http://www.examiner.com/article/charly-encore-10-years-later?cid=db_articles
"Sam Roberts thinks he has all the answers: the purpose of life, the meaning of love, the plan for a perfect future. Until Charly walks into his life."
10 years ago the LDS version of Charly captured the hearts and the lives of Mormon and non-Mormons alike. Now in an effort to promote life, love, endurance, change, and empowerment, the producers of Charly have created an encore campaign while teaming up with Utah's Westridge Academy, a group home for trouble teens, where the proceeds of the encore theatre, DVD, and a new sountrack sales will go to benefit the group home. Charly teamed up with Westridge Academy to help promote that even in the toughest trials of our life we can find empowerment, meaning, and purpose as we learn ways to overcome.
I remember seeing this movie a year after I first joined the church at a Family Home Evening of Single Adults and it really touched my life as an LDS woman that while we don't always find our life to be how we planned it, we instead can find abundant miracles of love and meaning we never knew existed.
Charly is about a young Mormon man full of ideologies how life should be until he meets Charly a beautiful non- Mormon woman who turned his world upside down. When life seemed to be going perfect, there lives were forever changed in a single moment. How strong is love, and what do you do when you feel your life has forever been shattered?
Lance Williams producer of Charly states, "While Charly remains the most successful of all the LDS genre films, just having people see it again in theatres solely for that experience wasn't enough to drive us to reissue the movie. We are happy that so many of the film's fan base have, over the years, asked us to do this, but it wasn't until we connected with West Ridge Academy that the fire was lit to get Charly back out to the public. For us, Charly is not only being re-released because of its 10 year anniversary mark, but because we have teamed up with West Ridge Academy to help support their extremely important mission.
West Ridge Academy [http://www.westridgeacademy.com] was founded in 1964 and has since served a world-wide community in helping struggling youth and their families. They deal with addiction, emotional problems, behavioral issues, overcoming grief, loss, etc. Now, more than ever, the need is great to help our struggling youth in this crazy complex world we live in and West Ridge Academy is doing everything it can to make a difference. The best part is, they are a "faith-based" program. It is nondenominational and open to all faiths. Their successes are profound. They really touched us and we want to do whatever we can to help support them. Accordingly, we have pledged a significant percentage of all 10th Anniversary encore revenue, both from the theatrical as well as the DVD/Blu-ray special edition to go West Ridge. We are going to feature that organization in a special feature segment on the DVD/Blu-ray as well. They are featured on everything we do as the above the title sponsor of the re-release so we can help make people aware of who they are and what they do. Charly fits perfectly with their mission and what they do for people on a daily basis."
The encore version of the film goes deeper into Charly's conversion and has added addition scenes. The encore project also creates a forum of hope, endurance, love, and empowerment for everyone of us as they invite us to share our stories on these topics in Charly Stories. One story touched my heart as it was a success story of Westridge Academy as well.
"Brianna has suffered with depression since she was 10 years old. She had been to counselors and doctors to help her with this disease but never really connected with any of them enough to make her therapy productive. Over the years the depression continued to worsen and the severity of her illness became more evident. The sweet, thoughtful daughter that we knew was hiding deep within her. Even though she was the Jr. Class President in her school, well liked by everyone she came in contact with (especially small children), and active in the young women’s organization, she felt helpless and alone. In 2009, Brianna’s moods took a turn for the worse and she became very unpredictable. As her parents, we tried to encourage her to open up and let us into her dark depressing world so that we could help her, but she was completely closed off. In February 2010, Brianna over dosed on penicillin pills leaving a note saying “just let me die.”
We, as her parents, were also feeling helpless, but never alone. Through promptings of the spirit we were lead to West Ridge Academy. Within a couple of days of our initial phone call we had gone to West Ridge to meet with their staff and tour their facility. We immediately felt the spirit and love of everyone that we came in contact with. We knew in our hearts that this was where our struggling daughter could find peace and hope again in her life.
From the first day that we stepped foot onto the West Ridge Campus our family’s lives have been changed for the better. Through individual and family therapy with Jacob Gibson, and other programs that the staff has been inspired to put together Brianna has learned the skills necessary to cope with the trials that she faces. Brianna was given the opportunity to participate in many character building experiences that have helped her grow and build confidence in herself.
Through the course of the seven months that Brianna was at West Ridge we saw the transformation of a sad, discouraged, frustrated, and angry daughter into a happy, productive, and confident young woman.
Today, Brianna is working full time at a local day care and teaches the 8 year olds in our church. She is very kind and thoughtful, always thinking of others. Brianna has opened up with us and now shares her thoughts, feelings, hopes and dreams for the future. We now have the relationship with her that we had always hoped for.
Brianna has set goals for her future that are possible because of the programs at West Ridge. She has applied to be a nanny back east and hopes to get married and have a family of her own someday.
We know without the close relationships that continue to be important to her and the therapy at West Ridge Brianna would not be the young woman that she is today. A MIRACLE has occurred in our family!!"
Charly is sponsored by Temple Square Hospitality, The Roof, Lion House, and Larry H. Miller Megaplex and Racetrack. Please check out the Charly Encore Campaigns by following the links below. Charly hitting theaters August 10, 2012
Website: http://charlyencore.com/
Charly Stories: http://charlystories.westridgeacademy.com/featured/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/westridgeacademy
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/CharlyEncore
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/charlyencore/
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