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Photograph by George Sakkestad
Amateur photographer Greg Spirakis will display his work at the Saratoga Library through the end of February. Proceeds from any photographs sold will go to the Global Ischemia Foundation to benefit Kathleen Davey.
Photo show will be a benefit; get the picture?
By Michele Tjin
Whether it's a rose blooming in a Saratoga back yard or a butterfly preparing to take off in the Cayman Islands, amateur shutterbug Greg Spirakis finds inspiration near and far. He captures ephemeral scenes of beauty with the promise to support Saratoga High School teacher Mike Davey and his wife, Kathleen.
Spirakis has been tinkering with photography for about 25 years, and for this first time the Saratoga resident is publicly showing his work. Until the end of February, his pictures are being exhibited at the Saratoga Library.
The photo show couldn't come at a better time, he said.
"We have used up all available wall space at home," Spirakis said.
Spirakis, a 45-year-old retired engineer and vice president of Intel, is hoping to draw more attention to the Global Ischemia Foundation, an organization started by Davey to help his wife and others with a similar medical condition. The foundation's mission is to encourage research in central nervous system ischemic accidents.
In January 2004, Kathleen Davey suffered brain damage after a cardiac arrest. While she was being resuscitated, her brain tissue was deprived of oxygen and nutrients in an anoxic ischemic injury, and she is still on the long path to recovery. Her husband, Mike, a history teacher and the boys basketball coach at Saratoga, has never stopped taking care of her and making her a part of family activities. Last month, Kathleen was able to join Mike and their two girls at the movies to see Charlotte's Web.
"She is healthy, but we haven't seen significant change in the past year," Mike said. "We still hold out hope that the advances in stem cells will help her, and in the meantime, we are trying to keep her healthy and flexible and promote research on anoxic brain injuries through the foundation."
Past events have raised money for the Global Ischemia Foundation, and Davey is appreciative of Spirakis' efforts.
"Greg is a wonderful human being," he said. "I've gotten to know him over the past year, and he is always willing to help out, whatever the circumstances. We are blessed to be a part of a community that has been so willing to help our little organization get off the ground."
It was children's sports that brought the families together. Spirakis first met Davey last year when his daughter, Eleni, played in the same softball league as Davey's daughter, Samie. Both girls played on a summer travel team when the season ended, and after spending several weekends together, Spirakis said he got to know Davey and his family better.
"Our kids played together, and I heard peripherally about his situation," Spirakis said. "We're constantly running into each other."
Spirakis was moved to find a way to support Davey because the roles could easily have been switched, he said. Both men grew up in the Bay Area, and their daughters are very close in age. For Spirakis, it could have been Eleni who called 911 to get her mom Kerri medical help.
"The parallelism is just spooky," he said.
With the third anniversary of Kathleen's accident coming up, "it just seemed like an appropriate thing to do," he added.
All proceeds from any photo Spirakis sells will go to the Global Ischemia Foundation. He said he doesn't expect huge amounts of money to be raised through the library show, but he just wanted to make people aware of Davey's foundation.
"It's just another outlet," Spirakis said.
As for showing his work to the public for the first time, Spirakis said it can be a nerve-wracking yet validating experience. His preference is to shoot nature and to get up close and personal with it. Spirakis often gets so close to his subject that it becomes unrecognizable.
"I like to get a view of something that people are not used to seeing," he said.
