Realizing dreams with Irene

Irene Bedard was at NIGA in San Diego to promote Dream Potential: Inspiration for Native Youth--a nonprofit organization she founded. Her goal is to focus on the positive aspects of Native youth while tackling the problems they face. She plans to do this by several means:

1) Establishing programs at Native schools to mentor and encourage children with role models and celebrities. As Bedard wrote in a handout, "Celebrity impacts native youth and opens [doors] immediately."

2) Holding conferences for the performing and media arts.

3) Shooting documentaries on Native kids and their unique perspectives.

4) Implementing a one-year college prep school that teaches acting, screenwriting, songwriting, camera work, and related fields in the performing and media arts.

At the convention, Bedard was raising awareness and, just as important, money for her endeavor. At her booth, she signed and sold copies of her DVDs and photographs. Anyone interested in helping Dream Potential can contact her at irene.bedard@gmail.com.

P.S. For a picture of Bedard at her booth, look under Day 3 of my Pix of NIGA 2008.