{"id":209191,"date":"2015-08-27T06:00:25","date_gmt":"2015-08-26T20:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=209191"},"modified":"2015-08-27T06:00:25","modified_gmt":"2015-08-26T20:00:25","slug":"saving-saipan-lauren-benson-captures-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/saving-saipan-lauren-benson-captures-hope\/","title":{"rendered":"Saving Saipan: Lauren Benson captures hope\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Editor\u2019s note: Saipan Tribune\u2019s latest series will feature everyday heroes who are taking part in recovery efforts and assisting those in need after Typhoon Soudelor devastated Saipan.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Lauren Benson has contributed to Typhoon Soudelor relief efforts both behind and in front of her camera lens.\u00a0<\/p>\n<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-209191 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/saving-saipan-lauren-benson-captures-hope\/saving-saipan-pix1-2\/'>Saving Saipan pix1<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-209194'>\n\t\t\t\tLocal photographer Lauren Benson. (Contributed Photo)\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/saving-saipan-lauren-benson-captures-hope\/saving-saipan-pix2-2\/'>Saving Saipan pix2<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-209195'>\n\t\t\t\tOne of Lauren Benson\u2019s first posts on Human of Saipan is of a mother holding her baby at a shelter on island.\u00a0(Contributed Photo)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>The 23-year-old lifestyle and wedding photographer created Humans of Saipan on Facebook, posting photos of individuals who endured the wrath of the typhoon\u00a0in an effort to share the myriad of stories of survival and hope.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought if I could visit the shelters and hear people\u2019s stories, I could post them online with a photo so that people outside of Saipan could get a personal connection with those in need\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Benson hopes that connection will engender people viewing the photos to donate to a GoFundMe page started by a friend: http:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/8zf7zp6p8. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Benson and her husband, Matthew, have visited different shelters, giving what they can and talking to people who lost their homes since the typhoon made landfall.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot only did this help those in the shelters and spread awareness, but it helped my husband and I connect with those who were effected by Soudelor in similar ways as ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With a camera in one hand and a bottle of water in the other, Benson volunteers for the grassroots volunteer organization United 4 Saipan as well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSaipan is a huge community, and better than that, we\u2019re all family. Families look after each other and help one another when they are in need,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve met people who have literally lost everything giving what they had to someone else. Saipan is an inspiration to the rest of the world, and that\u2019s why it\u2019s important for residents to help one another as much as they can.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Benson fell victim to Typhoon Soudelor as well, returning home from a trip to discover the roof of her home torn apart and everything inside destroyed.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSadness and anger filled me, not completely understanding how this tragedy could happen to such an amazing place,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t until she arrived home, she said, that she became thankful.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverywhere I turned, people were helping one another. Friends and family called right us away, asking if we needed help,\u201d she added. \u201cThose who helped inspired me to help others people who had it worse off than we did.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Editor\u2019s note: Saipan Tribune\u2019s latest series will feature everyday heroes who are taking part in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":209194,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[6718,67,38,6333],"class_list":["post-209191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-lauren-benson","tag-people","tag-saipan-tribune","tag-typhoon-soudelor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}