DINOSAUR TRAIN heads to the “Big City” on WTVI with one-hour movie premiere

The Schiele Museum will host sneak preview as part of "Reptile Day" exhibit

Everyone’s favorite dinosaurs are making their way to the city for “Dinosaur Big City,” a one-hour movie from PBS KIDS series DINOSAUR TRAIN airing on August 22 at 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., on WTVI. Families can join Buddy and his Pteranodon family on a pre-historic adventure as they gather all their theropod friends to travel to the big Theropod Club Convention being held in Laramidia, the “Dinosaur Big City!”

The premiere of Dinosaur Big City marks the start of season two of DINOSAUR TRAIN. From the world-renowned Jim Henson Company, the hit DINOSAUR TRAIN series is seen in over 13 million households every month. The series encourages scientific thinking and other skills as it teaches children about natural science, natural history and paleontology. DINOSAUR TRAIN’s second season will focus on exploring the outdoors and natural phenomena, and will feature “Big Dinosaur Week” and a special based on the fan favorite “Dinosaurs A to Z” song. DINOSAUR TRAIN airs on WTVI weekdays at 9:30 a.m.

“We are extremely proud of the success of DINOSAUR TRAIN and are delighted that young fans around the world continue to embrace the series,” states Lisa Henson, CEO, The Jim Henson Company. “With each episode, we strive to deliver the highest quality of entertainment and education, and we have a tremendous team of creative talent to ensure that we meet the expectations of children and their parents.”

“WTVI broadcasts 65 hours of PBS KIDS programming per week, including DINOSAUR TRAIN” says Elsie Garner, CEO at WTVI. “We are committed to making a positive impact on the lives of children through curriculum-based entertainment with positive role models and content designed to nurture a child’s total well-being.”

Local screening, Sunday, August 21
Join WTVI’s Ms. Beverly at the The Schiele Museum of Natural History, in Gastonia, NC, Sunday, August 21, at 3 p.m. for a sneak preview screening and free DINOSAUR TRAIN items. The screening is part of the Reptile Day exhibit, open from 1-5 p.m. For museum members, admission is $3. For non-members, admission is $10 for adults and $9 for children ages 4-18. 1500 East Garrison Blvd, Gastonia, NC http://www.schielemuseum.org/


Dinosaur Big City Movie Synopsis
Buddy and his Pteranodon family embark on a journey on the Dinosaur Train, gathering all their theropod friends together to travel to a really big Theropod Club Convention, which is being held in Laramidia, the “Dinosaur Big City.” Among the travelers is King Cryolophosaurus, a singing theropod who is more than a little nervous about giving a concert in front of his biggest audience ever in the Big City. Once the Dinosaur Train arrives in Laramidia, Buddy and the Pteranodon family explore the crowded “dinosaur metropolis.” At the Theropod Convention, the kids reunite with Annie Tyrannosaurus and her parents Delores and Boris, and they all meet the multi-horned mayor, Mayor Kosmoceratops. In the end, Buddy and Tiny help King Cryolophosaurus overcome his stage fright, and he wows a large dinosaur audience when he sings his new song, “Whole Lotta Theropods” at the Convention.

WTVI receives American Graduate Community Engagement Grant to address the high school dropout crisis

The high school dropout rate is one of the biggest crises facing the United States today. According to a national Diplomas County 2010 report, in Education Week, three out of every ten students in America’s public schools fail to finish high school – an average of more than 7,200 students drop out each day.

WTVI was recently awarded an American Graduate Community Engagement Grant in the amount of $20,000 from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The grant is designed to help PBS stations work with their local communities and diverse audiences to address the high school dropout crisis. Goals for the initiative include:

• Helping communities better understand the dropout crisis, its impact on local communities and the country as a whole


• Partnering with other organizations to address issues of vital importance to the nation and to local communities


• Working with adults (parents, mentors and volunteers) who can support and influence at-risk youth


• Promoting and providing pathways to existing community resources.

For details or more information, contact Bev Dorn-Steele, WTVI Community Engagement Director, (704) 371-8840 or bds@wtvi.

Local teacher wins PBS Teachers Innovation Award

One of our local teachers has done something very special. PBS, America’s largest classroom, has announced the winners of the national PBS Teachers Innovation Awards. Sponsored by The Henry Ford and SMART Technologies, the awards honor teachers from across the country who inspire young minds and display innovative use of public media to improve learning.

Patricia Yu, from the Cannon School, in Concord, is that special teacher. On July 19, 2011, Beverly Dorn-Steele and Elsie Garner, from WTVI, presented the second place award to Patricia for her entry from the 9th grade Chinese class she teaches at the Cannon School.

Patricia’s students worked very hard on their Chinese weather reports. The weather report video project challenged students to report the weather in Chinese, write a script, read maps and improve public speaking skills. View the video.

WTVI encourages all teachers to take advantage of the standards-based instructional resources on the PBS Teachers website at www.pbs.org/teachers and all of WTVI’s local outreach programs from tutoring to live events to reading programs. Visit www.wtvi.org today.

