Like uncounted thousands of other Atlanta youngsters, 17-year-old Clay Milling will spend time at a Florida beach this summer, but for him it could be more heartbreaking than fun.
Milling, a budding filmmaker, will be putting together a fund-raising documentary for Marietta-based Blue Skies Ministries, which supports childhood cancer victims and their families.
“I’m going for a week on a beach retreat and will document what these kids with cancer do,” Clay says. “My goal is to make a marketing and promo film that will raise money. They need it.”
Clay, a junior at Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School in Sandy Springs, says he will interview young cancer patients and their family members, putting together “a week in the life of a Blue Skies family” and also will cook, clean and do other chores.
Ella Herlihy, a Blue Skies volunteer and board member, hopes his video will spread the word that cancer patients and families can get a free beach vacation, “no strings attached. They need a break, and that’s what we give them.”
The organization is supported by volunteers and donations, and the video, she says, could help make a lot of sick kids happy.
Clay’s mentors, teachers James Jackson and Joe Conway, who’s also a professional screenwriter, expect big things for the youth.
“He went to a film camp in New York,” says Jackson. “He’s interested in what can be done with film. It can be powerful and persuasive.”
Says Conway, “he is a talented young filmmaker whose dedication to his films is inspiring to others. There is no question that Clay will go far in filmmaking if he chooses to.”
He’s already shown that his films work. He created a video for the 96-year-old Andrew P. Stewart Center for underprivileged children in downtown Atlanta that has “brought in quite a bit of money,” says Center executive director Clayton Davis. “Small non-profits like us need help, and his film helped us.”
Conway, who wrote the script for “Things People Do” that premiered recently at the Berlin Film Festival, says Clay has shown that filmmaking can be used “to promote socially responsible causes. What sets him apart from his peers is that he’s constantly thinking of ways to use film as a means to do something positive for the larger community.”
Clay’s mom Jayne Ann Milling says he has also has produced videos for the Chastain Park Conservancy and has others in the works. His dad, also named Clay, says what makes him proud is that “nobody has pushed him to do these philanthropic things,” including volunteering with Habitat for Humanity.
This summer, Clay’s goal at the beach will be “to show the world how awesome these kids are,” like he did for the Stewart Center.
It has all been a revelation for the teenager, his mother says.
“It’s the idea that he could help others through his gifts,” she says, “not just by his hands and sweat. This may be just the beginning.”
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