The world hasn’t been the same since Reading Rainbow was cancelled. The critically acclaimed children’s television series last aired in 2006, but was revitalized as an educational interactive book reading and video field trip app for the Kindle and iPad. That might change.
Levar Burton and his Reading Rainbow team need your help to bring the series back using Kickstarter. Burton needs to raise $1 million dollars to bring the show back for children and teachers to use at no charge. Burton plans on making the program web based so it can be implemented in over 1500 classrooms at no cost to the schools.
The rewards are pretty unbelievable to say the least. Have you ever wanted to have dinner with Geordi La Forge while wearing his sweet shades? You can make it happen, and then some. Incentives include signed posters, headshots, thank you letters, customized voice message greetings and exclusive comic-con interactions. $350 Twitter follow from Levar Burton has to be the best reward.
Burton has 34 days to raise $1 million dollars, and we are running out of time:
Click here to help save the children. Think of the children, Rangers.
UPDATE:
I can’t believe it, but they did it. 22,729 people raised $1,000,212 in less than 11 hours. Here’s Levar touching reaction to the the news.
This article appears in May 22-28, 2014.
Or keep your money local and support Literacy Connects’ Reading Seed and other programs. Just sayin’.
http://literacyconnects.org/readingseed/
(I have no connection to Literacy Connects except being a small donor.)
@SonoranWinds: that is the most short-sighted interpretation of keeping money “local” I can think of. Information is not a localized commodity the way, e.g., food is. Putting it on the web means it is accessible world-wide (the first two “w”s in “www”), which is simultaneously local AND global. You might argue that having an online reading resource (which will be made available free of charge to schools in need, by the way) is ineffective; I don’t know enough to say, one way or the other. But to promote an “us vs. them” mentality about the locality of reading instruction is unproductive, at best.
Kickstarter goal reached, now give locally.
@Adam, get over yourself.