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Jose de Diego Student's Story to Air on Me-TV's 'Green Screen Adventures'

By Alisa Hauser | April 6, 2013 7:59pm
 "I'm Scared Of" by Jeremie McLaurin will be featured on Me-TV's "Green Screen Adventures" at 6 a.m. Sunday.  McLaurin wrote and illustrated the story three years ago when he was third grade student at Jose de Diego school in Wicker Park.
"I'm Scared Of" by Jeremie McLaurin will be featured on Me-TV's "Green Screen Adventures" at 6 a.m. Sunday.  McLaurin wrote and illustrated the story three years ago when he was third grade student at Jose de Diego school in Wicker Park.
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Beatriz Echevarria

WICKER PARK — An old adage for writers is to stick a story in a drawer and look at it one year later, to see if it's still relevant.

For Jeremie McLaurin, 11, that wait was three years.

Jeremie had all but forgotten about an illustrated short story, "I'm Scared Of," which he submitted to 'Green Screen Adventures" when he was a third grader at Jose de Diego Community Academy in Wicker Park.

Green Screen Adventures, a nationally award-winning children’s television show, selects writing and illustrations by students and brings them to life using story theater, game shows and puppetry.

Now a sixth grader at a ChicagoQuest charter school, Jeremie said he "only writes when I am really bored" and was "really excited" when he learned that his story will be on TV Sunday.

Water slides, monsters, the dark, bugs, robots, clowns, scary stories, storms, tornadoes, floods and being alone were among the many things Jeremie wrote candidly about being scared of in his story.

Looking back on his third grade self, Jeremie said he is no longer scared of all the things that had frightened him three years ago.

"I'm still scared of bugs, but not water slides," he said.

Jeremie said he plans to wake up his mom and sister to watch the show with him when it airs at 6 a.m. CST Sunday along with two other stories penned by young writers in New Lebanon, New York and Marshfield, Wisconsin.

Reached by phone, Gail Sikevitz, director of programming for Green Screen Adventures, called Jeremie's story "authentic."

Sikevitz added: "We adored his drawings. I've been in education for a long time you can see the age appropriateness of [Jeremie's] illustrations."

Since its founding in 2007, "Green Screen Adventures" has featured work by over 2,000 writers in  second through eighth grades on its TV show and website, which receives thousands of submissions from students across the nation.

"Our goal is to feature work from as many children as we can. It's critical they be given a voice and when they say something people listen."

Impressed by the talent of the young authors who submit their stories to Green Screen Adventures, Sikevitz said she "wouldn't be surprised if some of these children become authors."

"Green Screen Adventures" will air at 7 a.m. EST/ 6 a.m. CST Sunday on Me-TV, which can be seen on WCIU_TV 26.3, XFINITY 223/357, RCN 14, WOW 17/19, AT&T U-verse 23/126 and Dish/Direct 23.