A great charity that gives free eye exams and glasses to underprivileged kids in the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Did you know…
90% of children’s visual problems are correctable with glasses.
80% of all learning during a child’s first 12 years is obtained through vision.
60% of students identified as problem learners have undetected visual problems.
I didn’t know any of that until the founder of Vision To Learn came to us and asked for help. He needed us to create a logo, tagline, and concepts for in-theater PSAs and TV spots. Oh, and VTL needed it all in two weeks to meet their kickoff…
Yeah, two weeks. We were busy, but we pulled it off.
Then VTL had another challenge: create a PSA that that could get kids excited about wearing glasses and also reach their parents, many of whom are not legal U.S. citizens and are hesitant to take part in any program, even if it could dramatically improve their child’s life.
Vision To Learn had a relationship with the LA Dodgers. We came up with a concept. I wrote the script and VTL loved it: Kids like pro athletes, and parents can be just as star-struck, so we brought in James Loney for the English language version and hispanic Dodger legend Fernando Valenzuela for the Spanish language version.
We had two weeks to do that, too. Yeah, two weeks to secure the talent, location scout, organize a production crew, shoot the spots, edit them and do an in-house finish that would be ready to play to 50,000 people at Dodger Stadium on Opening Day Weekend, followed by a theatrical :60 promo and a TV:30 cut-down for release all over Southern California.
We shot at Dodger Stadium and around Los Angeles, I wrote and produced both the English and Spanish versions, working with different editorial teams for each.
I got to hang out with James Loney, got an autographed ball from Fernando Valenzuela, and – extra bonus – got to see broadcasting legend Vin Scully in the booth!