March 23rd, 2004

    Well on March 29th, the law I lobbied for goes into effect. It doesn't seem very long ago that my father walked into my room and said, "Would you like to got to Albany tomorrow?" He then explained that some actor kids were going up there to the state capitol to lobby for some new laws to be put into place in New York. One of them was like the California Coogan Law. It's named after Jackie Coogan, a little boy who did silent movies. This law requires all children under 18 to put a percentage of all the money they make into a fund that they can't touch until they're of age. This is so they don't spend it all when they are 8, or some adult doesn't steal it. The other law is that you have to go to studio school while you are on location even if it's only for one day. It's strange because most people already think all kids are protected like this but they aren't. Anyway, three other kids and I went  up to Albany (with our parents of course) with members from our unions to lobby lots of different people, including legislators and state senators, to pass the laws. Later we even went to the Governor's office.
    We kids told them stories about how we don't always have teachers on the set when we work in New York, how we are marked absent when working, and some kids miss too many days of school to graduate. I told them how I had gotten lots of schooling in California from my wonderful studio teacher Nancy Flint but sometimes not such great schooling when I worked in New York. Other kids told them their experiences too. They eventually were convinced and if you can believe it, they passed The Child Performers Education and Trust Act of 2003.

And it wasn't only due to cuteness either.  

Love, Sam

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