Florida Film Academy student funds hospital gift through birthday donations

WINTER GARDEN — Many childhood birthdays involve a party with stops at a place of play and a favorite restaurant before the birthday child opens gifts from friends.

A growing phenomenon has been the requests of children and their parents to put money that otherwise would have gone to gifts to charity instead.

Dylan Fontenot, 9, has been practicing this since his third birthday. His most recent charitable endeavor included the March 17 donation of a green screen to the children of Florida Hospital at Florida Film Academy, where Dylan is a student.

The idea stemmed from a partnership between Florida Hospital for Children in downtown Orlando and Florida Film Academy, in which students and staff take movie-production education to children in the hospital the third Tuesday of each month, said Stefanie Esquijarosa, Florida Film Academy director of operations.

“He’s such a great student and gets involved in everything we do,” Esquijarosa said of Dylan. “He loves making movies.”

Dylan also likes giving to others, which he said was 100 million percent better than receiving toys or games.

“If you have toys, it just entertains you — it doesn’t keep you alive for a really long time,” he said. “(Children in hospitals) might not have much things fun to do, so I thought they might have fun playing with a green screen. It’s not really fun (to be in a hospital).”

Nonetheless, as a birthday gift in appreciation of Dylan’s gift, Florida Hospital’s Wendy Sullivan, assistant director of program management and network development, and Amanda Maggard, administrator of Florida Hospital Winter Garden and assistant vice president of West Orange development, gave Dylan a gift basket and a superhero cape with his name on it.

“We feel that you are so brave that you actually are our superhero,” Sullivan said to Dylan. “So we had a special superhero cape made with your name on it. Just because you did this for us, you’re going to help a lot of kids. We have a lot of doctors and nurses that are superheroes to sick kids, and you’ve made a sick child’s day.”

Deidra Fontenot, Dylan’s mother, was grateful for the positive reinforcement for Dylan’s charity, which has included donations to the Center for Great Apes and The Nature Conservancy.

Although this green screen donation might not seem as directly beneficial on its surface to the children at the hospital, Dylan hopes playing with the green screen will improve children’s moods. Moods have been linked to bodily health and function in many studies through the years, with many of the most optimistic patients among those who have survived against all odds.

This is part of why he sees film as a profession to pursue, because making quality film can make other people feel good through entertainment, which makes it more fulfilling for Dylan.

Dylan’s favorite part of film is editing to put together a story with touches such as special effects. He will have the opportunity to teach children at the hospital what he has learned. He wants to be a director when he grows up, and he has started with a small production with peers.

One of his favorite locations to shoot at is the Edgewater Hotel, which can feel like a welcoming home or a proper horror set, he said. It has been one set for movies he has helped to make, such as one about a trash monster that ties into his charitable work.

“People are littering, and we’re telling them to stop, because when they litter, the litter came together to make a monster, and it’s trying to destroy the town,” he said. “Its weakness is plants. What we did is grow plants around the whole town, and then the monster started fading away. So it’s kind of like two in one: Stop littering and help the environment.”

To help raise money for his birthday project, Dylan created a movie about his friends and him encountering a mad scientist who puts a potion in their water to turn them into zombies.

“We found a note on the floor that the scientist dropped,” Dylan said. “A riddle said, ‘Go to the pond without the fishes where you make all the wishes,’ so we went to the fountain and found another note.”

That note had another rhyming riddle that led them to the Edgewater Hotel, where another note led them to Jojo’s for a free sample that was actually their antidote, he said.

With the help of his instructors, Dylan created the entire script and directed the video.

Perhaps one day Dylan will combine his interests and direct a blockbuster that inspires millions to donate to charities helping to grow trees, save animals and care for children.

Contact Zak Kerr at [email protected].