I just got back from a trip to Carlsbad, California and it was buzzing. We scanned 23,000 pictures in one day! With billions of photos in shoeboxes and albums in the US alone-we still have a long way to go!

People rolled up suitcases of photos for us to scan. We had one group of sisters who brought thousands of family pictures as well as their lawn chairs and made an event out of it. One of the sisters returned a few days later with even more photos.

We had many pleas to return to San Diego. Watch this message sent by a very happy customer to Sandra Morris, General Manager of Consumer Imaging Systems (which includes Kodak Gallery).

One woman came twice within the same day. Whenever her young son got impatient being at the van - she told him "Daddy will be so happy when we get home." She was scanning his pictures from Iran, some dating back to the early 1900s that he inherited from his relatives. Another customer hugged her companion when her old family photos were done scanning because she was so ecstatic to finally have them digitized. It is fantastic to see customers so delighted by the Kodak Gallery Scan Van. Clara liked the service so much, she wrote about it in her own blog http://clarawallace.blogspot.com/. Thanks Clara - we all loved seeing your feedback!

Kodak Gallery's Wendy Hoffman visited the Scan Van in Carlsbad as well and had this to say, "It was so interesting to see how many families have one member who assumes the role of family historian and picture archivist. I met several women like that this week, and they enjoyed showing us their pictures and sharing their family stories. They were so excited about the opportunity to digitize so many of their pictures in such a short time. One woman was preparing to assemble her collection in a photo book in time for her next bi-annual family reunion. She brought the contents of three photo albums dating back to the late 1800s.

Another had gathered photos from the estates of her two grandparents and was planning to show them for the first time to her extended family through a link to her album on Kodak Gallery. Still another became teary-eyed showing us pictures of her father who arrived on Ellis Island with nothing in his pockets and no ability to speak English. Her pictures showed his remarkable progress as he became more and more prosperous. She plans to document his life in a photo book creating 'new memories' for her grandchildren."

The Scan Van has said goodbye (at least for now) to Southern California and is en route to South Florida. We kick off April 13^th and 14^th in Coral Gables. Tales from the East Coast coming soon...

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