The Smooch Project

The last night at my Mom's house, these two Minnesotans arrived.  We'd never met.  In fact, they'd never even met my Mom.

I was never quite clear on how it happened, but these two women were needing a place to stay in the Lansing area and someone called my mom and asked her - she said yes, of course!

When they arrived we found out that Dawn (on the left) is a documentary filmmaker and Bonnie (on the right) is a photographer.    Dawn Mikkelson's current project The Red Tail Movie is out right now in select areas -- I'm going to talk more about Dawn  and her movie in an upcoming post.   Bonnie Fournier is the Project Photographer for The Smooch! Project. It was her original idea to create the smooch project after a photo of Bonnie's sister giving her a smooch on the cheek made her smile every time she saw it.

Bonnie's project is all about Love, Community and Healing and she's doing this in her effort to collect 10,000 images of people showing affection to someone they love.  The reason she came to Michigan was because she felt that Detroit needing some of that Love, Community and Healing.  I do believe she's correct.  I hope that this project gets to be so popular that Bonnie and The Smooch! Project are asked to come to every state in the nation.  

I've asked Bonnie to come to Florida, specifically Jacksonville.  I'd love for her to come stay with me, I didn't get enough chat time at the kitchen table, that's for sure.  I was unable to stay to be a part of The Smooch! Project because I had a flight home just hours before their project in Lansing even started.  I was quite bummed to say the least.

One really nice thing is that there are hundreds of photos on the website.  I asked Bonnie if I could use a few of them here and she graciously agreed.  Be sure to run on over to The Smooch! Project website though to see a lot of delightful photos.  They will make you smile...you just can't help it.

The State News even published an article on the happenings in Old Town Lansing.  The State News is the newspaper of Michigan State University.   Way to go MSU!  Thanks so much for sending a reporter down to the project.  I heard that several news reporters were there to see what was going on.   It's so good to hear that the "feel good" story got some coverage :)

Bonnie has photographed lots of people and their pets.  In her archives I've seen kitties, dogs, horses, snakes, rabbits guinea pigs and even turtles.  My Mocha-kitty wouldn't be as happy as the cat in the above photo.  She'd be so mad at me that we'd never get a smooch :)

My Mom did get to be a part of the project.  I actually have no idea who this man is that she's smooching, but I've heard his name and it's a friend of hers.  I think they both took a great smooching photo!  Great job Mom!

Thanks Bonnie for taking a chance and accepting the offer to stay at my Mom's house and to stay on the third floor in the attic, in a twin bed, in the grandkids playroom. You had no idea what you were getting into when you said yes :) 

Have a great day! and find someone to smooch!
Kristin