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Young Lions Media Centre
Simon had a specific vision of a place
where youth and young adults could hang out, experience community and explore
their gifts in music, film-making, writing and art. We all have an innate
artistic talent but his experience was there are not enough resources for young
people to pursue their interests in those areas. Outside of regular school most
extra-mural programs are focused on recreational/sporting activities which often
do not appeal to those with an artistic leaning. The notion that these
days we all have ready access to all types of technology is also a misnomer.
Whilst many schools and households do have current technology and equipment, the
use of these is still very restricted by hours of operation, family rules or
simply lack of mentoring in the use of it.
Simon's dream was to buy an older house where he would live on the main floor
and devote the living space and basement to his media project. Thus the
concept became commonly known as "The Media House". Our dream is still to
have it based in a house but for the time being we have made a humble start.
At the beginning of May 2006 the Young Lions Media centre was launched in the
basement of Real Deal store at 101A Main Street, Spruce Grove providing video filming and editing and still photography
using some equipment on loan and some donated.


Young Lions Media logo and Keith MacIsaac makes
first use of the equipment
to edit his movies for the Young Life film festival
As its first major project
YLM was pleased to partner
with Parkland Young Life in the organizing and running of their Fifth Annual
Film Festival which took place on Wednesday June 21, 2006 at the Horizon Stage.
During the summer months our young volunteers attended many of the "Summer in
the City" activities organized by the City of Spruce Grove Family and Community
Support Services where they filmed the activities. The material was edited
into a highlights video which was presented at the FCSS's block party in Spruce
Grove on September 24th and much enjoyed by everyone.
YLM also completed a digital archiving project in partnership with Family and
Community Twining Society (FACTS) during the summer months and have ongoing
discussions for further projects with FACTS.
In December 2006 the media centre was moved to donated space in the Spruce Grove
Community Church at 180 Century Road, Spruce Grove.
There are a number of projects in the planning stages and will involve
local youth as they get under way. These projects will provide
fund-raising opportunities to support the equipment needs and operations of the
media centre.
Our future plans include holding further film festivals and art shows to enable users of the
Media centre to showcase their work in the community. Another goal is to
find more space to be able to include a full selection of musical instruments
and a recording studio for both music and film.
Note : Simon loved lions and he often talked about calling his organization
"Young Lions". Thus we have chosen to call this operation of SPF "Young
Lions Media".
If you are interested in volunteering at the centre as mentor to other teenagers
to learn how to make and edit movies or to help with some media projects that we
already have to work on, please
contact us via e-mail or at 289-1803.