Trenten Fillmore, a 13 year old boy living at the Nickelsville homeless encampment on West Marginal Way, was part of an outreach effort by Art for Animals Sake. A profile of his photos appeared on television and prompted the donation of a digital camera and money for the young man.
Art for Animals Sake an animal advocacy organization recently sponsored a project featuring photographs by street youth of their animals. One of the dozen people who participated was Trenten Fillmore a 13-year-old boy who is living at the Nickelsville encampment on West Marginal Way. The project was featured in a story on KING 5 by photojournalist Ron Sanford.
It was also featured in the West Seattle Herald here.
Trent lives in Nickelsville with his mother Diane.
The budding photographers were all given disposable cameras and the resulting photos were selected and framed by Art for Animals Sake founder David Walega and put on display at Mind Unwind at 2206 California Ave SW on Dec. 2.
The video story of the the exhibition and Trent's photos touched the heart of an anonymous benefactor in Olympia who got in touch with Walega and arranged to donate a new digital camera and some money to Trent.
Walega surprised the young man on Saturday Dec. 8 with the gifts.
Trent expressed his thanks to everyone and said, "It means I might have a new future (...) and also give me something else fun to do."
West Seattle Herald photographer and reporter Steve Shay will be coordinating an effort with David Walega to collect more digital cameras for other homeless children of Seattle for a future photo show.
You can check with the Art for Animal's Sake website to see what photos Trent comes up with.
