Slow Progress At Kickstarter, But A Big Boost Yesterday

Margaret Unger, one of the child survivors, has very generously renewed her pledge at Kickstarter.com.

Today, our total is an even $6,000… Still far short of our goal of $48,400. This second campaign was initiated when we were given an indication that large supporters might step forward to help us deliver our documentary. To date, these backers have not been able to help as expected. So the need for grass roots support is even greater, and time is elapsing quickly.

The second Kickstarter campaign will close in about 25 days, so the time for any help is now. We’re grateful to all our friends and those history advocates that have helped by making a backing pledge or passing along information about our project. Take a moment to consider any support you can offer to help us reach our goal, and as always, thanks for your interest in Children of Pearl.

We’re In The Paper…

John Montgomery of the Fostoria Focus spent some time with us last week and the result was a terrific piece in this past weekend’s edition:

You can read it right here

Hear Stephen Kallis Tell His Story

We’re happy to follow up on our recent post about child survivor Stephen Kallis with a link to an audio recording of Stephen’s interview on WFLA radio in Tampa.

Be sure to listen through right to the end to hear how child-size gas masks were decorated.

Click here to hear the interview.

Stephen Kallis’s Story

Among the child survivors of Pearl Harbor that we have recently met is Stephen Kallis. Stephen was four years old on December 7, 1941, and his father was stationed in Hawaii as a coast artillery officer.

As Stephen tells us:

“My mother stood in the doorway of where we lived (Quarters 25, Officer’s Row, Fort Kamehameha) watching my father race to reach his troops, when a Japanese aircraft fired a single round that scored the sidewalk at the quarters and stopped close to her.”

The bullet remains in the Kallis family to this day:

We’ll post an audio interview with Stephen right here very soon.

So Far, So Good At Kickstarter

Our Second Campaign at Kickstarter is off to good start, with many of our supporters from the first fundraising period quickly returning to help on this go-around. Thanks to all. 

And we’ve seen some new folks come aboard… Thanks to Tom Hofbauer, who pledged just today. 

This new campaign will also reach out to companies and organizations who support efforts like ours – documentaries dedicated to the preservation of a facet of American history. 

If you are a part of, or know of, an organization that can help us complete Children of Pearl, please let us know at childrenofpearl@yahoo.com.

Thanks!

Our Kickstarter Backers Are Returning.

Since the launch of the Second Campaign just 24 hours ago, 5 of our previous supporters have renewed their pledges at Kickstarter.com… A great way to start the new campaign.

If you were a supporter in our first effort, remember that your pledge was cancelled on April 1, so please renew your backing right away.

Use the links here at childrenofpearl.com to find us at Kickstarter and Facebook.

Thanks!

We’re Back Online At Kickstarter!

We told you all recently how many people have encouraged us to try to fund Children of Pearl again through Kickstarter.com. Tonight, we’re pleased to announce that we are indeed up and running at Kickstarter once more, this time at a different link: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/childrenofpearl/children-of-pearl-second-campaign.

The “Second Campaign”, as we call it, has a far more modest goal of about $48,000. We were able to start this campaign with this lower target for completion thanks to our production partners agreeing to work for less when the project is fully funded. We’ve also had to drop some planned creative elements of the documentary, at least for the time being. But the important thing is that, if we can get to our new goal, the stories we’ve collected so far will be supplemented with new ones from the child survivors we’ve met recently, and all those stories will get presented, with the program offered for distribution by any broadcast programmer who would like it. This niche of history won’t be forgotten in that case.

If you were one of our initial backers, we need you to renew your pledge at the new link. All you are doing is extending your pledge, really. Your first pledge was cancelled, and now if you will simply repeat the pledge process, we’ll be back on track.

The Children of Pearl Second Campaign will run until June 3, and we’re trying once more largely because of the constant encouragement of so many who have contacted us through this blog. So, please stay with us and spread the word once again.

Thanks! Stay tuned to see how we do, and learn more about Children of Pearl.

New Life At Kickstarter

Kickstarter has just approved our new 60 day campaign to support Children of Pearl.

We’ll be re-launching this coming weekend, so that we have a window that lasts until Sunday, June 3.

Once we re-launch, we’ll hope to see all our previous backers step up with the same support as before. Again, your previous pledge was cancelled, so all you need to do is repeat the simple sign-up at Kickstarter.

We have been able to reduce the budget for Children this time, thanks to gifts of time from the producers and others – people who are willing to work for a little less to get the project completed. We’re very grateful and looking forward to another campaign with true success.

More coming very soon..

The End Of Our Kickstarter Campaign – But The Start Of Another

Today, April 1, at 2 PM, our Kickstarter campaign will come to a close. Since we didn’t reach the goal, our pledges of support to date will not be activated by Amazon. Again, for those who have made pledges at Kickstarter: Your pledge will be cancelled at 2 PM eastern time today, with no cost to you.

Just this week, we’ve recently received generous pledges from: Becky Shultz, Patricia Sprague, Lynda Berube, Sharon Steelhammer, Barbara Vaughan, Dorinda Nicholson, BankersLab, Joe Hubbard, Sally Winston-Norris, R.L. Fink, and Chris Darbro. We’re very grateful for all that support, as well as the many good wishes we’ve received.

But even these recent pledges have left us far from our completion budget.

Still, we’ve decided that we don’t want to shelve all the work we’ve done. We still feel strongly that the program should reach an audience, and that this niche of American history deserves proper representation. So, we’ve decided to take advantage of an option from Kickstarter, and apply to restart our campaign. Notice we said ‘restart’ – we cannot simply extend the campaign; We have to start it over again, with a different goal than before.

The good news is that we’ve found some outside support and ways to make concessions in our production budget, so the new goal will be smaller, and hopefully easier to attain.

For our Kickstarter backers, a restart means that we need you to offer your pledge again. Remember, your initial pledge will be cancelled today. But if you still feel that Children of Pearl is something you would like to support, all you need to do is repeat the step you took recently. We’re not asking anyone to increase support, just to renew it.

Kickstarter does not provide the individual e-mail addresses of our backers to us until the project is fully funded (we can only mail you through the project’s page). So we won’t have a chance to notify you directly when the new version of our project is online – it should be just a few days. But watch this blog and our Facebook page (here) for the announcement.

And for purposes of building a mailing list, or voicing your ideas for the program and its support, we’d love to hear from you – write us at childrenofpearl@yahoo.com.

Thanks again to all who have taken an interest in Children of Pearl. Please stick with us for the next campaign.

Meet Another Survivor – Peggy Unger

Margaret (Peggy) Unger, one of the child survivors of Pearl Harbor, has very generously pledged $1,000 at Kickstarter to Children of Pearl – a fantastic show of support. Margaret also shared some of her story with us, including an account of how her bathrobe was used for bandaging in the aftermath of the attack: “My sister and I had been wearing seersucker night gowns and robes when the bombing began and we had given up our robes at the shelter, to be used as bandaging.  It was dreadful to leave, after the second wave of bombing ceased, to see and step over strips of our robes, stained with oil, blood and serum from those terrible wounds I’d seen.”

Peggy went on to a career as nurse, helping others through her life, thanks to her part in the “Day Of Infamy”.

And Peggy has been with our campaign from the beginning, as part of our Facebook and blog badge (she’s in the left of the photo). Thank you so much, Peggy!