Arts & Entertainment
Calling All Angels
Applications are being accepted for models for the upcoming Little Angels Calendar that raises money for Anne Arundel Medical Center's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
Marianne Romines served her 4-year-old daughter Maddelene a slice of birthday cake and couldn't help feeling joyous.
The day might not have happened without help from the Anne Arundel Medical Center. Romines was pregnant for only 23 weeks when Maddelene was born. The premature baby weighed one pound and three ounces.
For the first four months of Maddelene's life, the Romines family practically lived in the AAMC’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. It wasn’t until Maddelene’s actual due date of mid-April that she was able to go home.
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Years later, just before her third birthday, Maddelene became a Little Angel model and posed in a calendar to raise money for the unit that helped save her life.
Linda McCarthy, owner of Visual Concepts Photography in Davidsonville, creates an annual Little Angels Calendar. The proceeds from the fundraiser benefit the AAMC NICU.
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“I have been blessed in my business in that I have met so many wonderful people over the years," McCarthy said. "I have always been about giving back to our community."
McCarthy said she started the business four years ago.
"Who doesn't love babies and angels," she said. "I approached AAMC Foundation and they embraced the idea of an angel calendar. The first year, I photographed thirteen babies and produced a calendar."
That effort raised $3,000, McCarthy said.
"In three short years the fundraiser has raised over $40,000," she said.
McCarthy, a retired college professor, said her passion for the project stems from years of hearing amazing stories of the wonderful AAMC NICU doctors, nurses and staff.
“I can say that most of the angels’ parents have become very near and dear to me," McCarthy said. "I was humbled that they would entrust me to photograph their beautiful angel. Listening to their stories of nearly losing a child has encouraged me to be the best that I can be and help them through this worthy cause.”
Do you have a future angel in your family?
Applications are being accepted for babies ages 0 - 36 months to be included in a Little Angels Calendar. The babies don't have to have spent time in a NICU. For an application, call 410-626-7474.
To purchase a calendar, visit www.visualconceptsltd.com. The cost is $12.99 and includes shipping.
