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This past December I had the opportunity to work with Garfield High School student Nancy Segoviano on a video for a blanket drive project she initiated three years ago. She came to me with the idea of creating a video to help highlight the importance of giving back. That just so happened to be the theme of the 2015 Second Annual White House Film Festival.
The blanket drive was an enormous success locally in the Los Angeles Unified School District, so much so that Nancy’s initiative was awarded the County Volunteer of the Year through Hilda Solis.
“I enjoyed seeing my community being involved which was my ultimate goal, to explode community engagement,” Segoviano said when questioned about her reaction to the White House Film Festival opportunity. “I felt that all the hard work we had done prior to the blanket drive and during the distribution was paying off more than I expected. The film festival was an opportunity to be recognized and an inspire people across the nation.”
This year the White House Film Festival received over 1,500 video submissions from K-12 students. While the White House was not able to extend an offer to visit the White House for the film festival this year, we were commended for all our hard work and wished us the best on our cinematic and service related pursuits.
“I wanted to bring my communities’ experiences to the White House Film Festival, there’s no doubt we can touch many other communities and make bigger impacts,” Segoviano said. “This is just the beginning for us, I believe we have potential to create bigger and better projects to help more communities.”
-Donnaldo Escobedo
