Last year, we received an email from the good folks at Soul Pancake, a production company started by Rainn Wilson in order to create content that celebrates the good stuff of life like souls and pancakes.
In 2018, Disney partnered with Soul Pancake to produce content in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month and they wanted to feature Maya’s work with The Cozy Collection.
They had a plot twist, too.
They invited actress Jenna Ortega to surprise Maya at our house. Then, while Maya and Jenna were away at Mercy House, we set up a surprise celebration in our backyard.
Side Note:
One of my favorite parts of the story is contrasting this taping experience with the one we we had when Dave from Camfel Productions came by.
Dave was a soloist. He set up the gear, directed the shoots, worked off a script, edited and delivered us a hard copy of the video. Camfel uses the video as part of the character education assemblies they conduct throughout the country.
When Soul Pancake produced their :90 second segment, it involved two scouting trips to make sure our house was suitable.
Suitable for what?
Try 20 crew.
I’m talking catering, security, set teacher, 3 cameras, 2 ACs, a medi manager, a DP, a director, 3 execs from Disney, a couple of soul pancake producers and a couple of PA’s. They had to rent the parking lot at a local elementary school for Jenna’s Star Wagon.
Oh, yeah. We invited 20 friends and family over for celebration, too.
I grew up reading the SGV Tribune so it was a joy to see Maya and The Cozy Collection on the front page last December.
Maya Covarrubias Aguilar, 9, looks through boxes of donated socks in her home in Covina, on Thursday, Dec. 6, 2018, which will be delivered to homeless people.(Photo by Trevor Stamp, Contributing Photographer)
This thing with the socks all started in 2015 when Maya Aguilar was 6.
She and her mom, Angie Covarrubias Aguilar, were on their way from
their home in Covina to a friend’s birthday party in late October. They
passed a homeless man holding a sign.
That started the questions from Maya. Could she donate her money? How much? All of it.
Something else she wondered: “What about when it gets cold?”
After some research, they discovered that socks are among the most needed items by homeless people — but the least donated.
The school is year is here. Soccer, homework, piano, guitar and a lot of ‘go watch TV’ is on the horizon. Oh…and The Cozy Collection. There’s a page dedicated to TCC here.
I’ll be sharing news stories here so they can be easily accessed and archived. This story, written by my friend, Houstonian Samantha Chavarria was a great learning experience for Maya. It was her first phone interview.
From the intro:
As adults its easy to remove ourselves from our younger years and minimize all that we had to handle. Still, research has shown that even at the age of nine, kids face quite a bit of change and must learn to adapt to the various stresses added to their plates. By this time, children find themselves standing on the cusp of adolescence, learning to address and juggle everyday challenges and responsibilities related to their education, navigating social groups and developing bodies. California-based Latina Maya Covarrubias Aguilar is also busy with these responsibilities. Still, her interest in philanthropy is inspiring a movement.
