That’s right! The first week of January, we – the team behind Pioneers in Skirts – will pack up our truck with camera, sound and lighting gear and drive to Charlotte, North Carolina to follow two subjects of our “Pioneers in Skirts” documentary – Maddy and Sophia. They are teenagers interested and skilled in robotics but also interested in other hobbies like dancing and theater. We are following them during a time in their life when choice is imminent. Will they or won’t they follow a career in STEM? What outside factors play a role?
It’s Time to Rally the Troops!
Dear Pioneer Troops: As we wait to hear back from grants, we need to keep moving forward in making this film – so we need your help to make this trip happen through either monetary or in-kind donations – all of which are tax-deductible through our Fiscal Sponsor Fractured Atlas. [Contact us (pioneersinfo@ashley-maria.com) to learn more!]
Here’s what we need:
Gift Cards to Restaurants
It doesn’t matter the kind of restaurant (we aren’t picky), but you would be surprised how quickly the numbers add up when you are feeding a crew of 3 or 4. Gift cards to fast food help when we are on the road, and then gift cards to sit-down restaurants help us to treat our crew right after a long, hard day!
Gift Cards to Grocery Stores
We drink a lot of water on set because it’s easy to get dehydrated while you’re running around, plus we also get hungry! Granola bars are my favorite on set pick me up… but I like to make sure we have enough healthy and enough sweet to keep the crew satisfied until it’s time to eat that big meal. It’s all about food with me…
Gift Cards for Gas
YES we want GAS! We will be driving A LOT to our various locations following these young ladies, so help filling up the tank would be much appreciated. Costco gift cards are also a cool work around for this.
Hotel Stays
Do you know of a hotel that has an initiative to support women in their company? Would they want to support this film by donating a night or two to us? We will be in Charlotte for 5 days total. And, did we mention it is all tax-deductible as In-Kind Donations? Cool, right?
Businesses Can Help, Too
If you are, or know of, a business that would like to help – please send them our way. We have all sorts of ways to recognize business sponsorships. To be honest, documentary films are funded more by people and businesses than Grants and crowdsourcing. We need YOU!
Here is a link to our sponsor page for monetary donations:
https://www.fracturedatlas.org/site/fiscal/profile?id=10872
What do you get in return?
Other than the satisfying feeling you get when you support a movement – a film that will influence change – every donor to the film receives a special Thank You in the credits – YOUR NAME up on the screen!
Why are we are following Maddy and Sophia?
Maddy and Sophia’s interest and skills in engineering plus their super fun personalities as best friends drew us to them when we first met back in March 2014 at the NC First Robotics competition in Raleigh, North Carolina.
They began learning about engineering on their all-girls middle school Robotics team where they thrived. Now, they are on the high school co-ed team, and their mentor tells us they are exhibiting an elevated level of confidence – much higher than the girls who didn’t come from an all-girls team.
Is this a solution to encouraging more women to join the STEM fields? Studies show that young girls are interested in STEM fields but are discouraged along the way from ever pursuing a career in it, thus making it an industry highly dominated by men. What happens, and will this same thing happen to Maddy and Sophia?
Check them out in our teaser (they’re the ones wearing the cool hats):
Pioneers in Skirts – Exploring the obstacles women face in their careers, and how to overcome them.
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