LeVar Burton asks fans to help raise money to revive 'Reading Rainbow'

Actor LeVar Burton has turned to crowdsourcing to try and revive Reading Rainbow, the iconic PBS series that he hosted for decades. Burton is hoping to raise $1 million to launch a new version that is up to speed with modern technology.

After seeing plenty of successful Kickstarter campaigns, Burton decided that the platform was the best to foster support for a new Reading Rainbow for a generation of children who never saw the show and need help with reading. So, he launched the campaign, which has already raised over $80,000 with 35 days left to go.

“I believe that every child has a right, and a need, to be literate. We have a responsibility to prepare our children… and right now, the numbers show that we, as a society, are failing in that responsibility,” Burton wrote on Kickstarter. He noted that one in four children in the U.S. grow up illiterate, a problem he thinks Reading Rainbow can help solve.

He hopes that what he learned by launching the Reading Rainbow tablet app two years ago can be used to launching a successful version of the show in this hyperconnected environment. Unfortunately, not all children have access to tablets and they are expensive for schools. But if Reading Rainbow is re-launched, they can provide teaching materials for free that would correspond with the show.

“So lets do it this, y'all,” the Star Trek: The Next Generation actor says in a video, notes TheWrap. “Together we can create and deliver a proven tool for encouraging the love of reading to millions of children. We can genuinely change the world, one children's book at a time.”

Reading Rainbow launched in 1983 and ran through 2006. Reruns stopped airing in 2009.

image courtesy of INFphoto.com

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