Katy Fischer “Kicks Ass” with Help-Portrait

St. Louis Help-Portrait Volunteers

One of TOKY’s Creative Directors, Katy Fischer (rocking the orange pants above), and TOKY friend and collaborator Hilary Skirboll (to the left of Katy) have received a meaningful and delightfully named Kick Ass Award for the year 2011. Billed as “an annual celebration of kick ass individuals and organizations making positive contributions to our communities,” this award series started in Austin in 2004 and made its way to St. Louis via the late culture and literature magazine 52nd City. (TOKY’s happily familiar with the award, as Director of Business Development John Foster kicked ass last year.)

Katy and Hilary were honored for putting on a St. Louis iteration of Help-Portrait, a global program that provides a way for the less fortunate to have professional portraits taken of themselves and their families.

More than 40 local photographers, stylists, volunteers, and non-profit agencies have contributed to the effort these past two years, and Hilary and Katy take their respective hats off to them. Another TOKY Creative Director and resident photography genius, Geoff Story, shot portraits for the last two years (he’s three people to the left of Katy in the grey shirt). Photographer Mark Katzman, who has generously hosted the shoot at his studio, deserves a special note of thanks.

Help-Portrat 2011 is scheduled for Saturday, December 10. Interested in learning more? Drop Katy a line, and she’ll be back in touch. In the mean time, you can watch these brief and lovely recap videos from 2010 and 2009 to see how special the program really is: