Difference Makers: The Story Pirates hold second “After School Special”

Every now and again, we get tips about events that just warm the cockles of our hearts, and this one is a doozy. Story Pirates is a great organization that promotes literacy in young children. It boasts what I think is a wonderfully creative way to get kids involved in stories called the Play/Write Program. To quote the Story Pirates website, Play/Write is ” … a series of creative writing and drama workshops that lead to a musical sketch comedy show acted by adults and comprised entirely of stories written by kids. The award winning show has been described as ‘Monty Python meets Schoolhouse Rock.’” Gang, how cool is that?

Here’s the thing: it just got even cooler, because the Story Pirates group is holding an “After School Special” benefit. It will be hosted by The Daily Show correspondent (and friend of the blog) John Oliver, and there are some pretty amazing prizes up at auction for the Story Pirates’ benefit. Between now and March 20th, you can bid on prizes that range from a Wii console to a tour of the NCIS set (plus a meeting with its star), a cast-autographed script from Community or Parks and Recreation to VIP tickets to The Colbert Report.

Best of all, Jon Stewart is offering a uniquely heartwarming prize: an offer to star in your child’s story. That’s right, Jon Stewart will star in a performance of the story written by the winning bidder’s child, and the winner will receive VIP tickets to the show. Can you even imagine how amazing an experience this would be for the winner’s budding young author?

The benefit takes place on March 21st, and most of the auctions close one day before that. Please, all of you with deep pockets and philanthropic souls, head over to the Story Pirates site and make your bids.

(Huge hat tips to the folks at Story Pirates, Mark Malkoff and DB for letting us know about this event!)