The Charitable Collector: Final Edit

This is my final edit for my character profile assignment in my Picture Story class.  I had other ideas for this assignment, but my main subject backed out at the last minute and send me scrambling for other story ideas.  I found Harry at the last minute and only had a day to photograph him.  Luckily, I was able to make the story materialize in a short amount of time.  Click on the picture below to go to the slide show:

Harry Weitkemper will turn 90 in April but he certainly doesn’t sit around feeling sorry for himself.  Instead, he spends his free time helping others.

Twice a week, Harry attends a local auction in Columbia looking for items he can fix up and donate to local charities.  On the days when he doesn’t attend the auction, he is repairing these items in the basement of his Columbia, Mo. Home.  “This is my recreation,” he says. “This gives me something to do… I can’t just sit around all day.”

While Harry mainly looks for old wheelchairs, walkers, and sewing machines, he is always keeping an eye out for other items, such as soup bowls, which can also be donated.  ““I buy whatever I think I can give to somebody,” he says.

“My body is old, but I think my mind is as active as it was when I was 47 years old,” says Harry.  “I enjoy what I do and if I die tonight, I’ve enjoyed it all.”

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