August 2013 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

We've had a wonderful Summer working on What You Can Do.  Over 84,000 people in our online community join us to celebrate our oceans. The Parker Manatee Aquarium at The South Florida Museumand The Monterey Bay Aquarium helped us highlight simple one minute ideas on how to help protect these integral environment. Our work with them allowed us to offer simple practical ideas that make a big difference for our oceans.

It has been such an honor to share our summer with you and two of our favorite organizations. It's hard to believe that it's already September, but we're really excited for the remainder of 2013 at What You Can Do.  We have three more campaigns up our sleeves, so stay tuned.  

A big thank you to everyone who shared our love of the oceans!

The On the Leesh Team 

---

What You Can Do's Campaigns to Honor Our Oceans

August 2013

Dear Friends,

We've had a wonderful Summer working on What You Can Do.  Over 84,000 people in our online community join us to celebrate our oceans. The Parker Manatee Aquarium at The South Florida Museumand The Monterey Bay Aquarium helped us highlight simple one minute ideas on how to help protect these integral environment. Our work with them allowed us to offer simple practical ideas that make a big difference for our oceans.

It has been such an honor to share our summer with you and two of our favorite organizations. It's hard to believe that it's already September, but we're really excited for the remainder of 2013 at What You Can Do.  We have three more campaigns up our sleeves, so stay tuned.  

A big thank you to everyone who shared our love of the oceans!

The On the Leesh Team 

---

What You Can Do's Oceans Campaign: Sea You Next Year!

We had such a great summer with all of you.  Thanks for joining us in celebrating our oceans!  We learned some of the biggest threats currently affecting our them. Through our interviews with the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Parker Manatee Aquarium we learned about the effects that global warming, red tide and ourhuman interaction have on our seas. With so many issues currently effecting our oceans, it's easy to feel powerless, but Jim, Ryan, Sarah-Mae and Marilyn gave us simple one minute ideas on how we all can help to make a difference.  They taught us, inspired us, and motivated us to take action and limit our effects on these environments. We extend a big thank you to them for reminding us that collectively we can help these vital environments even if we only have one minute to give.

 

We loved every minute of this campaign, so check out this video from the What You Can Do team to learn our favorite moments from this campaign and our favorite things about the ocean. 

 

Thanks to everyone for making our oceans campaign a success and to everyone who got involved in the conversation on Facebook.  Be sure to subscribe to us onYouTube.

---

UP NEXT

We are devoting all of September to the issue of cyberbullying and offering ideas on how you can help through spreading kindness and compassion.  We're teaming up with the Anti Defamation League, and we will offer you simple one minute ways to combat the issue of cyber-bullying and hate speech.   Last September, our campaign with Rachel's Challenge raised 10,000 acts of kindness, so this year we're teaming up again for our second annual "Kindness Week." 

 

Visit our Facebook page to see photos from our Kindness Week shoots and interviews with the ADL.

 

Be sure to write in and share your ideas on how to help combat bullying and hate speech.

FESTIVALS AND AWARDS    On the Leesh President,  Alicia Arinella, was named the2012 Accolade Competition Humanitarian of the Year. Her interview has just been released, and you can check it out here.  We offer our sincere thanks to the Accolade Competition for their continued support and for this amazing recognition.   In addition, What You Can Do won a Gold Remi Award from Houston WorldFest for Commercials/Public Service Announcements. We're so thrilled with this honor.     It's been a busy year for us, and we wish to extend our heartfelt thanks to the entire cast and production crew of What You Can Do, as well as the wonderful organizations we partner with, and our incredible fans and community!

Wanna know more? OUR BLOG Stop by our What You Can Do blog for new posts and features like  Missy's Homestead. Also visit the On the Leesh blog for the latest news and happenings on all our projects.  Get in on the conversation & let us know what you'd like to read about next!   JOIN US ON PINTEREST Min' Ette, the face of the Unstoppable Minute Vlog, has been busy mining the web for facts and beautiful images of our oceans.

