Calendar girls hark to earlier age

It started as a simple photo shoot, helping her friend build her portfolio.

Before they knew it, Athens resident Dena Baudendistle and photographer Danielle Camp were knee-deep in a nonprofit called Pin Ups for Soldiers, which is producing a 1940s-style pin-up calendar for troops overseas and collecting care packages for a Georgia National Guard unit.

The group is joining with members of the Athens AMVETS Post 10 for a car wash and carnival today to raise money for the calendars and care package items. The event will be from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Athens Dodge Chrysler Jeep, 4145 Athens Highway in Bogart.

Car washes are by donation, and there will be live music, kids' activities, games, food and special appearances by calendar girls and members of the local Veterans Administration and ROTC units.

Proceeds from today's event will benefit Pin Ups for Soldiers and the local AMVETS chapter.

Baudendistle had no idea the vintage-style photo shoot would turn into a full-blown nonprofit, she said, but it's helped her meet other Army wives and give her something to work on while her husband, Sgt. Travis Stahl, is in Afghanistan.

"We decided to start up a nonprofit and do something good with it," she said, adding that her husband returns in September from a yearlong tour in Afghanistan. He's also spent a year in Iraq. "It's just given us something, so when we open the computer at night, we're not focused on what's going on over there."

The photos Camp's taken for the calendar recall the voluptuous girls who graced barracks during World War II. In one photo, a woman wearing a dress and sailor's cap smiles on the deck of a boat. In another, a woman has donned a vint

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