Julia Cieslukowska has written a children’s book entitled Sara Stem Saves the Bees and has launched a fundraising campaign in order to distribute free copies of her book to families and children in marginalized communities.
Sara Stem Saves the Bees features a heroic female protagonist, and Cieslukowska hopes to use the book as a way to empower girls age 2-6 while also shedding light on environmental concerns.
The book was illustrated by Nicolas Garguilo and Aurelie Dubois. The cover art was selected by public vote via the Sara Stem Facebook page in August 2014.
To achieve what the author calls her “100 books equals 100 lives touched” project goal, Cieslukowska, a current student in the M.A. in International Affairs program at Carleton University, has launched a fundraising campaign at Kickstarter.com.
Kickstarter is a crowd-funding website in which project leaders have a set number of days to raise their target for funds. The all-or-nothing funding model means that if a project’s funding goal is not achieved by the deadline, money stays in the hands of the pledgers. In the case of Sara Stem, the initiative has until November 29 to raise $3500. If the target is not reached by that time, the project will not be funded.
To introduce her book and project initiative to the community, the author will be hosting a book launch at Dovercourt Recreation Centre on Sunday, November 16 from 1:30 p.m. – 3:30pm. There will be music, food and beverages, a raffle, facepainting, and crafts for kids.
To learn more about the book launch or the Kickstarter fundraising initiative, go to facebook.com/sarastemsavesthebees.