Father and son team, Ricardo, 46 and Leonardo, 5, have participated and contributed to numerous charity causes and events. Throughout the years, Ricardo has contributed in various ways as a corporate sponsor, as fundraising team leader, marketing consultant, art director, commercial photographer, creative graphic designer, project manager, web development and host, to simply contributing funds to such wonderful  organizations  such  as  BC  Lions  Society  for  Children  with  Disabilities' Timmy Telethon, Queen Alexandra, BC Children's Hospital Foundation, Variety Club/The Children's Charity/Jeneece & Friends penny drive, the Canadian Cancer Society's Relay for Life, Cops for Cancer, Candles on the Lawn and the full creative marketing production for the "Volunteer Drivers" campaign.. Ricardo sees how beneficial it is share and provide his expertise, support and sponsorship to such causes, as it assists them in many needed ways.

Ricardo feels blessed to not only having the opportunity to expose his son Leonardo to contribute, participate and learn from such empathetic endeavors, but also in seeing him enjoy the process while realizing that his presence and positive ways are a magical gifts to many.

He shares, "in my life, I have experienced many wonderful special gifts, while at the same time, lived and survived quite major testing times – something from which I continue to learn and feel a great inspiration towards a living wonderful now, with visions towards a fulfilling future". Ricardo goes further and states "Each morning at breakfast time, my son and I look at one another and we take a moment to give thanks and acknowlege feeling grateful for what we have together, as well as enthused and excited for what is to come throughout the day. Not only has this helped our own survival, but it has also become an educational avenue to assist others during their challenging times".

While he has tried to live by example as a Dad, as his main-caregiver, Ricardo as a Father and as a Man in general; he says that it is his son to whom he gives full credit for being such a constant and endless force of inspiration to him".

As  part of Ricardo's ongoing  interest  child  welfare  and  their  overall  needs, Ricardo as a single parent, and experienced stay-at-home-Dad; recognizes the many  developmental stages, including the emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual nurturing needs a child may have including the daily survival needs.  In addition to years of dealing with children of diverse ages and cultures,  as well as  completing  psychology and child-related  courses  and  workshops  including Safe K.I.D.S  for  Parents,  Roots of Empathy,  Parenting  After  Separation,  "How  to  Talk  to  Kids  so  Kids  will  Listen  &  Listen  so  Kids  will  Talk",  "Art Therapy  &  Addition Recovery",  "Effective  Communication",  "Dealing  with  Strong Emotions", "Conflict Management",  Anatomy of Anger", "Co-parenting", Standard First Aid Enhanced & CPR, and many others.  Ricardo continues to participate and attends coursers in diverse fields of related interest.

As a result of his commitment to seeing children's best interest at the top of the list in our society, Ricardo has recently founded CHILD1st.ca  & CHILDfirst.ca, an organization which offers an online site that not only provides great resources of information and support for children, their parents and caregivers, but also an online avenue that offers resources regarding safety tips and workshops, education and activities, as well as many professional services, and much more to come.  While it is an ongoing developing project  in progress, Ricardo welcomes the input, contribution and suggestions of others...

Ricardo share, "CHILD 1st believes that children's well-being comes first, unconditionally, and that child safety in at home, schools, daycares, child-minding and baby-sitting environments, including all transportation, needs to incorporate certain standards in order to protect children, while honoring them and respecting their rights as little peoples, human beings as well".  

As a fundraising project, Ricardo  is  presently  working  on  one of several productions, one focuses on limited edition collector prints, coffee table books, and other spin-off materials, to be produced from a selection of never-seen-before images (well-kept in his stock photo "special vault", within the last 21 years).

The sale of these special prints, as well as their spin-offs (such as postcards, calendars and posters), will not only allow for production costs to be covered, but also enable financial support towards various child-related programs CHILD1st.ca is working on - including "the biggest picture", one day having The Child Creative Centre - a professional support systme that will house professional specialists in dealing with naturally gifted children (in any medium), as well as art & addiction therapy.

In addition, Ricardo is also working on a separate program known as  LEOSAFE - a  safety  &  prevention  program which provides guidelines for parents and caregivers with tips insuring  that environments which care for children, are child-friendly and child-safe. Ths requires the joining of forces with other professionals to provide education and protection against non-child-friendly environments, general child-bullying (from peers as well as adults), prevention and awareness agaist child abduction/kidnnaping, education and awareness regarding sexual abuse and online sex predators. The objective is to ultimately create awareness  within  our communities,  while  assisting  parents, caregivers, guardians and school boards along the way.  

While several fund-raising projects are being considered to further continue developing these programs. Ricardo invites and welcomes the interest of individuals and businesses wanting to join forces on a particular project, cause or vision, as well as from those  who  may  wish  to  pursue  the  avenue  of  fundraising  and/or joint  venture production.

You may contact Ricardo directly at info@child1st.ca, info@ipromo.ca, info@photosure.com

For further details, please feel free to contact us at info@child1st.ca
Thank you for visiting CHILD1st.ca.