WTVI welcomes new board members for fiscal year 2012

At WTVI’s annual meeting on June 30, 2011, CEO Elsie Garner started the new fiscal year by welcoming new board members and announcing new board officers who will preside over WTVI’s mission to provide education, culture and citizenship.

New board members are: Dee Dixon, Amy Dawson, Jonathan Pullin and Donald Tate. New officers elected were: Liz Downing, chair; Lal Vishin, vice chair; Lou Fuller, treasurer; Patty Perkins, secretary; and Bennie Darden, member at large. Board members re-appointed were Larry Seitlin, Marilyn Richards, Tim Flanagan, Hilda Gurdian, Bill Taggart, Bari Gorelick, Tom Bickford and Elsie Garner. The board passed a unanimous resolution thanking outgoing members Fran Farrer and Hattie Leeper.

“I am excited about the new year and our board,” said Garner. “We have new, local productions to promote and community outreach strategies to truly make Charlotte and surrounding areas better places to live, go to school and enjoy family entertainment.”

WTVI’s board, drawn from diverse roles across the community, holds the FCC license, sets policy and raises funds for the organization. This year the board will focus on local productions, community outreach and new fundraising approaches to ensure the station does not experience another budget shortfall.

WTVI is an important portal for local producers to propel documentaries into the national market. Upcoming locally-produced programs include “100 Years of Folk,” a documentary on John Belk, local segments for the PBS Arts Festival, and "Overdraft" from Davidson producer Scott Galloway, a look at how the national debt affects people on a grass-roots level.

The WTVI board meeting schedule is posted at http://www.wtvi.org/about_board.cfm. All meetings are open to the public.

WTVI and PBS KIDS offer resources to help kids bridge the summer learning gap

This summer, WTVI and PBS KIDS are making it easy to help kids bridge the summer learning gap by offering fun and educational content and tools to families for free on-air and via PBSPARENTS.org/read. Research shows that children who don’t maintain reading skills over the summer are likely to start the upcoming school year at a disadvantage. To combat this summer slump, WTVI will run ten weeks of PBS KIDS special on-air programming and PBS KIDS will offer a variety of online resources and partnership activities.

“PBS KIDS’ content can play an important role in helping kids fight the summer learning slump through engaging and educational resources that can go anywhere with kids,” said Lesli Rotenberg, Senior Vice President, Children’s Media, PBS. “We want to inspire families to explore and enjoy educational activities together this summer, all to help boost kids’ reading skills.”

On-air Summer Reading Theme Weeks
WTVI is supporting literacy with ten weeks of themed PBS KIDS programming. Each week WTVI will feature reading-related episodes from a different PBS KIDS series. Episodic images and episode descriptions are available on PBS PressRoom. The line-up includes:

• MARTHA SPEAKS – “Martha Summer Fun Week” – starting June 27
• THE ELECTRIC COMPANY – “What’s the Story? Week” – starting July 4
• WORDGIRL – “WordGirl’s Ludicrously Literate Library Week” – starting July 11
• WILD KRATTS – “Wet Kratts Week” – starting July 18
• THE CAT IN THE HAT KNOWS A LOT ABOUT THAT! – “Cool Cat Week” – starting July 25

Online and Mobile Resources for Families
PBS KIDS and PBS Parents have developed a myriad of online resources to keep kids learning all summer long. A re-launched PBSKIDS.org/read site includes interactive games that kids can play to build literacy skills, including PBS KIDS Island, an amusement park-themed game experience for preschoolers, and the Great Word Quest, an online scavenger hunt-style activity for kids ages 6 to 9. PBS Parents has an array of content available for parents, including downloadable printables featuring PBS KIDS characters, as well as tips and activity ideas for families to do together. Parents can also download free episodes of select PBS KIDS series via PBSParents.org – each week a new episode will be available, starting now and running through August. Families can also visit PBSKIDS.org/mobile and download a variety of PBS KIDS educational apps, including the new free PBS KIDS Video for iPad App, which features over 1,000 videos from PBS KIDS series.

Partnership Activities
The iVillage PBS KIDS Summer Reading Community Challenge runs from June 6 to July 15 and features free literacy-building resources for parents and children designed by the experts at PBS Parents and PBS KIDS. As Challenge Coach, Angela Santomero, Creator, Executive Producer and Head Writer of SUPER WHY! and host of The Parent Show on PBS Parents, will provide daily reading activity assignments, answer parent questions and offer advice throughout the online event. Guest coaches such as cast members, characters, authors and series creators from PBS KIDS will also provide activities and ideas each week. iVillage, an online community for women, and PBS KIDS will also host reading parties with parent bloggers and within the iVillage community, reaching over 1,500 kids across the country.

Leon Levine Foundation grants $25,000 to WTVI for children’s programming

The Leon Levine Foundation has awarded WTVI, Charlotte’s PBS television station, a grant of $25,000 to support children’s programming. The grant acknowledges WTVI’s dedication to helping local citizens improve their lives, providing teachers with free educational resources and serving area children as the most positive and trusted use of television.

