Like a butterfly in the sky going twice as high, LeVar Burton's campaign to bring back Reading Rainbow has doubled its Kickstarter goal of $1 million, eclipsing $2 million Thursday.
After reaching the $1 million mark Wednesday on the campaign's first day, supporters continued to flood the crowdfunding website with donations. Around 4 p.m. ET Thursday, the campaign hit $2 million, with 33 days remaining for people to contribute.
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"I am overwhelmed," Burton, the creator and host of PBS' series Reading Rainbow from 1983 to 2006, wrote during a Reddit AMA shortly before reaching the new milestone on Thursday.
"[Wednesday] was an amazing day and quite emotional," he added. "To have reached our goal in roughly 11 hours was beyond our wildest imaginings. [...][It] proved beyond the shadow of a doubt ... the importance of reading in this culture."
The money from nearly 45,000 backers will be used to bring the cult TV classic to a new era of readers by building a web version for families at home, creating a classroom version for teachers and giving free access to underfunded schools, according to its Kickstarter page. Burton previously resurrected Reading Rainbow in 2012 as a tablet app, which still exists, filled with interactive books and video field trips.
This Kickstarter project will expand the availability to more platforms.
"One of our goals for this campaign has always been universal access," Burton wrote Thursday on Reddit. "What that means to me is on all devices where Reading Rainbow content will follow you from device to device, agnostically. From home, to school, from tablet, to laptop, to mobile -- we want to create a seamless experience for our users."
We can't be entirely sure of where the extra funding will go; The Washington Post questions whether the $1 million was even needed in the first place.
In an update to the Kickstarter page, Burton promised that "every dollar you contribute will help us bring Reading Rainbow to more platforms" on the web and to more than 1,500 classrooms at the onset. He also promised to share new funding goals and ways to use the money in the coming days.
Burton's campaign is among the many entertainment-related Kickstarter campaigns to surpass $1 million. For example, actress Kristen Bell's campaign to crowdfund $2 million for a Veronica Mars movie accomplished the feat within 10 hours, notching $5.7 million at final tally.
Aside from the campaign's mission, Burton lured in donors by offering rewards (watch below) to supporters based on how much they donated, such as a chance to wear Burton's Star Trek visor, Reading Rainbow app subscriptions, books, autographed memorabilia, dinner with Burton and an appearance in a video field trip.
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