No ordinary pin-up

Young Chang

It’s a glossy and sexy take on charity and goodwill. Over 14

pages, with 12 large black-and-white photos of mostly shirtless men,

the American Heroes 2003 Calendar is a work of both eye candy and

philanthropy. Its makers, Erica Polites and Rebecca Cawley, had

little trouble convincing the military, fire, law enforcement and

medical personnel they approached to be models for charity.

With 100% of the net proceeds from calendar sales going directly,

as in no middle-man organization in between, to the families of

soldiers killed while defending the United States from terrorism, the

cause is one the men related to. Proceeds will also be sent to

families of firefighters and police killed in New York on Sept. 11.

The models include one firefighter from New York, others from

California, police officials from both coasts and other men who work

in public service. Half of the models were either directly involved

in the Sept. 11 attacks or the relief efforts at Ground Zero.

“They had to commit to this and commit to doing this to benefit

the victims of Sept. 11,” said Polites, a Costa Mesa resident and the

photographer/creative director for the calendar. “What we’re donating

is our time and skills.”

Due out in about two weeks, the 10,000 copies of the calendar will

be available for $14.95 (shipping is $4) each through Polites and

Cawley’s Web site -- www.herocalendar.org -- and at yet undecided,

smaller book sellers.

The project is Polites’ brainchild as she found herself, last

year, wanting to help Sept. 11 victims in her own way. She remembers

wanting to donate blood immediately after the tragedy and not being

allowed to because she has a tattoo.

“So I was like, ‘What can I do?’” said the 33-year-old.

A photographer whose work experience involves shooting women’s

modeling portfolios and “some cheesecake posters and calendars,”

Polites decided to branch away from her usual world and photograph

men.

She and Cawley got together last December and made the project

official, with a business license, a bank account, nonprofit status

and the agreement that they were not going to personally make money

off of the project.

The two visited firehouses in both Los Angeles and Orange counties

and approached men they thought would make good models. They visited

Camp Pendleton during the search and “fliered practically the whole

base.” They also got in touch with friends and family members

involved in police, fire or law work, who then passed the word along

all the way to New York.

“We wanted people who wanted to donate their time, so we made it

very clear that no-one was going to make money off of this, but they

had to make a commitment to us to do promotions and signings and be

available,” Polites said.

Cawley added that they were also looking for the right spirit.

“We didn’t use a few [people] because their heart wasn’t in it,”

said the marketing and financial half of the project.

What they ended up with was an “outstandingly beautiful” group of

men whose “hearts are absolutely incredible,” Polites said.

To make the calendar possible, the partners also gave $5,000 to

$6,000 of their own money for expenses like airfare and camera

equipment. Others helped out as Polites got most of her film donated,

as well her processor.

“Along my career, I’ve been helped out a lot,” she added. “A lot

of people that were totally behind me. And my big thing is, I always

want to give back, because I think what comes around, goes around.”

The finished calendar includes short testimonies from each of the

models explaining how they got into their line of work and why. The

heart of the writing is “softer” than Polites and Cawley initially

expected from guys who look so tough on the outside.

“I get all choked up reading this stuff,” Polites said.

“Especially from the guys who were at Ground Zero. But they’re short

and sweet. They’re so touching. There is nothing egotistical about

these guys.”

Cawley added that their hope is for the families of soldiers to

know that people are grateful.

“For mostly the military families that are having troops killed

right now to get a little bit of benefit in knowing we appreciate

what they’re doing,” she said.