Characters

I made these changes when working on the abstract...and then took character specs out entirely to cut length!

I made all the kids older...we said tween, but the actual ages given were younger. I made them 11 and 12, older than our target audience in order to capitalize on the aspirational advantage.

I also made Grace from Boston instead of West Newton...I thought we needed more of a true city kid, with limited access to nature.

Serina is an 11-year-old girl from Santa Monica, Califormia, Grace is a 12-year-old girl from Boston, Massachusetts, LeMarke is an 11-year-old boy from St. Louis, Missouri, and Chase is 12-year-old boy from Huntsville, Alabama.

What do you think?

Francie, this is AMAZING, by the way. Thanks for putting so much thought into the characters. Wow!

That's fine. I forgot that we were doing the tweens as our 4 characters and our target audience is 6-9! Ooops.

 **Character Sketches for Our Show** //**Serina** //

Girl from the West Coast- Serina is an 11-year old Hispanic-American nine years old. Her mother is Colombian and her father was from Mexico. Serina loves computers, surfs and skateboards in the summer. She is a whiz at computer games. She snowboards in the winter up at Lake. She lives in Santa Monica, CA. Her Mom is raising her as a single, widowed Mom who rents a small, bungalo house. Her Mom is medical researcher at UCLA and tries to instill a love of science to her daughter. Serina is a natural student, attends a private school called “Crossroads” and she gets a full scholarship to her school that she earned on her academic merit and financial need. Her interest in the environment stems from being outside so much living in a warm weather climate. On the weekends, she and her mom volunteer with “Heal the Bay,” a non-profit organization that tries to clean up the Santa Monica Bay and help natural habitat survive the effects of man-made pollution. Serina wants to be a marine biologist when she grows up, studying whales, sea lions, and marine life. Serina’s Mom lived through 1994 California earthquakes that hit Santa Monica hard and she is diligent about educating her daughter about natural disasters such as earthquake preparedness, emergency warnings for fire and flood protection. Serina has become passionate about the environment as a result. Her love of the outdoors and her nearby vicinity to the ocean have inspired her to become a “citizen scientist.”


 * //Chase //**

Boy from the South-Chase is a twelve year old from Huntsville, Alabama. He is part Cherokee Indian and part Caucasian American. His parents work at NASA and his Native American grandparents are often his childcare surrogates at home. They have taught Chase gardening since he was old enough to remember, exposing him to native customs, rituals, and perspectives about nature and protecting the planet’s natural resources. Chase knows how to compost the family’s leftover food so that they can put the soil eventually into the family garden. He also knows how to recycle, not waste water, and why his father put in energy efficient new lightbulbs. The impact of the draught and its consequences on his lifestyle have that hit his native southeastern United States since he was born have made a strong impression on him. His parents have a rain barrel in the backyard to collect rain for watering the family garden. He knows how to take a “Navy shower” and how to help his Mom do the dishes without wasting water. Chase loves the outdoors. He attends the Randolph School in Huntsville and plays on the school’s Little League baseball team there. Chase likes to go hiking in the nearby Great Smokey Mountains that are part of the Appalachian Mountains that run from Alabama to nearby Tennessee. The world’s largest population of salamanders exists in this part of the country and Chase loves catching frogs and discovering new species of salamanders when he goes there to hike. Chase’s family goes to the Great Smokey Mountains Institute summer camp at Tremont where Chase has learned environmental concepts of “outdoor ethics.” One thing he loves to tell other kids about is the “Leave No Trace” policy when being on the hiking trails. The seven principles are: 1. Leave what you find; 2. Minimize campfire impacts; 3. Respect wildlife; 4. Be considerate of other visitors; 5. Plan ahead and prepare; 6. Travel and camp on durable surfaces; and 7. Dispose of waste properly. Chase wants to be a Park Ranger when he grows up so that he can protect the environment, especially the wildlife bear population and salamanders.
 * //Le Marke //**