Publicity shoot for an upcoming media piece

Today - Jess, Alicia and Matt were in the On the Leesh studio for a publicity shoot with Amanda Blohm.  The Arinella/Rashids are getting featured in upcoming media piece.  Stay tuned for more details.  In the meantime, enjoy some stills from the shoot.

---

James McGann sets the light for the shoot

Matt and Alicia deep in conversation

Amanda takes her shot

Alicia looks on

Amanda shoots Matt, Jess and Aria

Matt, Jess and Alicia check the shot

Amanda checks the shot

Production begins on What You Can Do's September Campaigns

James McGann checking sound levels

What You Can Do  began shooting began today for our September campaigns the Anit-Defamation League and Rachel's Challenge.  We are devoting the month to combatting bullying and promoting kindness and compassion.



Our partnership with the ADL will feature interviews with experts and offer simple ways that you can help combat the issue of bullying and ways to talk to your children about the issue.

James and Amanda Blohm on set

Last year, we partnered with Rachel's Challenge for the 1st Annual Kindness Week, and we were able to inspire 10,000 acts of kindness.  We look forward to the 2nd Annual Kindness Week running the week of September 16th.

Sarah Schwartz, Production Manager

Stay tuned because our campaign begins September 1st.  Be sure to write in with your ideas on how you can help.

Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen: Voice of a Donor Features Alicia Arinella

Alicia Arinella, President of On the Leesh Productions, and Executive Producer of What You Can Do, was recently interviewed for Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen's Voice of a Donor.  

Read below to find out more about Alicia's commitment to helping the organization.  

---

FOOD FOR THE SOUL

ALICIA ARINELLA, DONOR, VOLUNTEER, WHAT CAN YOU DO

Voice of a Donor… Alicia

In Soup Kitchen Stories on June 26, 2013 at 3:01 pm

Founder and owner of her own production company, director and producer of 11 short films, one feature film and critically acclaimed series ‘What Can You Do’, Alicia Arinella is not someone who would strike you as being nervous. And yet, as she walked into the soup kitchen to begin her first day volunteering, that’s exactly how she was feeling.

‘We’d been looking for something we could do as an office team and we found the soup kitchen,’ she remembers. ‘I really wanted to help but I’d never done anything like this. I didn’t know what to expect, plus I can be really picky about table manners…’

As fate would have it, Alicia was put on table duty, the role with most interaction with our guests. In the busy flurry of a January morning with over 1,200 meals served, any time to notice table manners was soon forgotten, and in only two short hours, Alicia felt she had a life changing experience.

‘Everyone was just so nice,’ Alicia recalls. ‘Everyone I smiled at, smiled back. People thanked me all the time. The people I saw around the tables were not who I expected to see in a soup kitchen. The whole experience just blew me away.’

Shortly after her morning volunteering, Alicia decided to donate. She sold some books on Amazon and donated the profits to the soup kitchen. As the months passed, she found herself donating more – more money, more time, more attention. A little over a year on, Alicia has made a series of videos promoting the soup kitchen, spear headed several social media drives and continues to be a generous donor. Oh, and she types up work from the writers’ workshop as well.

‘It’s kind of an addiction, I admit it,’ she says, laughing. ‘I just love the soup kitchen and what you guys do. As I got to know it better, I grew to love it more. It’s a well oiled machine that doesn’t feel like a machine at all. I’m proud to be a part of it.’

Like most New Yorkers, Alicia encounters the problems of homelessness and hunger in her daily life, which she finds reinforces her connection with the soup kitchen. ‘Walking through midtown, riding the subway – these issues are ones I see all around me,’ she says. ‘I’ve been given a lot of opportunity in my life. You can think you’re immune to these problems but we’re all only ever a step away from a terrible phonecall that can change our lives forever. It’s so important to give back.’