PROUD: Body Proud calendar organiser Kelly Albrecht said the experience had changed her life.
PROUD: Body Proud calendar organiser Kelly Albrecht said the experience had changed her life.
She convinced 108 Rotorua women to bare their bodies, raised $10,000 for charity and changed plenty of lives along the way - including her own.
For Kelly Albrecht, organiser of the Body Proud calendar raising money for the Rotorua Breast Cancer Trust, it proved to be the turning point fora career change to pursue her dream of helping others working in the counselling or psychology field.
Mrs Albrecht has been chosen as the Rotorua Daily Post Person of the Month for January after her months of work, from dreaming up the idea of the calendar through to photographing the women, organising fundraising and selling the calendars.
She said she was "blown away" by being chosen and that the whole experience had proven life-changing for her.
Now known as the woman who photographed the calendar, Mrs Albrecht is giving up her career in photography to study counselling and mental health.
"Photos will always be my hobby but I now have a lot more passion for helping people."
She said talking to and encouraging the women taking part to pose - especially some of those who had been through breast cancer - renewed that passion and convinced her to swap careers.
Mrs Albrecht said the calendar took up plenty of time over the four months, with her doing 99.9 per cent of the work in the background as well as taking the photos.
"I'm a mum of four children under 5. My children did go a little bit on the backburner but it made me realise how important family time is as well."
However, she would love to do another fundraising calendar in time, perhaps looking at promoting men's or children's health.
"I'm just grateful that everyone got behind me, before they got behind me I was no one. I want to thank the girls who were in the calendar who believed in me enough to reveal their bodies."
Mrs Albrecht said the biggest challenge of the calendar project was networking and finding sponsors was a huge learning process.
