Project Blue is a collective of 25 ocean enthusiasts aged 18-25 who are passionate about saving the ocean from plastic pollution by ending the use of unnecessary plastics. They’ve installed a giant plastic wave at the Coromandel’s Whangamata, spoken at events, and challenged big brands to evaluate their plastic use. We chatted to Project Blue’s founder, Savannah Walker, about their PledgeMe project campaign and upcoming feature-length film:
Why do you think this campaign is important?
I think this project is important because I think it’s time everyone starts seeing some good stuff happening. I know for myself that I get pretty weighed down every time I see news on the world. There are some pretty terrible things happening everywhere you look and so often it feels like there is nothing that an be done about it. I just want people to see that there is an amazing group of young people out there who really do care about the world and whats happening and are willing to spend all their time and money on changing it for the better. Wanting to be a part of the solution rather than the problem. Everyone could do with seeing a little good happening and positive progress being made.
What motivated you to reach out to your crowd?
The project thus far has cost us a lot of money- but thankfully the majority of us have full time jobs that help us support the project financially. Essentially I was looking at the balance sheet and found that we have spent upwards of 11k on the project thus far which is a fair bit of coin! We knew that if we were going to have a real impact then us supporting this only using our own funds was unsustainable and so we had a bit of a brainstorm on where else we could get funds from. We are all very against selling everyone more stuff that they dont need- as its essentially polluting the world even more and thats exactly what we are against. So we decided to reach out to our crowd, those who feel inspired by our work, to ask them for help financially in the hope they would be able to provide us even the smallest amount. Considering our target audience thus far has been the youth of NZ who don’t find themselves with a lot of money we are so stoked that we have been able to reach the amount that we have.
What do you have planned for the rest of the campaign – anything for us to look forward to?
We are filming the opening sequence to our film on the 18th of May. Can’t give too much away but it involves scuba divers and the ocean floor! We will also be speaking at Long Bay College on the 20th of May to educate more people on why saving our ocean from plastic is so important and we will be heading down to Rotorua on the 22nd May to help out a whole bunch of young leaders on their action plans to help protect beautiful NZ.
Anything you would like to shout out to your crowd?
Appreciate all the support you guys have shown. The love is unreal. Even if we don’t make the 60k limit we will find another way to get this film produced and make a positive impact on the world. You guys have shown us that you want to be a part of a better world and we want to be a part of making that happen. #fortheblue
Find them on Instagram and Facebook, but most importantly, join their crowd and pledge for one of their awesome rewards!