 Boy from the Midwest- Le Marke is an 11 year old African-American eight year old boy from St. Louis, Missouri. His father is a farmer who had to sell the family farm when it went bankrupt in the 1990’s and move to the city to live with his wife’s family while he underwent job retraining at a local community college. His mother is a childcare worker at a local daycare center who is trying to help LeMarke’s Dad stay in school to become a computer technician. LeMarke has had to switch schools three times since he was in first grade. He and his many cousins who live nearby like to escape to the urban playground afterschool to play. They especially love to play on the slides and swings. They run around and imagine they can fly up to the moon on a spaceship. LeMarke and his cousins have access to the playground’s nearby outdoor community organic garden where they watch naturalists do demonstrations of butterflies, bird migration, plants, and wildlife rescue animals. LeMarke and his cousins particularly like the snakes. LeMarke learns at the naturalist training sessions how hard the catastrophic floods that hit the Midwest, particularly in St. Louis in the 1990’s was what ruined his father’s family farm. He learns how these floods of biblical proportions were part of a cycle of climate change that originated with El Nino. LeMarke wants to go back to being a farmer when he grows up. He wants to learn to be a restorative environmentalist whereby he can help neighboring prairie land come back so that he can become a farmer. LeMarke is given a chance to learn how to grow things at the “Seeds of Change” organic community garden. He learns how to take seeds and grow things and make kitchen gardens at home. He is also given tours of local city roof gardens in St. Louis. He particularly likes going to the downtown music district where he hears jazz musicians play on the street. LeMarke takes trombone lessons at his school. He wants to play in the school band someday so that he can play jazz like his great grandfather did.

//**Grace** //

Girl from the Northeast- Grace is a 12- year old girl from suburban Boston, Massachusetts. She attends public school there and is known for her outgoing, exuberant personality that she channels into dramatic activities. She also loves to sing. Grace’s family is Italian-American and she hears both Italian and English spoken at home. Grace’s family all love to cook, especially her aunt who loves to cook spaghetti sauce. Her aunt is an expert in making homemade sauces that are traditional recipes that have been passed down the family tree for generations. The family only buys organic tomatoes and they shop at a local food coop to get them, in order for the best pasta sauces to be on the table nightly. Grace’s love of the outdoors comes from doing summer drama camps at Camp Bernadette in Wolfeboro, NH. At camp, she is the lead in the plays throughout most summers. At Camp Bernadette, she does drama in a renovated barn theatre that is situated near the pine woods of Lake Wentworth, off Lake Winnepasaukee. While Grace is having to memorize lines for her parts, she often goes outside to the quiet of the woods to concentrate. She can hear the wind and the gentle breeze of the NH Summer nights when she goes to bed in her cabin. Her friends like to watch fireflies and track the stars and moon on clear nights when all of the lights are out. Grace comes back to her home in West Newton remembering what the environment was like at camp. She misses the peace and quiet of the woods and is determined to bring the outdoors to her friends back in West Newton. Her parents are not really so enthusiastic about Grace’s bringing home plants and flowers that cause allergies and so she must find a way to do things on her own outside of her home environment. She joins an Astronomy club designed especially for kids at The Boston Science Museum where she is able to see night skies at the planetarium like she saw in NH. She learns about the concept of “light pollution” and alternative energy sources. She decides to educate her family about changing high wattage light bulbs in their homes and replacing them with lower energy efficient ones. She tries to convince her aunt to plant an indoor hydroponic tomato garden in the house so that they can rely on solar energy more indoors. Grace is always asking her Drama teacher to do plays that have to do with the environment. She particularly likes to use puppets to teach kids how to be good environmental stewards. Grace wants to be an actor when she grows up so that she can use her art to raise global consciousness about the environment.


 * UCHE-** Uche is the pet chipmunk in the show who has special powers. He is particularly good at motivating kids to do good things. He has special powers of persuasion that help others see things from new perspectives. Uche likes to run around, climb trees, fly, and eat. He particularly likes eating things that he hasn’t tried before. Uche has other super powers, too. He has keen insight whereby he knows how to talk to animals, explain why things happen in the environment when a crisis hits, and what to do to protect oneself in bad weather. Uche is very strong and his magical tail gets him out of jams at any time he needs to rely on it.