First, I must state that I’m not comfortable about this post, but sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do, and that’s ask for help. Bottom line is this – would you like a writing teacher with 25 years of experience to visit your kid’s school to teach about creative writing, bullying, and boosting self esteem? Yeah, that’d be me, and I’d be going anywhere in the country. Maine to Florida to Michigan to California. Also, let me apologize now because I’ll be reposting this about once a week during June.
Kickstarter.com is a website for people to create projects and present them to others to potentially fund, donate, or back that project. It’s not just giving money to an artist. It’s getting something back for your money. Most projects are artistic – music, publishing, visual art and design, film and video, etc.
The artist sets a financial goal and a list of “rewards” that the donors get in return for their money. If enough money is raised, the artist gets all the money but also must do what they proposed, including providing the prizes that were offered. For example, if someone’s project is to raise enough money to record and produce a CD, that artist will offer free copies for certain monetary donations and possible a free concert for higher donations. I created a project, and now I need to direct people to check it out. It is not begging for money because donors get something for it. Regardless, it feels like begging for money.
My project (using a pen name, as I was advised to do) is about helping kids deal with bullies and raising self esteem. It’s a book aimed at middle school kids, specifically 5th and 6th grade, depending on reading level. It’s about a boy named Dillon, but his family calls him “Dilly.” He likes art, poetry, acting, and gardening, and thus he gets made fun of and picked on at school. He has an older sister, Rose, who helps protect him at times, but she’s trying to teach him how to deal with bullies on his own when she’s not around because in a year’s time she’ll be in high school and won’t be in the same school every day to help him.
But this post isn’t so much about the book as it is about the project. At this point, you can click on the picture up at the top, and it will take you to an embarrassing video with poor audio that I made with my daughter to introduce the project. Also on the site are the different amounts of money that one can donate – and also – more importantly – the rewards that you get for the donation. The best of those rewards is me appearing at a school for a day to teach some writing lessons as well as lessons about bullying and self esteem. Other rewards include choosing names for characters, dogs, towns, and other things in the story. Also available are copies of the book, both hard and soft cover, and supplemental material for teachers.
Maybe this is nothing you’re interested in, and of course that’s okay. However, maybe you know someone who would be interested. How do you know? You don’t know. But you can always pass it along, repost it, whatever you can do to spread it around. Maybe you can e-mail the link to your kids’ school and tell them to take a look at it.
I live in western Canada so I won’t be any help to you. Good luck with this project, Lord knows the kids need it!
Great post!
thanks and thanks.
Hey I posted this to my Facebook. What a great project. Kudos.
thanks a bunch!
This is awesome! Best wishes!
thanks misssss.
Great idea and I really hope you meet your goal. I’ll help share the word
Can I ask why you are no longer teaching?
just had enough of a school system that kept making the same mistakes and wouldn’t listen to outside opinions on how to fix things. i may go back to teaching next year if i find a good place to be.
I think that this project is awesome.
Patricia
You two ought to do a comedy act. You are the straight guy and your daughter reacts to what you say with facial expressions. I couldn’t stop laughing. Very attractive tiles on the kitchen floor, too.
I love this. This is so important. SUCH important work you’re doing. Thanks for letting me know, I can’t contribute right now but I hope I can soon!!!
your reply is a contribution all by itself. thanks.
This is a fantastic idea. You are the ideal person to do it too. You are logical and reasonable and articulate. The kids who are lucky enough to have you at their school will love you. I enjoyed the silent movie. My sound is off for some reason so I got the benefit of watching your daughter react to whatever you were saying. It was delightful. She stole the show. I’ll go back when my sound is fixed. You look good anyway! Good luck, Rich.
she is a show stealer, and i’m okay with that.
Great stuff…shared on twitter
super
Good Job! I wish you luck!
thanks a bunch.
This is a such an important issue and I am behind you 100%. Although my kids are well beyond school age, I have numerous family and friends in the educational field and I will post your video on my Facebook page. Wishing you much success, Rich!
that’s fabulous, like you.
