United Way of Martin County recently enlisted the help of Indian River State College's Digital Video Academy to create its 2009-10 campaign video.

For more than four years the Digital Media Institute at IRSC has provided intensive training in all aspects of digital media. The IRSC program has now expanded to include a new Digital Video Academy. The DV Academy is made possible with the support of the J. Douglas Stephens Endowed Teaching Grant in Technology to instructor James Mason from the IRSC Foundation.

Led by Mason, students from the DV Academy were given a script, music and asked to create an innovative video promoting United Way's LIVE UNITED brand using vector art animations and word type.

"We took a different look at this year's campaign video and decided to go for an inspirational video using graphic art that will hopefully create some excitement," United Way of Martin County Communications and Marketing Director Justin Beard said.

"IRSC's Digital Video Academy is top notch, so working with James and his students was a wonderful experience from start to finish and I look forward to working with them on many more video projects.

"The campaign video is amazing and I can't wait to debut it to the community during this year's campaign kickoff."

The 2009-10 United Way of Martin County Campaign Kickoff is set for 7:45 a.m. Sept. 25 at the IRSC Wolf High-Technology Center, Chastain Campus, 2400 S.E. Salerno Road in Stuart.

Admission is free, but RSVP is required. Call (772) 283-4800, ext. 227 or visit www.LIVEUNITEDmc.org for more information.