Read With Me

**Status update- Read with Me is in the can as of March 16, 2007!**
Click HERE for more!

We are excited to begin a film about the impact community volunteers can have on children learning to read. This will be introduced to the children as a joyful celebration of stories, in reading, writing and digitally (video camera). Our goal is to inspire more community volunteers to contribute their time to help children learn to read.

Click HERE to view the Trailer

We will work within one school where a model of paired reading is followed to the extent that you have volunteers helping students learning to read. We will first observe for several weeks, a few hours per week, until the class is familiar with us (1-3 people). We will work with the teacher to choose a book popular with the kids so we can choose a scene to visualize while it is read by students and their volunteers. We will select volunteers to profile as they do their work with the kids. The most extensive part of the filming by our crew will occur during one week, in March 2007. We will also allow children whose parents have provided permission to "check out" a small, simple video camera to take home overnight to capture a little part of their home lives.

We are currently funded through the filming phase of this project (Mattel Foundation). While doing the observing and filming we will continue to fundraise for post-production funds. If we are successful early on, we'll also be able to show the students a little about the editing process. Once we've finished the film, we will have a premiere at Russian Jack- perhaps the gym- and reach out into the community for donations including a kleig light, limo rides, DVDs to give away, and so forth. The PR surrounding the film will also work toward the additional goal of getting more companies to allow their employees to volunteer on company time.

The "through line" or spine of the film will be the scene we choose to visualize. This will be the vehicle to show the volunteers working with the students. The subjects of the film will be the children and their volunteers as illustrated with footage both from the classroom and at home. The "crew" will be 3 - 4 professional filmmakers and all the kids not in front of the camera.

To help us make sure Read With Me comes to fruition, click the 'Make a Donation' button below.