But which one? An obvious choice would be the American Heart Foundation, but I have heard some disheartening things about them and do not feel that donating some print sales would make the greatest impact.
Which led me to the Internation Children's Heart Foundation, whose mission is "to bring the skills, technology and knowledge to cure and care for children with congenital heart disease in developing nations. ICHF does this regardless of country of origin, race, religion or gender. Our goal is to make the need for ICHF obsolete. We work toward this goal through our medical mission trips, where we operate on children and educate local healthcare professionals."
Also from their website:
$ 25 – Your gift combines with others to provide life-saving surgeries
$ 50 – The cost of training materials for the local staff
$ 100 – The cost of medicine for one life-saving surgery
$ 250 – The cost of one surgical heart patch to heal a heart
$ 500 – The cost of surgical heart patches to heal two heart’s
$ 1000 – The cost of airfare for a doctor or nurse to save lives
$ 3500 – The cost of a heart surgery to save a child’s life
$ 20000 – The cost to sponsor a Babyheart surgical team
$ 55000 – The cost to sponsor a Babyheart medical mission
While the cost of some of those items are probably out of reach, I really think we can make a difference in the life or lives of others if we call come together to help.
So, I propose to release a time-limited screen print edition of the above image, entitled Soldier of Love, and donate ALL of the the profits from the print to charity. It would be a two color screen print with gloss screen printed over the heart and other colored sections.
Please let me know if there are any other worthwhile charities you know of that could also use our help. If there is interest, I am also thinking of printing a purple heart colorway for donation to the Wounded Warrior Foundation or similar charity that help veterans. There may also be a small, alternate colorway available first to my mailing list, contact me at armando@armandochainsawhands.com or visit my website in my signature to join up.
I am thinking the sale would start this week sometime and run for a few days to a week, depending on interest. Let me know what you think, I want to hear your thoughts. Yes, I know it is a Banksy and Mr Brainwash modded mashup with some tweaks, but I feel like the image itself is too good to go unused when it could actually help lives.
Thanks for caring,
Shepard Fairey
Armando Chainsawhands