From our E.D. Wes MacVicar: “In the Winter of 2014, Adam Sipione and I we were given the task of highlighting and telling the story of the Grand Bend Rotary Club’s Global Literacy Project. The Rotarians partnered with the Avon Maitland District School Board by packing shipping containers of our region’s school surplus furniture and materials and sending them to schools in South Africa.
That’s when the plan to produce a documentary film was born. The film project started as it should with us setting goals and developing a projected story arc. Then after a very long flight we set foot on South African soil in March of 2014.
When we arrived what we saw was not what we expected and it opened our eyes to a totally different reality. It was then that we realized that the story was much more complex and it was back to the storyboard for some major modifications. Here is the story on “The Making of All That Hope Contains”
To me, Adam and I had a host of markers to hit. The goal was two-fold: to highlight and promote the work and partnership of the Rotary Club of Grand Bend and the Avon Maitland District School Board and to try to bring healing to local kids and communities who lost their schools because of declining enrollment.
The subjects were vast and included friendship, environmentalism, social justice, global trade, a people’s history, global awareness and philanthropy, just to name a few. This in itself kept me awake at night. But it was the themes found in this project, the project’s players and the host country that gave our work even more gravity.
Our ultimate goal now was to honour what we found and to tell the whole story in a way that both students and adults globally could relate to.
It’s my hope that this documentary film does that.”
The Complete Documentary Film – ‘All That Hope Contains’
Editor’s Note: Wes MacVicar is the Executive Director of the Foundation for Education Perth Huron. Adam Sipione is a multi-media specialist for the Avon Maitland District School Board.