Reblogged this on Karmic Diva and commented:
If you haven’t already been reading Rich’s blog then I think you’re missing out on some great writing. He has a unique vision…one that I find very refreshing. I’m reblogging this post to let you know what his new project is all about.
Fabulous idea. I reblogged this post to help spread the word.
thank you for helping.
yw and good luck
thanks a bunch
The video is so cute have shared it ,wish you all the very best.
( the sound is set very low can you do something about it)
thanks. i think i needed an extra microphone and not just the one on the camera. also, i should have been louder i guess.
Can’t help you with a school per se because I’m in the UK, but I can help out by posting the project to my FB page and on Twitter too – good luck. The last time I looked Kickstarter wasn’t available to us over the water and I’d be interested to hear how you get on Rich.
thanks for your help miss.
You’re welcome
Great idea Rich! If I get this internship (had my interview Friday), I’ll chip in!
I’ve had an account with Kickstarted since January and haven’t even logged back into the damn thing. I should!
p.s. Who edited the video? I have a few tips being the video person that I am, after all that’s my “specialty” if I ever had one.
p.p.s. I had wanted to intern for Writers in the Schools last year after i graduated, but was too scared my legal status would be too much of a hurdle for them. Have you heard or Writers in the Schools? Your project reminds me of that…
Best!
never heard of that writers thing but i’m interested. also, the video was poorly done, i know, because i have zero experience with that.
It’s pretty cool It’s WITS. You should look it up. But now that I think about it, it may only be in Houston. Hang on…
http://witshouston.org/
I thought about working with them, but again, the legal situation and my own insecurities on top. I talked to one of the hiring people when there was a career fair on campus about two years ago. Anyway, I thought if you took a look at what they do, you might get some ideas. The hiring guy gave me a card along with a book of poems from a few of the WITS students who’d been in juvenile detentention. Reading those poems is what REALLY got me interested, but yeah, the middle schoolers kinda scare me, lol.
As far as the video, maybe we can help each other out if you need future videos. I don’t post my portfolio page on here because of my “anonymity” thing. Bu I can email you in the future.
Also, thank you! You just inadvertently made me rethink my Kickstarter account. I’ll add “look into your Kickstarter account, but figure out what the password was first” on my to do list.
nothing to thank me for. it’s all one big-ass circle, and i’m just riding it.
p.s. The video wasn’t bad! It was good! Better than some I’ve seen. It’s just the sound quality is kind of low. And I may be hard of hearing, but three years of music and sound engineer schooling has me instinctively looking for sound quality in EVERY video I see. Ironic isn’t it?
FYI: Here from Karmic Diva …
Good luck with this. A worthy project for sure …
Video: Next time don’t apologize for the length. No need! It is what you considered appropropriate to present your proposal. Good job.
Thanks for your work and commitment and for the intro to Kickstart. Nice!
Jamie
Thanks very much for your good wishes.
Great Idea.
I wonder if there is a way to get this out to Guidance Counselors or maybe PTA groups, there must be some kind of ”master list” for getting your word out to the decision making people.
Was about to pursue that
Rich. Your passion for this project shines through – I wish you all the best with it.
Thanks sir.
Rich, it seems the Kickstarter link isn’t working. I’m not sure if that was a link to your actual Kickstarter project or just their site, just thought you should know.
My mom was heavily involved in the school district in my hometown, I will pass this along to her to see if she has any advice.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/decker/teaching-kids-creative-writing-and-boosting-self-e
Hope this works. Appreciate the boost.
I LOVE your project!
My husband works with the Rotary with a program called the 4-Way Test in Middle Schools which covers bully proofing.
You rock Rich! Good luck with everything!
Super thanks!
Great idea…I’ll see what I can do!
‘ppreciated.
Fascinating, worthy project, Rich. Best of luck!
thanks miss.