Show Your Earth Love

It was over a year ago that we first started talking about our KickStarter campaign to fund educational signs and exhibits in our orchards to help kids explore and learn on their own. I remember setting up our profile and talking logistics with United Charitable Programs, our parent organization, from the loft in my Dad's New Mexico home long before we had ever settled in Maine.

Ever since then, it has seemed like a daunting task to create a video that embodies what we do. And a video, so we hear, is an essential element of any KickStarter campaign.

How could we capture the essence of our program? How could we narrow the scope of our video to show the specific project to be funded through KickStarter? Where would we find a camera? When would we find the time?

As it turns out, figuring it out comes easily with a little creative inspiration and the help of a few friends. Now that we have four schools to work with this year, it was easy to find a group of kids whose parents were happy to have them in our film. And once we had those kids nearby, inspiration was a snap.

Cassie helps us cut masks for the kids to wear out of cardboard.

Richard makes a cardboard cut-out apple tree.

Thankfully, we had good friends around too. Our housemate, Cassie, lent us her camera, her art supplies, and her exceptional artistic skills to create our studio and costumes.

She started the painting process with a pastel bunny mask we would use in our video play a few days later. I finished painting her masks the next day, and we had a whole forest of ecological and fanciful characters.

I focus on painting our butterfly mask.

The bunny, bird, bobcat, and owl await their debut.

Owl Sneak Peak

Next, we needed kids! I got permission from the parents at one of our schools to film interviews and plays on Friday afternoon. Of course, these young students were thrilled to participate. (Perhaps we'll feature our participating high school students in future ReTreeUS videos, but preschoolers were perfect for our vision this time.)

Lights, Camera, Action! We were finished with filming by Friday afternoon, and I edited the footage that night. Richard and I made the final cuts together as our launch date approached on the night of February 13th. It was fun to finish the project as a team, and the two of us pushed the button excitedly at midnight...on Valentine's Day!

We wish everyone a beautiful day, full of appreciation not only for the people, but also the places and things that we love. You can show your love for the planet today by donating to our KickStarter campaign. You can even send e-Valentine's to friends with the image below to express appreciation and encourage them to give.

The poster child on the ad above can be seen on our KickStarter video, as well. We can almost guarantee four minutes of pure joy and entertainment to all who watch our campaign video, and we have a few material rewards for those who give (see http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/retreeus/creatively-educational-fruit-tree-orchard-exhibits for details).

BE OUR VALENTINE and be the first of your friends to back our KickStarter project today! HUG THE EARTH and tell your friends about us, too! Thanks for your support!