Photos show support for troops | Maryland Gazette (HometownGlenBurnie.com)

The Severna Park resident has taken close to 100 photographs of people holding the sign in a variety of settings: everyday life in suburbia, moms having lunch at a Subway shop, a street vendor dressed as Superman in New York. She's also acquired a collection of photographs taken by her friends.

The interesting variety of snapshots will appear in a 2008 Thank You calendar to benefit soldiers and veterans in residence at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. A training specialist at Arinc in Annapolis, Ms. Geyer's new pastime as a roving photographer started when her new administrative assistant, Lori Tietz, moved to the area from Chicago to be closer to her daughter, Lt. Jen Tietz, on assignment as a nuclear engineer at the Naval Academy.

Soon after her mother's arrival, Lt. Tietz was deployed to Iraq on May 3, her mother's birthday. "I thought, 'She's in this for the long haul,' " said Ms. Geyer. "It was a double-whammy. First, her only child shipped off on her birthday, and then Mother's Day so close."

That's when Ms. Geyer came up with the idea of sending a thank-you picture in the mail to Lt. Teitz and other service members she had connected with through friends.

Her first attempt at spreading the word was not successful. She sent out an e-mail asking her friends and co-workers to make a thank-you sign and provide a snapshot of themselves for her to mail to Iraq. "I sent it to everybody I knew," said Ms. Geyer. She got no response.

Dedicated to her idea, Ms. Geyer began her own campaign, snapping pictures while running errands in Severna Park. The people she met were more than willing to hold her sign and have their photo taken to be mailed to Lt. Tietz.

"The overwhelming reaction is that people were delighted to contribute to the project and they were very supportive and gracious to me for supporting the troops. Many folks did so by first saying, 'I look awful in pictures' or 'I'm a mess today,' but they contributed none the less," said Ms. Geyer.

She covered a lot of territory this summer, snapping pictures of co-workers, employees at local businesses, school crossing guards, police officers and emergency medical technicians.

Her perception of American culture changed as she realized that she had to seek out different ethnic representations of American life. "It was a real lesson for me," she said.

She's acquired a photo collection to mail to Lt. Tietz which includes pictures taken by others. Ms. Geyer created a database of her thank-you photos to be mailed to Iraq with printed ID labels on the back.

"It has taken on a life of its own," she said of the project.

"To have this kind of generous, thoughtful support is a tremendous boost - to both me and Jen. I knew there were people out there going above and beyond to show support to our troops," said Lori Tietz. "To experience it first-hand through Jackie's efforts is very special. Jackie has never even met my daughter, and I can't wait to bring them together when the deployment is over."

At the same time Ms. Geyer was zipping around snapping thank-you photos, two professional photographers, Rissa Miller and Nathaniel Corn of Balance Wedding Photography in Catonsville, had begun work on a 2008 calendar to benefit the wounded American soldiers and veterans at Walter Reed Hospital.

Ms. Geyer's niece Ashley Riddle was working on a wedding with the two photographers. She volunteered her time to do the hair and makeup for the 14 models for their calendar. Ms. Riddle then introduced Ms. Miller to her aunt.

The timing was perfect, as Ms. Geyer had a growing collection of thank-you photos to contribute. About 40 to 45 of them, reduced in size, will appear on some of the calendar's daily blocks.

Ms. Geyer describes the pictures in the 2008 Thank You calendar taken by Ms. Miller and Mr. Corn as "Americana scenery." The one for February shows a woman standing in a modern kitchen with baked heart-shaped cookies; for March, a woman walking a dog.

The three visited Walter Reed Medical Center last week to take a picture of wounded soldiers who had heard about the calendar and asked to hold a "You're Welcome" sign.

"When you are driven by something in your heart, you realize that everybody does have a story," said Ms. Geyer. "I can't tell you how warm it makes me feel, That one little thing I did has blossomed into this."

Ms. Geyer also helped to write the mission statement and relayed the story of their collaboration on their Web site. " I was thrilled to have one simple act benefit so many," said Ms. Geyer.

Ms. Geyer is working with the Big Bean coffee shop on Baltimore Annapolis Boulevard in Severna Park on hosting a calendar signing and taking orders for the calendar. The goal is to raise $10,000 for the patients at Walter Reed.

To see the pictures on the calendar and to place an order, visit www.thankyoucalendar.com. The calendars are $10 each. Customers can also buy a calendar to be delivered to a soldier at Walter Reed. All of the proceeds from calendar sales will be donated to Maryland for Our Military, a nonprofit organization in Howard County.