Share Six – Red & Heart – February 2019

“The Strongest Hearts Have the Most Scars” ~Jeff Hood

February is Heart Month and we at Share Six decided to help raise awareness  for Congenital Heart Defects with our theme, Red & Heart. This month I enlisted the help from some of my digital photo students at the high school where I teach. One of the things I love about where I teach is the students are diverse. I see acceptance, tolerance, and kindness even though students come from all different walks of life. It is not always obvious the struggles they are going through or have been through in the past. However, their struggles and successes are a big part of who they are now and who they will become in the future. For this month’s theme I asked a few of the students in my classes to hold the paper heart I created. I love how each student brings something unique to their image. However, the similarity between them all is the heart, a symbol of love, connection, and this month, Congenital Heart Defect Awareness!

One out of a hundred children are born with a CHD. There are many different types of CHDs and children can suffer from one defect or multiple defects. The severity of the defect can range from mild, meaning a child will need no treatment, to terminal, the defects will ultimately take the child’s life.

Congenital Heart Defects are severely under researched and underfunded. Therefore, the more awareness individuals can spread the more funding the heart community hopes to gain.

I hope others will join in on this effort to raise awareness whether you are a photographer or not. Take a photo or several photos a heart, post it to social media and hashtag it with #chdawareness #hearthero during the month of February. If the person in the image or taking the picture has had heart surgery, draw a zipper on the heart.

Thank you for joining us for another month at Share Six. I am part of a group of photographers who blog 6 images on the 6th of each month with unique monthly themes. Please continue around the circle by clicking HERE to see how the extremely talented Ceri Herd interpreted this month’s theme.

Join us for this month’s theme by posting your Red & Heart images on our Facebook page at Share Six and to our Instagram gallery,  by tagging #sharesix and #sharesix_red_heart.  A new theme will come out on March 6th.