Crowdfunding Platform: Preserve Pah Tempe’s Healing Waters

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Project: Healing Waters: The Story of Pah Tempe Hot Springs

The success of this kickstarter project is personal. This is the pet project of a man I admire much, David Anderson, the founder of the Important Media blog network. David founded the network to help “blogging for good”. David has given scores of writers and passionate bloggers a platform to do good and do well. Now David is trying to help bring the focus to preserve a rich, hot spring reserve that is in danger of “development”, his father, Ken Anderson’s Pah Tempe Mineral Hot Springs, in Utah. Ken has been a lifelong naturalist and advocate for the hot springs.

Here is Ken and David’s story:

What is the project about?

Through this campaign, David and his family would like to raise money for a documentary exploring the constant push & pull between development and preservation. The documentary will throw light on the mineral rich hot springs called Pah Tempe in Utah that are endangered.

Why is this important?

In this time of increasingly loose connections shared over technology and social media, natural destinations like Pah Tempe help to remind us of the importance of *real* connection, with other human beings, and with the natural world that sustains us.

This place, this sacred and pristine mineral spring tucked into the same desert river canyon that runs through Zion National Park, this refuge which so many people have valued, enjoyed and loved over many centuries, needs to be properly championed as the priceless wonder it is, and made available to as many people as possible, while preserving its peaceful atmosphere. Documenting its history and importance is a necessary first step.

Why are you raising money on Kickstarter?

Pah Tempe has never had any major media produced to tell its story, despite its rich and varied history. The time is ripe now as we are in danger of losing these diverse land and waters. Watch an intro by Ken Anderson and get a glimpse of the springs:

Why does the story of the hot springs needs to be told?

Pah Tempe’s mineral water, which everyone else recognizes as sacred and healing, is referred to by the local county water district as, incredibly, a *pollutant* which they feel needs to be captured and ‘disposed of’ somewhere out in the desert. For them, this requires condemning and closing the property on which these precious hot springs sit. This outcome has been their consistent goal for many years, despite a worldwide (and local) fan base, and clear scientific consensus on the amazing biological uniqueness and diversity of fish in that exact section of the river, now made endangered by the diversion of water in the name of development.

Campaign Link: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/davidryal/healing-waters-the-story-of-pah-tempe-mineral-hot

Campaign Goal: $13,500

Deadline: September 21st, 2012

Where will the money go?

What exactly is this money going toward?

We’re making a full-length documentary. For peanuts:

• $5000: Production company (when we brought filmmaker Loren Feldman of 1938 Media out to the hot springs, he fell in love, and immediately offered to help at far below his normal rate!)
• $1000: Licensing fees
• $1000: Talent and location compensation
• $2500: Production expenses; travel, etc.
• $3000-ish: Fulfilling Kickstarter Rewards
• $1000-ish: Kickstarter/Amazon fees

If we’re wildly successful and blow past our minimum goal, we’ll spend more money fulfilling rewards but we’ll use the vast majority of the extra to improve the production value of the final film. Help us have that problem!