Chances are you’ve seen someone sporting a colorful hand-woven bracelet or have bought one yourself from the Pulsera Project.
Yes, you know that your purchase is helping some kids somewhere (and looks great with your tan), but now you can learn exactly where your bracelet came from and where your money is going with tonight’s premiere of “Pulsera.”
Two C of C juniors, Tom Laffay and Chris Howell, wrote, directed and produced the documentary, premiering April 22 at 6 p.m. in the Education Center room 118.
C of C’s Center for the Documentary funded “Pulsera,” which Laffay and Howell filmed over 10 days on the Project’s December trip.
Set against a score of original music by Howell and recordings of Nicaraguan street bands, the documentary is a combination of different aspects of the Pulsera Project.
Howell explains that part of the film is the story of the origin and evolution of the Pulsera Project: A group of “gringos” traveled to Nicaragua a little over a year ago and volunteered at an impoverished orphanage.
They returned home with colorful pulseras, bracelets that Howell says the children are addicted to making. The bracelets were quickly sold on college campuses, and thus the Pulsera Project was born.
“The greatest story is showing how this project is different from most charities,” says Howell. “We’re not religiously affiliated and we’re not focusing on money. It’s about people.”
The Pulsera Project is not about the creation and sale of the bracelets - it’s about the affectionate and attention-starved children who create them.
It’s about the gringos who go and share not just money and resources, but love and attention with the impoverished people.
“One of the biggest things is us explaining to people in the U.S. what life is like in another part of the world,” says Howell.
Next year, C of C’s Alternative Spring Break will travel to Nicaragua to work at Los Quinchos, where the Pulsera Project originated.
“It’s [the documentary] a preview to see if you’re actually interested,” says Howell.
If just a fraction of the students who have purchased bracelets are interested, there will be a decent number, as over 2,000 bracelets have been sold on the C of C campus.
“We have sold by far the most bracelets here than anywhere else,” says Howell.
With so many bracelets being sold, it’s difficult to keep them in stock.
“We need thousands of bracelets and it’s not like the kids and people in the markets can make them fast enough,” says Howell.
And with the documentary generating more interest, there will only be more growth.
That’s definitely exciting for this self-proclaimed grassroots organization, whose mission is “to make the world a more colorful place through promoting the value of international service.”