For the past 2 years, I have been participating in the  “Giving Is Awesome,”  portrait giveaway.  It is when you, my blog readers, to nominate someone you knows who deserves the gift of custom photography.  After a flood of nominations last year, this year I decided to gift two families rather than one.    One of families to receive this gift is a mom who is always giving, but never asks for anything in return.   Here is the letter I received from her friend in Florida who nominated as one of this years winners:

“Hey Melissa,
I have the perfect candidate for your photography giveaway – someone who, in my opinion, defines the word “Give” – Liz V.

I have no idea how she does it but Liz seems to be in a permanent state of “giving” – especially with her time and dedication. She’s an amazing Mom who works hard to raise her girls while working as a writer/editor. When she’s not busy running her girls to various activities, she’s attending a Girl Scouts or PTA meeting. And by “attending” I mean “volunteering” at these meetings – Liz isn’t the type to sit back and watch while others take on roles/tasks. She jumps right in, devoting her time and energy and showing her daughters what it means to volunteer without expecting anything in return.

And if that’s not enough, Liz is also the Head Organizer of an extremely active, local meetup group called BabyMine Playgroup.
Within BabyMine, she leads a team of 6 Organizers and 140+ activie members who, aside from the daily ins and outs of running such a group, actively participates in numerous charities with an impressive success rate (March of Dimes, Alex’s Lemonade Stand, Food Bank, Astor Home). Have I mentioned that she does all of these things without getting paid or compensated in any way? She just does it – because it’s what feels right to her.

It would be great to see someone who gives so much, be given something so generous back!

Good luck in finding someone – I love that you do this. Have I mentioned how much I think you rock? ”

I personally know Liz and couldn’t have agreed more. I finally got to meet with her and her daughters this past weekend and it was just a joy to photograph these two.  Not a dull moment!