Once a year, movie theaters all over the world make special arrangements to show a movie that was released in 2005. That movie is Serenity, the sequel to Joss Whedon’s television show Firefly. It’s the movie that should have never been. After all, as a character on another television show said, “Who makes a movie out of a TV show that only lasted three episodes?”
Now, granted, that character (Daniel Jackson from Stargate SG-1) was exaggerating slightly in his quite intentional reference to Serenity, since Firefly actually ran for fourteen episodes, but it really is pretty miraculous that such a short-lived show had such a huge impact on the sci-fi world. Firefly fans led a massive campaign to save it and that effort eventually led to Serenity, a full-length feature film that is regarded as one of modern science fiction’s classics.
But even that accomplishment pales in comparison to the fact that Serenity is still going strong today.
A four-year-old film isn’t shown in theaters very often. In fact, one would expect a genre movie like Serenity to be relegated to only the hard core fan’s DVD shelf by now, but that couldn’t be more wrong.
Serenity is shown around the globe annually (usually on or around June 23, the birthday of show creator Joss Whedon) in a charity event called Can’t Stop the Serenity. This event has raised over $250,000 for Whedon’s chosen beneficiary, Equality Now (which fights for women’s rights worldwide), since 2006.
Kids Need to Read supports Can’t Stop the Serenity and the powerful fundraising it does for Equality Now. To that end, working hand in hand with an anonymous Browncoat (Serenity fan), we have donated some very special prizes to be given away to one lucky winner in the global prize drawing for CSTS 2009 attendees.
The first part of the prize is a $75 Visa gift card to allow the winner to purchase the new Dollhouse (Joss Whedon’s latest creation) and Castle (Serenity star Nathan Fillion’s new show) DVD sets that are coming out soon.
Second, we will allow that same winner to help choose a school or library to receive a Kids Need to Read donation. This library must meet the donation standards for KNTR (it must be in the United States and it must have a financial need), but the donation will be made specifically in honor of the winner and Can’t Stop the Serenity.
Can’t Stop the Serenity has been very kind to Kids Need to Read through the years and KNTR is glad to return the favor by giving back to Can’t Stop the Serenity now. Here’s hoping we’re all still giving back while watching Serenity on the big screen in ten more years!
– This blog was written by volunteer blogger Laura McConnell.
