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Red Deer would be the site of potential TV show

A potential TV show aims to bring Red Deer kids across the world to learn without a classroom.
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Contributed photo The Moores — Jazdn, Natalie, Shawn and Ryker — stand in front of wood that can be found at Eco Tree in Red Deer.

A potential TV show aims to bring Red Deer kids across the world to learn without a classroom.

Shawn Moore, owner of Eco Tree, is planning to pitch Tiny Farmers, a show featuring a handful of kids who build an urban farm in the city.

“There’s a lot of money out there to bring film and TV projects to central Alberta. Typically projects are filmed in Banff or Calgary. We’re hoping we can stick Red Deer on the map and do a TV project here,” Moore said.

The show would have the kids explore farming and food from across the world, and learning about the resources it takes to bring it to the different communities they feed.

After travelling to various locations, such as Ghana in Africa, the kids would partner with various community partners, such as energy companies, architects and bankers, to create an urban farm and artisan market container business park, which would be located alongside 2.5 kilometres of old CN Rail line behind the Eco Tree office on 62 Street.

The hope is to have young people become leaders and help better Canada in industries such as agriculture and forestry, he said.

Moore said he met with Education Minister Adriana LaGrange at a recent open house event, and she is attempting to arrange a meeting with other ministers to check the “viability of project.” Government funding and/or private funding would be needed to get this project off the ground, he added.

A demo reel to go along with the official TV show pitch will ideally be produced by January or February next year, Moore said, adding he hopes the urban farm project would officially break ground in the spring of 2020.

The kids featured in the first season the TV show would be members of the Sawing for Schools program, which Moore helped start three years ago, to inspire craftsmanship in students at Central Middle School.

Moore said it’s important to have these participants reconnect with how the world “used to be” and to learn.

“Not every student is designed to sit in the traditional classroom. Lots of people learn by doing with their hands,” he said.

“We wanted some fresh new ways for kids to learn and what better way than having some animals and saying, ‘You built this community with us, why not feed the community, too?’ ”



Sean McIntosh

About the Author: Sean McIntosh

Sean joined the Red Deer Advocate team in the summer of 2017. Originally from Ontario, he worked in a small town of 2,000 in Saskatchewan for seven months before coming to Central Alberta.
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