A sixty-second year-in-review video for my own Scout council, and thirty minutes of animation instruction two years later.
Role
Principal
Organization
Orange Flame Design
The Heart of America Council runs Scouting America in Kansas City, across nineteen counties of eastern Kansas and western Missouri. For the past decade, I’ve had two sons involved in Scouting, and I’ve been a volunteer leader across several levels. Over time, I built a relationship with the council’s marketing director, as a volunteer and as a professional. Twice, that turned into creative work for the council.
The first was a sixty-second video that supported the council’s annual report, made for social sharing. The council provided the 2017 year in review numbers and a library of stock footage. I augmented that footage with my own Scouting footage and built a motion graphics package around the count: 871 Eagle Scouts and 21 percent of Kansas City youth served by Scouting.
When the pandemic suspended in-person meetings, the council opened ScoutConnect so Scouts could keep earning merit badges. As a registered merit badge counselor, I taught the Animation Merit Badge as its first instructor.
Scouts could watch my instructional lesson and then they were responsible for creating their own animated project. When that project was complete, I would connect with the Scout via Zoom, discuss what they learned about animation, and go through a creative feedback session on their project. Once completed, I would provide a sign-off to their local unit.
The ScoutConnect launch was featured on WDAF TV news in Kansas City, but the Scouts I worked with came from all over the country. I think only one of them was from Kansas City.
