57-year old actor LeVar Burton, best known for his role as Kunta Kinte in the 1977 award-winning ABC television miniseries, Roots, and as Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation, wants to play another role now. This one is to help low-income children.
From 1983 to 2006, Burton had a PBS educational show called Reading Rainbow. He wants to revive that role and continue helping children by bringing the show to the Internet. He and others are trying to raise enough money to launch an online version of the show.
The mission of the show is to encourage more reading among children, especially low-income children. Burton feels strongly that every child needs to be literate. As he states, "We can genuinely change the world, one children's book at a time." Burton's goal is to provide video books and field trips to children's homes and free to low-income classrooms.
The success of the program depends on donations. The target goal was just $1 million in donations, but the program has raised $5 million with more than 100,000 backers. Burton comments, "Together we can create and deliver a proven tool for encouraging the love of reading to millions of children."
For more information, and to donate to Reading Rainbow Kickstarter campaign, visit: www.kickstarter.com/projects/readingrainbow/bring-reading-rainbow-back-for-every-child-everywh
