I’m a wine lover, this is no secret. Just this past weekend I visited four Cowichan Valley wineries, but I’ll tell you more about that later. Right now I want to tell you about a vine-to-glass television series set in our very own back yard that could be coming to a screen near you soon: Ventures in Wine Country.

B.C. wine is having a moment – a ‘coming-of-age’ moment – as Anthony Gismondi (@TheSpitter) put it in a recent Vancouver Sun article. Wineries throughout the gorgeous Okanagan Valley have been winning awards and making waves with their increasingly sophisticated wines.

What Is Ventures in Wine Country

So, a friend of mine and his newly minted production company, Asymetriq Productions Inc., thought it would be timely to create a lifestyle (documentary style) TV series called “Ventures In Wine Country” that chronicles the “vine to glass” story of this booming homegrown industry. They are working with Covert Farms in Oliver, Terrabella Group‘s new Black Swift winery in West Kelowna, and Painted Rock in Penticton on the pilot episode as we speak, but to bring this unique and exciting story to life, they need to cover a funding gap.

This Is Where You Come In

They’ve launched a Kickstarter campaign and are looking to the masses for help, and only have a week – yes, 7 days – left to do it.

They have already raised over half of the funding they’ll need to make this project a reality. Your contribution, no matter how small, will help them bring Ventures in Wine Country to life!

So please, check out their Kickstarter pitch/video and the TV series pilot trailer.

You’ll be hooked!

If you like what you see – or if you want to learn more about what goes into that delicious glass of B.C. wine you’re sipping, then please consider backing this project.

They are offering some exciting rewards for contribution from special screenings of the pilot episode to t-shirts and corkscrews. If only 388 more people bought a t-shirt to support them, they’d reach their goal and be able to bring this local B.C. wine story to the world. I think that’s pretty awesome, don’t you?!

What’s This Kickstarter Thing?

If you’re unfamiliar with crowdfunding and don’t know what Kickstarter is, or how it works,you’ll find more information here.

The main thing you need to know is that Kickstarter works on an all-or-nothing model. So in order for Ventures in Wine Country to receive their funding they will need to raise the full $40,000. This is why your help is so important to bringing the project to life.

So, if you’re a wine lover, and you’re interested in finding out more about how that delicious nectar gets from the wine to your glass, please support Ventures in Wine Country today!

Follow Ventures in Wine Country on Facebook and Twitter for project updates.

I received a message from one of my Olympic Spirit Project backers on Kickstarter and loved it so much, I wanted to share it. It’s from someone I don’t know, who randomly found my project.

I love the entrepreneurial spirit of this family and LOVE that I’ve inspired a young sports fan and entrepreneur to get involved with my project and with Kickstarter! It’s people and support like this that make projects like mine possible! I would love to see more of these creative ways of being inspiring our youth!

“Hi Mariska, 

Thought I might let you know how it came about . I wanted to expose my four kids to Kickstarter, as a means of inspiring their entrepreneurial spirit, expose them to crowdfunding, and at very least give them an opportunity to support the arts.

I gave them each $40 as part of their Christmas. The kids are aged 17 to 28 and they all loved the idea. The youngest, a 17 year old, selected you and your project because he wanted to support a fellow Canadian and loved your posted work from the Vancouver Games (he’s also quite an avid photographer and sports nut and will be following the events you will be attending with interest). 

We’re all routing for you to make your funding target Mariska, and bring the project to life!!! Best of luck!”    

(The message has been slightly edited for privacy.)

I send huge gratitude out to you for getting involved, backing my project, and for exposing your kids to Kickstarter!

To see where the inspiration all stemmed from, please visit The Olympic Spirit Project on Kickstarter by clicking the button below.

Thank you for your support!

I’ve recently launched my first Kickstarter campaign to support the creation and publication of my very first photography book! YAY! I’m so excited that after 2 days I’m already at 10% of my fundraising goal, but there is much work left to be done to raise the balance of the funding and I’ve had a few people ask me, “What’s this Kickstarter thing?” So here’s a quick rundown.

What is crowdfunding?

Crowdfunding is the collective effort of people to pool their money to support the efforts of other people. Crowdfunding is used to support a wide variety of activities, including creative projects, citizen journalism, support of artists by fans, startup company funding, and more. My Olympic Spirit Project is an example of a creative project.

How does Kickstarter work?

Thousands of creative projects are added to Kickstarter everyday. Each project is independently created and crafted by the person behind it. Every project creator sets their project’s funding goal and deadline. If people like the project, they can pledge money to make it happen.

Are you guaranteed to get funding?

No. With Kickstarter, projects will only get funded if the total funding goal is reached. If the project succeeds in reaching its funding target, all backers’ credit cards are charged when the project reaches its deadline. If the project falls short, no one is charged and the project does not get funded.

Funding on Kickstarter is all-or-nothing.

With the all-or-nothing model, it’s important to get the momentum of the campaign rolling early so that the campaign has a chance of getting on the “Staff Picks” page of the Kickstarter website. This allows the project to get more views within the crowdfunding community, and in turn more pledges.

Remember that your credit card does not get charged unless the project succeeds. Therefore your pledge is more important at the start than it is near the end of the funding deadline so that the momentum builds for the project. 

What is the Olympic Spirit Project?

The Sochi 2014 Olympics have been labeled as the most controversial and most expensive Games of our time, and I feel that the Olympic spirit has been lost for many. Some are even boycotting the Games completely.

After experiencing the Olympic energy in Vancouver in 2010 as media and again in London in 2012 as a spectator, I am inspired to recreate that feeling in Sochi this February to support our athletes (and their competitors) as they compete in the biggest competition of their lives. The athletes have worked so hard to get to this point and it’s unfair to them not to support their efforts in what for most is a once in a lifetime opportunity to represent their country.

So I came up with The Olympic Spirit Project.

The goal of this project is to get on the ground in Sochi Russia for 10 days during the 2014 Olympic Winter Games to photograph and document the Olympic spirit. I will attend both official Olympic and cultural events and photograph the different ways that cultures celebrate a win, or display their disappointment in a loss. The images I capture during my time in Sochi will be edited and compiled into the Olympic Spirit photo book, with a targeted publishing date of September 2014.

Because funding on Kickstarter is all or nothing, I need your help to get the momentum rolling on the funding campaign now. Every dollar counts! Two dollars, five dollars, twenty-five dollars, it all adds up! And please share the project with your friends and family to help spread the Olympic Spirit even further!

In exchange for your generous support, I’m offering some great rewards. From digital and hard cover copies of the finished book to the opportunity to join me at an official Olympic event during the project! And of course every backer will be acknowledged and thanked in the book itself on the Project Contributors page.

Please click the Kickstarter button below to pledge your support today!

I thank you for your generosity and support, and look forward to creating an amazing and inspiring book!

If you have any questions about either Kickstarter or the Olympic Spirit Project, please shoot me an email or leave a comment below.