WTVI broadcasts 65 hours of PBS KIDS programming per week. PBS KIDS, the PBS brand for children’s programming, is committed to making a positive impact on the lives of children through curriculum-based entertainment with positive role models and content designed to nurture a child’s total well-being. Children ages three to six develop reading skills by watching shows such as Curious George, Sesame Street, Arthur, Word Girl, Martha Speaks, Super Why!, Between the Lions and WordWorld.

The Leon Levine Foundation seeks to improve and advance the human condition in four major areas: Education, Healthcare, Jewish Religion and Human Services. As part of the mission, it exists to support individuals and institutions pursuing academic excellence and providing access for disadvantaged and deserving individuals.

“We understand the tremendous benefit to children through the PBS KIDS programming,” says Leon Levine, Founder and Chairman of The Leon Levine Foundation. “We are proud to partner with WTVI to ensure access to this programming regardless of family income.”

As an example of the programming impact, children who watch Super Why! score 46 percent higher on standardized tests than those that do not watch the show, according to research conducted by Linebarger, D.L., Wainwright, D.K. and McMenamin, K, in "Summative Evaluation of Super Why!" from Annenberg School for Communication, at the University of Pennsylvania, in 2009. In addition, other studies show pre-schoolers from low-income communities who participate in PBS KIDS' curriculum outscore their peers who do not participate on all tested measures of early literacy.

“It is so encouraging that the Leon Levine Foundation, a major community benefactor, recognizes the importance of starting children out right in their lives with appropriate programming delivered through a popular medium,” says Elsie Garner, CEO at WTVI. “This grant will help WTVI continue to provide the non-commercialized programming that our children need and deserve. Because public television is accessible in every home regardless of income, no government agency, no social service and no physical classroom has WTVI’s reach.”

WTVI also provides extensive community outreach for children. WTVI's Raising Readers Literacy program serves over 18,600 children located at 550 sites throughout WTVI's 13-county viewing area. Through the Raising Readers initiative, WTVI provides free workshops for educators and child care providers, children's books, curriculum materials and resources for parents. The workshops are designed to train adults to teach children the basic literacy skills that will help them enter school ready to learn. Sites include Head Start, after school programs, child development centers, home day cares and bi-lingual preschools.

The American public has named PBS and its member stations the most trusted institution among nationally-known organizations for seven consecutive years. Local research shows 85% of Mecklenburg residents think it is important for Charlotte to have its own public station.

Don’t cut the teacher with the largest classroom in Mecklenburg County

By William L. Fuller, WTVI Chairman of the Board, and HR Planning and Performance Director, Duke Energy

It is a privilege to volunteer my time as board chair of WTVI, the only public television station with programming and outreach events developed in Charlotte to meet local community needs.

WTVI is dedicated to helping people improve their lives, providing teachers with free educational resources, engaging viewers in civil conversations about issues and serving children as the most positive and trusted use of television.

WTVI depends on financial support from viewers and local government. In 1981, Mecklenburg County contracted to provide funding for its public television station. For 30 years, funding remained in place. However, for the current fiscal year (FY11), the commissioners removed all operating funding for WTVI. Again, in the proposed budget for FY12, WTVI receives no funding. The county deems our station not an “essential community service.”

If the county continues to cut funding, we will all be the poorer, losing shows that help teach our children to read, documentaries that open new worlds, a focus on local history, non-commercialized news programs that keep us informed on world events, and free music, theater, dance and art. For many, WTVI is the only opportunity to see a Broadway show, visit a national park or have a front row seat at a popular music concert.

WTVI is the local franchise of PBS, America’s largest classroom, available to all children including those who can’t attend preschool. Almost 40% of kids 3-5 don’t attend preschool or kindergarten. Children who start school behind often stay behind. Young people who never see the inside of a pre-K classroom are more likely to be in special education classes, more likely to drop out of high school and more likely to get into crime. Because public television is accessible in every home regardless of income, no government agency, no social service and no physical classroom has WTVI’s reach.

WTVI has been recognized as one of the top five Ready to Learn (RTL) stations by the U.S. Department of Education, providing a unique educational safe haven for kids on TV and online. Ratings show that programs like Curious George, Super Why, and Sid the Science Kid are the most watched shows in the children's TV industry.

We could go on about WTVI’s focus on local history, science and citizenship, an education for children and adults alike. Did you know the ONLY reason the Freedom Riders came to Charlotte and held a community event on May 9, 2011, was because of WTVI’s nationally-known community outreach focus?

The American public has named PBS and its member stations the most trusted institution among nationally-known organizations for seven consecutive years. Local research shows 85% of Mecklenburg residents think it is important for Charlotte to have its own public station; 86% say the County should support WTVI financially.

And so we ask elected officials who represent us: “What part of ‘essential community service’ do you not understand?”