Help Launch the Kenya Red Trunk

Hello! I'm Kevin Thomsen, founder and president of Red Trunk Project, Inc™, a 501(3)(c) non-profit. Red Trunk was launched 8 years ago to help create a brighter, more inclusive future for all children, working to ensure that the next generation better understands their fellow citizens both around the world and in their own classrooms.

Red Trunk utilizes dozens of cultural artifacts (arts and crafts, clothing, toys, currency, cooking spices, musical instruments, and more) and combines them with ‘mini-doc’ videos, booklets detailing the lives of children in the culture, along with a comprehensive, experiential lesson plan to create a deep and lasting cultural immersion. The Red Trunk Project allows children to connect with distant parts of the world they might not ever have the opportunity to travel to themselves.

Red Trunk has made 2 trips to Kenya, the first in 2019, and the second in 2021. We shot hours of video, took tens of thousands of photos, collected many artifacts, and interviewed 2 dozen children about their lives in Kenya. Both trips were fully funded by individual and corporate sponsors. To beta test the Kenya Red Trunk in the spring of 2025, then officially launch in the fall of 2025, we need your continuing support.

Kenya Red Trunks have to be designed and built, artifacts need to finish being collected, the core 6 videos need VO and mixing, the Kids in Kenya booklet must be written and printed, along with the lesson plan that is being developed for schools.

To maximize the impact of your donation, a large international foundation will be matching each donation on a 3 to 1 basis. (We're not supposed to mention the name of the foundation, but it rhymes with Gourd.) Meaning, if you donate $25, the foundation matches it with $75, for a total donation to RTP of $100. How amazing is that?

The Oaxaca Red Trunks have been circulating through 16 New York school districts, plus the Haddonfield school district in New Jersey, for the past 4 years. When the Kenya Red Trunk launches, we fully expect Red Trunk usage to explode in NY and NJ, as well as an expansion into Connecticut and Pennsylvania. And after Kenya comes the Vietnamese Red Trunk. Plus, RTP is exploring taking the Kenya Trunk to schools in Oaxaca, and the Oaxaca Trunk to schools in Nairobi. We have gone truly global.

There is nothing else like Red Trunk Project in schools today. Too many learning tools are abstract; "Here is a picture or a video clip of this very important artifact." Red Trunk brings the artifacts into classrooms so students can touch the artifacts themselves. Hold them next to other artifacts in the trunk. Smell them. And on the last day of the 2-week lesson plan, compare them to artifacts students bring from home to share with their classmates. Powerful, lasting lessons about the similarities and differences between cultures. There has never been a better time for our children to learn that people who look, dress, and sound different than them are just as human.

Please help support Red Trunk Project by making a donation.

Thanks!

Kevin Thomsen