The Yarka Vendrinska Photojournalism Memorial Fund
1970
- 2002
This
page has been built to describe a memorial fund we established for our
daughter, Yarka Vendrinska,
who passed away on July 23, 2002. Since she was a young girl, she always
had a wonderful passion for photography. Over the years, her skill as a
photojournalist was nurtured by the people she met and her overwhelming desire
for the perfect technical aspects of her pictures. Concurrently, significant
and powerful events which occurred to her personally during her life gave her a
unique perspective and deep personal understanding of the life and souls of her
subjects. I encourage you to take a moment to visit her website at www.yarka.net.
You will quickly become aware that she had a strong connection with all people
she photographed, and was able to capture their images in a way that shows a
powerful insight to their lives.
To attempt to
continue the giving and "understanding of others" that Yarka provided us all through her pictures, we wanted to do
something to show to those who need it that kindness and hope are definitely
still alive. That is why we decided to endow a fund to offer assistance
to those young photojournalists in need to pursue their dreams. In this
way, Yarka is still part of the world that she loved,
and her compassion for others will stay alive via her fund.
Therefore, we are proud to
announce that on the anniversary of her birthday, on April 25th 2003, we
established The Yarka Vendrinska
Photojournalism Memorial Fund at The Chicago Community Trust. The purpose
of the fund is to provide grants to not-for-profit organizations that support
photojournalism and provide workshops, training and travel assistance to young
photographers.
We invite anyone who feels
they meet the charter of the fund, as described above, to email us at YarkasFund@comcast.net.
If you would like to use a
credit card to contribute directly to the fund, please click on this link https://www.kintera.org/site/lookup.asp?c=mwI1KhN4IxE&b=6063171
which will open up the donor page for The Yarka Vendrinska Photojournalism Memorial Fund directly at the
Chicago Community Trust website. When making a
contribution using your credit card, you will immediately receive a
confirmation receipt. All contributions to the fund are tax
deductible to the extent allowed by law.
If you
choose to donate in another fashion, please send us an email and we will ensure
that your donation gets into the Fund. All
contributions, regardless of size, are deeply appreciated. Our intent is
to have the fund continue to grow as they years to by so that Yarka's spirit can continue to give to those in need as
they pursue their professional dreams.
Yarka
had visited the Maine Media Workshops (http://www.theworkshops.com/)
and had a great experience there, so to continue in her spirit of giving, we've
established The Yarka Vendrinska
Photojournalism Scholarship at the Maine Media Workshops in Rockport, MA.
Since 2003, we have been making a yearly donation to a photographer
in need of financial assistance to help them realize their dream of attending a
class at the Maine Media Workshops.
Below is a list of the individuals who have been granted scholarships at The
Maine Media Workshops to cover tuition costs:
July 23rd,
2003, to Robb Hill, Chicago, Illinois. We encourage you to visit
Robb's website at http://robbhill.com
April 25th,
2004 to Aireen Joven, Chicago,
Illinois.
April 25th,
2005, to Bryan Meltz, Atlanta, Georgia. We encourage you to visit Bryan's
website at http://www.bryanmeltz.com
April 25th,
2006, to Amanda Abel, Austin, Texas. We encourage you to visit Amanda's website at http://aliasgrace.com
April 25th, 2007 to Pat Semansky, New
Orleans, Louisiana. We encourage you to visit Pat's website at http://patsemansky.com
April 25th,
2008, to Juan Arredondo, Hoboken, New Jersey.
April
25th, 2009, to Rachel Seed, from Louisville, KY.
We encourage you to visit Rachel's website at www.rachelseed.com
April 25th, 2010, to Ian Thomas Jansen-Lonnquist, Burlington, Vermont. We encourage you to
visit Ian's website at http://iantom.com/
April
25th, 2011, to Shaminder Dulai, San Jose, CA. We encourage you to visit Shaminder’s
website at www.ShaminderDulai.com
April
25th, 2011, to Sarah Craig, Oakland, CA. We encourage you to visit Sarah’s
website at www.sarahcraigphotos.com
UPDATE December 2013
In
the Spring of 2013, after an excellent 10 year
relationship with the Maine Media Workshops, we decided to direct our support from
the fund back to the Chicago area and through generous assistance from the
Chicago Community Trust itself, identified Columbia College in Chicago to
establish a Photography scholarship.
With assistance from Michael Anderson, Associate Vice President of
Institutional Advancement at Columbia College, we developed a program whereby a
photography student at Columbia College will receive a renewable $2,500
scholarship every year from the Yarka Vendrinska Memorial Fund in honor of Yarka.
In
the Fall of 2013, Samantha Belden, currently a
sophomore at Columbia College was the first recipient of the scholarship.
During the month of June in 2011, we held a memorial gallery show at the Maine
Media Workshops Gallery in Rockport, Maine where photographs from both Yarka and recipient's of
scholarships from Yarka's Fund were also presented.
The show was very well attended.
We would especially like to thank Tim Whelan for being there with Tanya
for the entire month, as well as the people from the Maine Media Workshops for
their generosity and assistance in making the show a success.
This photo is one
that Yarka took while participating at a class at the
Maine Media Workshops and remains one of our favorites.
We
would also like to encourage you to follow the following link to a very
important page which contains thumbnails of Yarka's
work, yarkasfund.org
sales page. Each of these pictures is available for purchase in a
limited printing, and all proceeds from sales of these pictures go directly
back into The Yarka Vendrinska
Photojournalism Memorial Fund.
If
you feel that this fund aligns with your gift giving desires or strategies, we,
Yarka's family, would appreciate your donations to
carry on this mission. Thanks again to all of the people who have
contributed to the Fund so far, both in picture sales and in gift
donations.
If
you have further questions about the content of this page, we can be reached by
contacting us at YarkasFund@comcast.net. Thank you for your
interest and take care.
Mark and Tanya Bohr
12/6/2013