Before anything else, thank you for deciding to help our region’s only children’s hospital!

You can learn more about the latest research, development, and miracles taking place here by looking around this Website.

Since we appreciate your generosity and hard work, we’re passing along some helpful advice that can help you gain some publicity for the upcoming fund-raiser you and your group are planning. Keeping these in mind should help you to make a bigger “splash” as you help us help kids.

Score some photos.

The Democrat & Chronicle is looking for amateur photos for the paper’s Web site community blogging section. We can’t do these ourselves from the hospital end, but you’re welcome to submit them yourself. Here are some tips when you’re shooting your group in action:

• USE PHOTOS TO BOOST COMMUNITY EXCITEMENT. In order to get the photo online (and possibly, in the paper) BEFORE the event happens, snap some photos of people organizing or preparing for the event (e.g., making t-shirts, painting, putting baskets together, etc.) Aim to have the photos taken and uploaded to the D&C at least ONE WEEK ahead of time.

• USE PHOTOS TO THANK YOUR VOLUNTEERS. You can take shots during the event, too, perhaps as a way to thank those who attended or volunteered. Be sure to upload them as soon as you can, since papers are interested in NEWS, and that means things that are going to happen, are happening or have just happened.

• BE THOUGHTFUL. Make sure the subjects you’re photographing don’t mind their image being placed on the web; be careful, too, in your choice to reveal any personal information or back story along with the image.

The D&C is especially seeking: photos of community events, places of worship, senior centers, park activities, parades, news photos, sports photos, photos depicting life around the Rochester are or unique scenes of are wildlife.

Some artistic tips:  keep things in focus, avoid squishing too many people in the frame (although, they DO want people!), try to not pose, but instead catch things and people in action.

When you submit:

• Provide the date, location, event name and description, accurate spellings of people in photos (left to right), and what towns they are from. Any extra information you can provide as far as reporting on the event is helpful. Be sure to include home, cell, and if possible, work numbers that you can be reached with so that they can be in touch with you right away.

• For print publication, images should be at least 200 dpi (dots per inch) and at least 5 inches in the shortest dimension; for web publication, they need only be 72 dpi, and still, at least 5 inches in the shortest dimension.

• Please send color images, preferably as JPEG, but GIF may also be used.

• To upload your photo, click on www.democratandchronicle.com; click on “Submit Photos Here” underneath “Your Communities” on the right-hand side of the home page.  Click on “Communities”, then “Upload Photo”; fill in all information fields, browse to find your photo, and then click on “Submit. (Or, use this direct link to photo upload site).

All photographs submitted will be reviewed and considered for online publication in the community photo gallery; additionally, a select few will be chosen for publication in the Our Towns print edition.

Let us showcase you on our Web site.

We like to post photos of your group in action on our web-site, so don’t be shy. E-mail a couple of your best shots to rebecca_jones@urmc.rochester.edu, and we’ll see what we can do to cast a bit of the spotlight on your good-doing.

Help us thank you.

Traditionally, we send a “thumbs up” approval to the Democrat & Chronicle, which they print weekly. However, we find the paper is more likely to publish these one or two line notices coming from you. We’re happy to write them, if you like, but we encourage you to mail them in to dceditpage@democratandchronicle.com. Just write “Thumbs-Up” in the subject line, and then watch for yours to be published on a Saturday (they can take a couple of weeks).

Sample Thumbs-Ups:

Thumbs Up to the Little Old Lady Needle Knit-Pickers, who knitted over 50 blankets for inpatients at Golisano Children’s Hospital at Strong.

Thumbs Up to the Little Red Schoolhouse, whose students raised $1200 dollars for Golisano Children’s Hospital at Strong by collecting pledges from supporters of their “Week without TV” fund-raiser this past March.

If you’re writing this yourself, be sure to follow the format: “Thumbs Up” along with who, what, when, where, how, why details, as they apply to your group’s event.