Supporting the Salvo’s Red Shield Appeal with an online movie premiere

Many are doing it tough at the moment and I’m proud to be associated with promoting an event for the Salvation Army Red Shield Appeal for 2020. Due to COVID-19 the Salvation Army like many other charities and organisations have had to become creative in raising funds. They have created a ‘digital door-knock’ for their 2020 Red Shield Appeal campaign.

An Online Movie Premiere Event

This year, Heritage Films are presenting an online premiere of the film, SAME KIND OF DIFFERENT AS ME, starring Renee Zellweger. The movie, SAME KIND OF DIFFERENT AS ME, based on the New York Times Bestselling book of the same name, tells beautiful the beautiful story of Ron Hall and his wife Debbie, who discover a renewed sense of purpose when they begin to volunteer at a local mission in Fort Worth, Texas. Their lives change forever when they develop an unlikely friendship with Denver Moore, a homeless man who inspires them to save their struggling marriage.

The “opening weekend” for this is 29th-31st May, and to celebrate this Heritage Films will be doing some live events (with Salvation Army personalities, Laura Bennett who is a presenter for HOPE FM in Sydney, and Ron Hall, who will be joining us via the internet from Texas. Ron wrote the original book, which sold over a million copies. He’s played by Greg Kinnear in the film, and he has since raised over $100 million towards homelessness). These will stream through the Movies Change People Facebook page. Find out more about those HERE.

Because this film has such strong themes of homelessness and caring for those less fortunate, it is the perfect way to draw people to be thinking about the Salvos, all the good they do, and how much they need us to step up. Find out more of what the Salvos do HERE.

How does it work?

The ‘online premiere’ of the film is open for Australia and New Zealand (it has already been released in the U.S.). People who wish to purchase a pass can simply go HERE and select from different options (Single, Family (up to four households) or Bulk (for fundraising) passes). Both the Single and Family passes make a direct donation to this year’s RED SHIELD APPEAL.

If you attend the RED CARPET ONLINE PREMIERE of the film (May 29th-31st), every single and family pass you purchase will contribute towards The Salvation Army RED SHIELD APPEAL.

I’ve included a short trailer with thoughts from Renee

• Streaming of the film will happen through a dedicated website.
• Once people purchase a pass, they’ll receive an email with instructions about how to do that. It will operate like any other online rental (for example, from iTunes), where once people start their viewing, they’ll have 48 hours to complete it. And they don’t have to start it on opening weekend – they’ll have from 29th-14th June to watch, and can start their viewing any time in that window.

Why not make your movie night count towards a good cause?