About

Earth Day Carol is a retelling of Charles Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol. In the dynamic free app version, Plastic Bottle Scrooge is visited by the ghosts Plastic Past, Plastic Present, and Plastic Future. The app was developed by a diverse group of creators, Torran Anderson, Jack Hunter, Michelle Parker-Rock and Evan Fram, all volunteers, who found a unique way to communicate the important message of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. For ongoing information visit www.EarthDayCarol.org often and join us in an Earth Day adventure. Contact us at info@earthdaycarol.org.

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Earth-Day-Carol/127427817417522

Twitter https://twitter.com/EarthCarol

PROJECT CREATORS

581378_105039713003970_901067903_n-4Torran Anderson (Story Author) develops environmental education programs with the Environmental Education Exchange. Earth Day Carol was written while creating a new classroom education program. He writes articles, picture books, leveled readers, poetry, and middle grade and young adult novels. He is currently finishing an environmentally themed YA sci-fi novel and a novel in verse. Torran loves working on freelance writing projects, photography, and storytelling workshops.  www.torrananderson.com

282651_4285623379205_1143299295_n-1Jack Hunter (Story Illustrator) creates illustrations and designs from his home studio in Phoenix, Arizona. He enjoys cartooning, sketching caricatures, developing company logos, and creating humorous illustrations. Jack, who has been drawing ever since he could hold a crayon, often combines traditional and digital media when making art. He likes showing young aspiring artists how to improve their work. Jack is a two-time winner of the Blown Cover competition, a contest promoted by Françoise Mouly, art editor at the New Yorker. Some of his favorite artists include Peter de Seve, Jason Seiler, Carter Goodrich, Ralph Steadman, Steve Brodner, Maurice Sendak, Tom Richmond, and Norman Rockwell. www.jackhunter.net/

167557_1474601277265_4420905_nMichelle Parker-Rock M.Ed. (Story Editor. Website and Facebook Editor/Contributor) Michelle is the Author of books for young readers, including the Authors Kids Love Series (Enslow Publishers, Inc.), authorized diverse biographies of contemporary award-winning children’s book writers Alma For Ada, Joseph Bruchac, Bruce Coville, Christopher Paul Curtis, Sid Fleischman, Jack Gantos, Bruce Hale, Patricia and Fredrick McKissack and Linda Sue Park. Michelle is also a freelance editor, a Regional Advisor for the Society of Children’s Book Writers, and an literacy educator. She has written and designed interdisciplinary curriculum that is focused on environmental education and encourages people of all ages to join together to make a difference in their own communities. www.michellepa

3d800x6601Evan Fram MD MBA (Technology ) developed the Earth Day Carol app. project. He has a background in neuroradiology, biomedical computing, and business. He recently founded Zippy Brain, a company focusing on app development. www.ZippyBrain.com



APP NARRATION
Janet Varney’s cornucopia of fun showbiz stuff spans the spectrum, from nearly winning Ken Marino’s heart in the Ben Stiller-produced series, “Burning Love,” to producing and hosting the popular weekly Nerdist podcast, “The JV Club“, to hosting and producing stories for the Huffington Post’s streaming network, HuffPost Live. Janet co-founded the SF Sketchfest that, during each January/Feburary of the past 12 years, has made San Francisco a comedy mecca. Janet’s voice spends its spare time in Republic City, where, as Korra in Nickelodeon’s immensely popular series, “The Legend of Korra,” she’s been reluctantly learning to airbend. janetvarney.com

AUDIO RECORDING/EDITING
Jon Rustad recorded and edited the original author narration and edited Janet Varney’s narration. He is a composer and creator of unique and sometimes peculiar music, specifically crafted to fulfill the needs of the scene or spot. Famous Bakery Music is a one stop music shop.  http://www.famousbakery.com/

TRANSLATORS
Translations Based on Early Version

Stu Fram coordinated the story translations. He is a senior Human Ecology major at Middlebury College where he hurdles for the track team, sings in an acappella group, and runs an organization called EatReal that works with Dining Services to increase the amount of local food served in the college dining halls.

Ben Fram translated the story into Swedish. He is an American who is studying for his master’s degree in Economics at the University of Gothenburg in Gothenburg, Sweden. Ben is passionate about renewable energy and hopes to see a transition to clean energy technologies within his lifetime. This is his first translation from English to Swedish but hopes that it is not his last.

Wenqiang (William) Yue translated the story into Chinese. He was born in China but immigrated to the States at the age of six. Wenqiang is an undergraduate at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN and is due to graduate in May of 2013.

CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS
Elizabeth Fram is an artist who specializes in recycled art. She exhibits her intensively hand-stitched textile collages nationally. Elizabeth lives with her husband and Greater Swiss Mountain dog, Lola, in the near net-zero house they built on a hill in Vermont.  http://www.elizabethfram.com

Maitri Sojourner has been in love with fiber her entire life, starting with doll clothes made on her grandmother’s treadle sewing machine, progressing to clothing for herself and her family, quilts, and fabric dolls. Maitri began making paper collages to illustrate national award-winning storyteller Rebecca Hom’s tale, “How the Women Saved Guam.” This quickly morphed into making fabric collage illustrations for the short story “The Polyakovs” by Andrea Mudd.   Maitri has made many fabric collages, loves the tactile and three-dimensional qualities of fiber, and often tweaks reality by using unlikely printed fabrics to depict normal objects. Some of her work is straight out of her head, while her landscapes are translations of photographs. Maitri splits her time between the Pacific Northwest in Washington and Oro Valley in Arizona. She can be reached at maitrisojourner@comcast.net

ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATORS
Neil Markowitz, Trica Oshant Hawkins, Jose “Pepe” Marcos-Iga, Debbie Gevirtzman, and Phil Miller all work at the Environmental Education Exchange, a nonprofit organization established to increase environmental literacy with a wide variety of conservation and environmental education programs and materials. http://www.eeexchange.org,

TEACHERS
Adam Hensley
teaches at Greenfield Country Day School in Tucson, Arizona.

Noel Hensley is the Assistant Program Coordinator of Pima for Kids
 at Pima Community College in Tucson, Arizona.
Mike Hensley teaches at Cholla High School in Tucson, Arizona.

ENTHUSIASTS
Lynn Colwell
is the co-author of Celebrate Green! Creating Eco-Savvy Holidays, Celebrations and Traditions for the Whole Family, and co-founder of the nationwide non-profit initiative, Green Halloween®.  www.CelebrateGreen.net, www.GreenHalloween.org

SUPPORTERS
Kira Freed
 is a writer and freelance copy editor at Clean, Clear Text. Her inspiration to write is a love of the natural world and a desire to share this fascination with children. www.linkedin.com/in/kirafreed

Maggie Trinkle is the Finance and Operations Associate at Sky Island Alliance, is a grassroots organization dedicated to the protection and restoration of the rich natural heritage of native species and habitats in the Sky Island region of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. http://www.skyislandalliance.org
Anita McDivitt Barrios, Teri Peppe, and JoAnne Pope are members of a children’s writers critique group in Tucson, Arizona.

 

 

 

 

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