Algeo Football Family Documentary Launched on Kick Starter

 On Monday, July 1st, the Football Family documentary fund-raising campaign was launched on the popular website for independent filmmakers, Kick Starter.Football Family is an upcoming documentary that chronicles the storied forty-four year journey of former Lansdale Catholic Coach Jim Algeo and the Rare Breedhigh school football tradition that began at the school in 1968.

Through Kick Starter, creative projects get the support of backers to help defray costs associated with the effort. In exchange for financial donations,contributors receive rewards for their pledges. In addition to pledges to assist in completing the project, photographs, video footage, and potential interviews are being sought. Supporters can participate in the project at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/561071636/football-family-the-documentary
The deadline to gain financial support for the creative effort is Friday, August 2nd, giving the film team just over 30 days to secure its funds.

“This is a labor of love being done with a lot of heart and expertise and an immense amount of footage and people involved, but on a razor-thin budget,” says Bridget Algeo Letukas, the fifth of the Algeo’s nine children. "It's exciting. There's a pressure there due to the narrow time frame, but this approach also gathers more people into the documentary. And people working together to accomplish a shared mission is a major theme of the film."

To get the project off the ground, Letukas enlisted 1986 LC graduate Michael Wagner of the TV and Film Department of DeSales University and LC parent Joe
Wengyn of Tamaron Video. Wagner has both played and coached for LC, while Wengyn has done game film and highlight video for the school’s football program. His son Max is entering his senior year in the program.
“I can’t begin to describe what their getting behind the project has meant to me,” says Letukas. “Without their expertise and direction, this would not be happening at the pace it is now.”
With the assistance of Wagner and Wengyn, interviews with former players, students, parents, coaches, and family are being conducted this summer.
“We have a lot of people who got behind us from the start and offered to sit for interviews,” Letukas says. “I have my own memories and perspective, but I am really excited to hear about the Rare Breed experience through the eyes of others.”
For Letukas, the film project is an interesting turn of events, considering she wasn’t too crazy her dad was a high school football coach when she was a child.
“When I was in kindergarten, I didn’t want any part of this football thing,” she recalls. “But it didn’t take long before I got caught up in the excitement. I watched my dad take a game and build a program, which then became a tradition, which, ultimately, became family. It was bigger than just football.”The project, which originally began as a book manuscript, is dedicated to Letukas' friend and LC Alum, Patty Berthaud Summerhays, Class of 1980, who Letukas says, "was a 'rare breed' whose battle against cancer gave her three more years of life with loved ones. She was gentle, but tough."

Backers will be kept updated on the film’s progress through regular updates on theFootball Family Facebook page and Twitter @1football family.