Dear Friends of Storytellers for Good,
We are excited to unveil the last of 5 inspiring nonprofit stories you helped us fund: United Roots! United Roots is an Oakland based non-profit that uses music to help kids heal and learn entrepreneurial skills. We are honored to share this story with you first before it debuts at the Storytellers for Good Film Festival/Fundraiser tonight at the 111 Minna Gallery in San Francisco. Hope to see you there!
http://storytellersforgood.com/2011/03/presenters-for-our-2011-film-festival-fundraiser/
With much gratitude,
Cara
Posted by Cara Jones on 03/25/11Dear Friends of Storytellers for Good,
Thank you so much for your continued support of our work! I wanted to share our latest video on Mandela Marketplace in Oakland, CA (see embedded video).
Mandela Marketplace from Storytellers For Good on Vimeo.
Mandela Marketplace leads a unique effort to bring fresh organic produce to parts of Oakland that have little to no access. "Change through Food" is the theme of our story and we hope you will be as moved by the young people who are making these changes happen as we were.
You can also find the story in the "Videos" section of our new and improved website: www.storytellersforgood.com
And, stay tuned for more details on our film festival/fundraiser to be held at 111 Minna Gallery in San Francisco on Friday March 25th!
With so much gratitude,
Cara
Posted by Cara Jones on 02/14/11The story of the founding of Mama Hope and the work they do for victims of HIV in Kenya.
Hi friends of Storytellers for Good,
It has been a busy fall!
A few things to catch you up on:
1) If you haven't yet seen our latest video on Mama Hope please check it out above or at www.storytellersforgood.com. The film made it to 5th place in the Viewchange.org film contest and will be shown at film festivals around the country.
2) We are very excited about our next video winner: Mandelamarketplace.org. The Oakland based non-profit brings fresh produce from minority farmers into corner stores all over the city...via teams on bicycle!
3) We have yet another opportunity for FREE money to support SFG. As you are already registered with Spot.us (and have done this before) I would be SO grateful if you could fill out both these surveys (taking just a few minutes each) to win SFG a free $12! Here's the link: http://www.spot.us/cca (Or click "Free Credits" from this page).
We thank you so much for all the support. More details on our next video project and Chicago launch coming soon!
With Gratitude,
Cara
Posted by Cara Jones on 10/25/10Dear Friends of Storytellers for Good,
Thank you so much for your continued support! We have some great developments to announce in the next week including a new website and our next nonprofit video winner. In the meantime, as you are already registered with Spot.us, we would be so grateful if you could again take 2 minutes to fill out a very brief survey that will earn us a free $6 each thanks to Spot.us.
Simply go to our pitch below, click "Earn Credits," take the survey, and confirm the credits go to SFG:
http://spot.us/pitches/375-help-storytellers-for-good-promote-goodness-inspire-greatness
Thank you so much!!
Cara
Posted by Cara Jones on 09/27/10Dear Friends of Storytellers for Good,
It's been a busy summer! We are recently back from an amazing trip to Kenya and will soon debut the inspiring story of Mama Hope. Meantime, we have completed our second video on The Bay Area Association of Disabled Sailors and wanted to share it with you. You can find it here and our website: www.storytellersforgood.com
Photojournalist Paul Fifield and I spent an amazing day with these inspiring sailors this summer and hope their activities and attitudes inspire you as much as they did us. Thanks too to Bow Jones for the editing help!
Finally, if you happen to have a 3 extra minutes this morning you can help Storytellers for Good earn an extra free $5 once again!
1) Simply go to our pitch: http://bit.ly/storytellers4good
2) Log in and click the button that says "Earn Credits" to the right of "Fund a Story."
3) Take the brief survey and confirm that you want to give the credits to SFG.
With so much gratitude,
Cara
Dear Friends of Storytellers for Good,
1) We are thrilled to debut the first video of our 2010 Campaign on Each One Reach One (www.eoro.org) which runs playwriting and tutoring programs for incarcerated youth. Check it out below or on our front page at www.storytellersforgood.com 2) We are also very excited to offer our next video prize to Mama Hope! (www.mamahope.org). Mama Hope is run by Nyla Rogers who, in honor of her late mother, has started some amazing community building projects in Africa. With some extra fundraising we're hoping to capture the story in Kenya this summer! 3) With your generous support, we are now less than $1000 dollars from our $10,000 fundraising goal. You can help us with our campaign to provide promotional videos for inspiring non-profits for FREE! You need only complete a brief survey (less than 2 minutes) for Spot.us, our fiscal sponsor. Each survey completed will result in a $5 credit you can apply towards the Storytellers for Good campaign. Please act today ASAP as we're competing with other projects and the dollars will run out quickly! Also, if you have already taken another survey you can do this one over and still earn an additional $5 credit for SFG. 1. Go to www.spot.us and hit "register" in the upper left hand corner.
