Imagine you are a wedding photographer who has just moved to the island of S Croix. You have worked hard to establish yourself. You’ve sacrificed and donated and finally, your ship has come in and you have a bunch of weddings booked here! YAY! Then, along comes Irma, followed closely by Maria, followed even more closely by people canceling their St Croix weddings. All that work….just disappears. “It’ll be fine,” you say! “The island will be back to normal then,” you say. But the nervous brides say “no….we will find another venue thank you very much.” So what do you do? You could leave the island, go back home to the familiar and reconstruct your life there – OR….you could be Misty Winter, who has taken these “lemons” and turned them into Lemonade!
Misty is a prominent wedding photographer in the Chicago area who recently made the decision to relocate to St Croix. I was the lucky Realtor who got to work with her, actually over several years, until she found just the right spot. When Misty lost her wedding bookings, she turned all that energy into a project to help shed light on St Croix and raise awareness about the impact of Maria on small businesses here. She’s photographing 100 people on island (me included!) and interviewing us, and will create an exhibition and a book about this. VI Strong!
Misty is a shining example of the creativity, fortitude, “Get ‘er Done” kind of people who live here in the VI. We are grateful to her for her help, thankful to have her in our community, and inspired by her shining example of turning lemons into Lemonade!
Oh, and I should also add that when the storms hit Misty was in Chicago, and quickly put together a benefit for the VI to send money and supplies to us… A LOT OF BOTH. THANK YOU MISTY!
You can follow her, and the project on Facebook, and her website:
- Misty’s VI fundraising page: 966237com/stcroixsmallbusinesses-https://www.youcaring.
- Buy the #VISTRONG t-shirts on the mainland: www.shirtsicle.com/vistrong.html
- Misty Winter Photography: http://www.mistywinter.com/
(p.s. a little teaser… Misty put together an amazing video for St Croix Island Life, which will be featured on our new website, which will launch at the first of the year… don’t miss it!)