Leave us be
Video shows Altadena kids pleading with Arnie to leave school funding alone
By Kevin Uhrich 08/20/2008
The kids at Loma Alta Elementary School in Altadena have just one thing to say to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger: Leave us alone.
No, the kids aren't frightened of Schwarzenegger, at least not physically.
What they do fear, however, is the strong possibility that the governor will slash funding for their afterschool programs in an effort to bridge the state's yawning $15 billion budget gap.
Coproduced by Sha'ron Pennix-Cathern, coordinator of the afterschool LEARNS program at Alta Loma, and videographer Patricia Cunliffe of Joie de Vivre Productions, the video shows some of the various activities run by LEARNS - sports, hiking, dancing, music, baking, science and art - and features more than a dozen boys and girls pleading with the governor to leave their school's budget intact.
"Mr. Schwarzenegger," says one of the children, "I hope you find a way to get the money you need."
"I hope you don't have to take it from me," says another child.
"Or me," says another.
"Or me," says yet another student.
"I will be sending this video to Arnold's office," Cunliffe wrote this week in an email to the Pasadena Weekly.
"Whether he actually gets it or watches it is, of course, another story," she said.
If you want to watch the video, click on www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylV4b4cgot0.
To email this link to Schwarzenegger, visit http://gov.ca.gov/interact#contact.
For more of Cunliffe's work, check out www.joiedevivreproductions.com.
DIGG | del.icio.us | REDDIT