02/05/2022
Hello Everyone! My name is Sydney Lewandowski and I would like to introduce myself and a project that is very near and dear to my heart! First of all, I am currently a senior at Rochester Institute of Technology. I will be graduating in May with a BFA in Visual Media and a minor in ASL and Deaf Cultural Studies! Students at RIT have to do what we call a senior capstone, which is basically a BIG project that you embark on for your senior year!
Last year I was thankful enough to meet the young woman, Kara Skrubis. I had posted a TikTok looking for female models in Rochester and Kara had messaged me “I’m from Rochester and I have one leg!”. She was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma and underwent an above the knee amputation. From there we talked about what Kara's “happy place” was. She had told me that it was Grace’s Garden and Golisano Children's Hospital. For one of my projects, I photographed Grace’s Garden and Kara in the Garden. This then evolved into my final project where I told Kara’s story and showed her journey with before pictures, during treatment pictures, and pictures of her after her amputation. You can see photos of the installation below, but I tried to incorporate Grace’s Garden into this project by building wooden structures that displayed the images and written stories as well as hanging flowers from the ceiling that viewers could interact with. The goal was to have the viewers walk into this bright and beautiful space and become engaged and moved with the story. Kara is the person that created this spark in me to make a difference and to educate others on how they can also make an impact on such an important topic.
This is how my project and brand “Glimpse of Gold'' came to life. Too often children are diagnosed with cancer, and the extent that others go to is wishing them or their families well and telling them to stay strong through a comment on social media. Glimpse of Gold's purpose is to take the next step, even if it's not directly affecting you or your family. Donate to help provide resources and research. Glimpse of Gold hopes to educate others on different ways to help, while encouraging people to think about the topic a little longer than they normally would. It was something that I knew very little about before last year, which is why I want to try and encourage others to do research, learn more about it, and do what they can to make a difference.
I hope you follow along on this beautiful journey! Please feel free to add anyone to this page that you think would be interested in helping out and learning more! I'm so excited to see the amazing community we can build and how big of a difference we can make! Stay tuned, there's much more to come! Remember only sunshine ahead!
