Local TV show celebrates children’s creativity

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Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM

Gail Sikevitz of Glenview had a great idea for a children’s television show when she was hired by the Weigel Broadcasting Co. five years ago.

Instead of finding material for children, the children would provide their own material, which in turn would inspire others of a young age to submit their works.

The result is a little-known treasure in local children’s television filmed in a city that once produced children’s classic TV like “Bozo’s Circus,” “Garfield Goose” and “Ray Rayner.”

When “Bozo” finally went off the air, it was lamented that local kids’ programming was all but dead in Chicago.

But “Green Screen Adventures” is anything but dead. It solicits stories, reports, poems and drawings by students in first through eighth grades and provides sketch comedy, story theater, game shows and storytelling to bring them to life. And although it’s based in Chicago, it accepts submissions even nationally.

“Five years ago, they asked me to come up with a program that would be inspiring to children,” Sikevitz told Stenson School students in Skokie last week. “I thought children have more to say to each other than I could possibly have to say to them.”

Sikevitz was on hand for an all-school assembly to celebrate a new story for the show — “Potatoes That Grow in the Sky,” by Skokie fourth grader Tina Bojinov and illustrated by her younger sister, Ana, a second grader.

“Green Screen Adventures” aims to celebrate literacy and creativity while packing its segments with important side messages.

“We build self-confidence and generate self esteem in children,” Sikevitz said. “That’s so important. That’s really a mission.”

The award-winning show receives hundreds of submissions during its busiest times. Without a large production budget, the small staff works hard and creatively to make sets and puppets and other props before filming every week.

“People who know me know not to throw things out,” Sikevitz said. “They know to bring things to me because we can find uses for them.”

Sikevitz came back to television to take on the assignment. She had worked in documentaries and research before leaving TV for 20 years to work for an educational foundation.

But she said the commitment by Weigel Broadcasting Co. to produce an innovative children’s show was unwavering so she eagerly accepted the offer.

“They had had another show called ‘The Homework Show’ but it had run its course,” Sikevitz said, “They wanted something fresh for the community that would make an impact.”

Norman Shapiro, president of Weigel Broadcasting Co., told her he wanted the show to change “one child at a time, one school at a time, one neighborhood at a time,” but he left the details open-ended.

Having observed children for a long time, Sikevitz said, she immediately knew that she wanted a show that built children up and developed a sense of community and respect in them.

“It goes back to my personal life as a parent and seeing my daughter who was an early writer and a shy individual socially,” she said, adding that she saw first-hand what recognition of her daughter’s creativity did for her.

“It’s one thing for parents to applaud the kids,” she said. “But when the world acknowledges them, it’s something so important and that they take with them.”

It can even be life-changing, too.

Some of the submissions “Green Screen Adventures” receives are thinly-disguised personal accounts about troubles in a child’s life such as bullying and loneliness. And the positive impact that filming a segment by a special needs child can have on his or her life still leaves Sikevitz emotional.

Years ago, she remembers telling a parent that her child’s submission was one of the best stories “Green Screen Adventures” received. The parent told her the child just days earlier had been diagnosed with mild autism and the story meant the world to him.

Sikevitz originally designed the show for third graders, a pivotal year for reading skills and literacy. But the age range expanded because children of different ages watched the show.

“I knew I wanted to do a literacy show from the start because literacy is a key,” she said. “If one doesn’t have the ability to write, then they’re not going to stay in school. They’re not going to succeed.”

“Green Screen Adventures” films more than 90 episodes a year, usually two a week. In its five years the series has aired about 250 episodes reflecting the work of 1,500 or so children.

As Stenson students watched two of those children’s works last week, they appeared enthralled and excited to see their classmates’ creativity on the screen.

Stenson fifth grader Sam Hamilton, 11, approached Sikevitz after the airing.

“This is something I’ve been looking for for a long time,” she said. “I’ve been searching on-line and I’ve been searching on TV. It’s awesome.”

Hamilton said her sister is a great artist and might submit her work. And she has an idea for a story about someone who draws and then gets sucked into her drawings.

“Is there an idea like that?” she said a bit worried. “I don’t want to copy. I really don’t.”

This enthusiasm is what it’s all about for Sikevitz. In a time when school budgets are shrinking and there is so much emphasis on testing, “Green Screen Adventures” provides an outlet for sheer creativity and imagination.

Many of the kids who have had their stories told on TV have kept in touch with the show as they have grown older. What job could be better then than offering such an exciting and beneficial experience for children — one they never forget?

“It’s not just a job though,” Sikevitz corrected. “It’s a passion. It’s a passion for every one of us who works on this show. It always will be.”

“Green Screen Adventures” airs at 7 a.m. Saturdays on WCIU TV, 9 a.m. Saturdays on “this” TV, 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. Saturdays and Sundays on Me TV (only Sundays in Chicago) and at 7 a.m. Mondays through Fridays on Me Too TV. For more information about the show and submitting work, access www.greenscreenadventures.tv.