose portraits have been done and on exhibit will be there to talk to visitors.

All day admission to the Art Exhibit, FREE EVENT
11am – 9pm: The Drawn To Serve Gallery doors open
7pm-9pm:  Food, Music, And Best Of All In Person Appearances By Our Veterans.
CalVet Home: 11500 Nimitz Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90049

 

In addition to chronicling these proud and brave American G.I.’s, Drawn To Serve is working to raise $200,000 to buy a Freedom Bus for these underserved Vets.

As Stacy says, “At the same time, we learned that the veterans needed a bus. Many of the wheelchair-bound veterans at CalVet have to wait for hours and hours for inadequate transportation shuttles to take them back and forth from the VA to much needed medical services.”

The current Shuttles are limited to one or two wheelchairs at most.

Stacy and Jackie decided to start a Go Fund Me campaign for the Drawn To Serve Freedom Bus that will allow up to 14 World War II Veterans in wheelchairs to be transported at once.

With their own bus, these heroes can be taken on group field trips in addition to all important life-saving trips to the VA for medical attention.

This bus will help the veterans regain a sense of freedom, having fought so hard for ours, we owe them this liberty of the transportation they desperately need and deserve.

Won’t you please join me and “Get On The Bus” to serve our honored veterans?

You can support our cause by attending the art exhibit on November 11th and visiting our Go Fund Me page and making a donation.

As Stacy puts it, “These men and women have not only been a gift to us, they represent the gift of security, freedom and love of democracy for all Americans and for those who love freedom all over the world.”

We are on the Bus, I hope you will join us and take a seat. Through the power of the internet and social media we can easily raise the $200,000 needed. Please pass the word to your friends, family and co-workers by either forwarding this email or posting on your social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, etc… (social media links below). 

Thanks in advance for your support and donations.

Best regards,
Daniel Gamburg | Producer, Director, Enlightened Pictures Inc.