It is with great excitement that I introduce you to Donnell Probst Photography.

My wife, Donnell, is very passionate about everything she does, and she has had a love for photography for most of her life. She has an amazing eye and really takes wonderful pictures. She is now officially fulfilling her dream of being a professional photographer, and I am beaming with pride. My wife totally rocks!

From a geeky perspective, I have been insanely impressed with the speed in which she has picked up Photoshop and WordPress. These two applications are not the easiest in the world to really figure out, but Donnell is already rocking both of them. Awesome!

Please take some time and check out her website. If you live in Saint Louis or even Chicago, please schedule a photo session with her. You will enjoy the pictures for many years to come.

I had one of those experiences this week that was just so good that I wanted to share it with everyone.

For those of you who follow me on Twitter and Facebook, you already know that I am participating in the Walk Now for Autism Speaks event here in Saint Louis on October 10th. The goal of the event is to raise funds for Autism Speaks so they can continue to help fund research, educate parents, and raise awareness of Autism among many other things that they do. If you would like more information, please visit my personal page on the Walk Now for Autism Speaks website.

I work for a fairly large company so earlier this year, I started making calls to see if the company would get involved in some way to help me support the cause. My request went all the way to the head of HR for the entire company! With his support, my HR contact really got the ball rolling at the local level here in Saint Louis.

Now, let me give you a little background. I work from my home with a group in our company that is located in San Diego so I had no previous contact with the offices here in Saint Louis. I had never met or talked with anyone from the local offices. That is what makes the rest of the story even more wonderful.

Getting back to the story . . .

With the help of my HR contact, I was able to get in touch with the manager of the local office, and he jumped at the opportunity to help me in any way he could. He put the office manager in charge, and she ran with it. She put together flyers, got local restaurants to donate food, and planned everything. So earlier this week, I attended a luncheon at the office with people who I had never met. In addition to the donated food, people made their favorite dishes to share with everyone. It was quite the feast!

When it was all said and done, these generous, kind strangers had not only donated their time and food, they had managed to raise over $200 in donations for Autism Speaks! This really says a lot about the people that work for my company and the people of Saint Louis. I will be forever grateful for what they did to help me and my family support a cause that is very important to us. My hope is that this kind of thing becomes a regular occurrence for my company in Saint Louis. It’s a lot of fun to help the community, and it’s nice to know I’m not a lone ranger for my company in the area.