Dear Friends,
Storytellers for Good is thrilled to announce the next video winner of our 2010 Campaign: The Bay Area Association of Disabled Sailors (www.baads.org)! BAADS does amazing work to make all aspects of sailing in the San Francisco Bay Area accessible for people with disabilities.
WIth your support we will be able to fund this and 4 other video stories of inspiring non-profits! Stay tuned for the debut of our first video later this month on Each One Reach One (www.eoro.org) which provides playwriting and mentoring programs for incarcerated youth.
Congratulations again BAADS!
Posted by Cara Jones on 05/03/10
The immediate news: THE STORYTELLERS FOR GOOD LAUNCH PARTY/FUNDRAISER
Our kick-off event will be a celebration of all things inspiring including:
WHERE: 111 MINNA Gallery (111 Minna St. @2nd San Francisco)
WHEN: March 14th 7pm
And now: Why Good News?
It was the day that marked the beginning of the end of my television news career. It was a “slow” news day…so slow that our crew got assigned a car accident. A fatal accident on a Boston freeway…not something that would typically warrant an entire crew in a news market of that size but, given that it snarled the morning commute and nothing worse had happened yet, we were given the story. By the time a photojournalist and I arrived on scene the wreckage was long cleared and traffic was running smoothly. We called the news desk. Still slow, so it was still our story.
By mid-afternoon, we were sent to the home of the accident victim to see if this non-story would become one there. We got an address and, with heavy hearts, and in the same robotic mode with which we learned to approach all such situations, arrived at the address with hopes that it was either the wrong one…or that no one would be home.
A young teenaged girl was sitting on the porch. She ran over to me before I had a chance to say a word. “What happened to my mom?,” she asked. “I know something happened to her. My dad called and told me to wait here. I just read about a fatal accident on-line. Was it my mom?” There were tears in her eyes and a desperation in her voice that left me speechless. Without my saying a word she put two and two together. The presence of a news crew alone had confirmed her worst fear.
In my 10 years in TV news I have, sadly, seen people in the worst kinds of pain. I’ve seen grieving fathers, angry mothers, speechless siblings, distraught classmates. I have had the door slammed in my face, been called names, and been chased off properties…all in the name of getting the story. But never had I seen it unfold quite like this. Never had I seen someone descend into pure shock and panic right before me…meanwhile knowing that I was somehow a part of making this already horrible situation worse. This was something I could no longer justify as “just doing my job.” I realized then that my news days were numbered.
When my contract ended that year I traded my big city news dream in for a backpack and a one-way ticket to Argentina. What started with a plan to learn Spanish for a month evolved into a nearly year long adventure through South America, Europe and India. Among other highlights, I hiked through Patagonia, visited my great great grandmother’s hometown in Chile, volunteered at an orphanage in Bolivia, climbed Manchu Picchu, walked 546 miles across the north of Spain, discovered yoga in the land where it all began and trekked through the Himalayas. Most importantly, I rediscovered parts of me that had shut down to handle my work. I was ready to return to Boston and to a more inspiring version of myself.
Soon after my return I moved to San Francisco, became a yoga teacher, a life coach and finally had the opportunity to pursue work that has been in me all along: the work of becoming a video storyteller….for good. It all started before I ever left Boston with a series of stories I initiated at my last news station about people who have forever changed my outlook on life: a blind and autistic musical savant, a 6 year old girl paralyzed by a bullet who forgave her shooter, a disabled Iraq Veteran turned artist and gallery owner, a couple in their mid-40’s who, after grieving the loss of their teenaged daughter in a drunk driving accident, decided to start all over again…with triplets. These are the stories and the people who gave meaning to my work. They moved and inspired me…as they moved and inspired others and demonstrated, for me, the power of television and the media to influence the way people think, act and experience life.
The work of Storytellers For Good is to create inspiring stories just like these…as well as help good people and organizations produce compelling videos to promote their work. Recognizing that a culture can be defined by the types of stories it chooses to tell, we ultimately hope to help create a shift away from the fear and tragedy focused news that has so influenced our world. Whenever possible, we seek to give voice to positivity over pessimism. We aim to promote goodness and, in doing so, inspire greatness.
Stay tuned for our adventure and many inspiring stories to come!
