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Mary
Ellen Bickford was born in Napa, California in 1948. In 1974, she became president of the PTA
at Lincoln Elementary School and served as chair of the school
advisory committee, responsible for numerous special events, fundraising
projects, the building committee for the new Lincoln school, and grant
writing. Between 1975 and 1980, she volunteered for
a three-county crisis-intervention hot line in Napa. There she coordinated volunteers, raised funds, trained, and performed
crisis counseling. In 1986, after moving to Southern California,
she organized an environmental committee for the Costa Mesa Chamber of
Commerce and brought together the local business community to
research and implement environmental improvements. She also served as the
corporate special-events producer for Archive Corporation, and was the coordinator
for training earthquake and disaster preparedness
first-response teams. For the past few decades she has volunteered as a
public relations representative for the Friends
of the United Nations, assisting in educating the public about the U.N.'s
role in supporting children, the environment, and peace.
In
1980, Mary Ellen co-founded Rainbow Research, a non-profit research and
educational organization whose purpose was to provide education about the
beneficial effects that can be realized with the proper use of music, light, and color.
She and co-founder Norman Miller produced events, seminars,
and a newsletter that were distributed worldwide. While she was
with Rainbow Research, her interest in the artistic use of
television, video, and motion pictures unfolded. Her audio-visual
productions, presented in an ongoing series of 'shows' were so moving
that they brought
audience members to tears. The most popular was the Rainbow
Light Show. Through these experiences, Mary Ellen gained an understanding of the
effectiveness of visual and aural presentations using today's media and
how they could help an individual unfold spiritually, and this became the focus of
her life's work.
In
1986, she began working in the film industry. Her work with IMAX
producer
Greg MacGillivray
included coordinating the filming of Hands
Across America and the Statue
of Liberty Celebration in 1986. She was also Director of
Environmental Education for the IMAX film
The Living Sea in 1995. The
following year, she worked with 27 students of the Newport-Mesa High School
and co-produced a television special called
The
AquaNotes
for
UNICEF’s
International Children’s Day of Broadcasting.
Mary Ellen is dedicated to providing an opportunity
for the young to express themselves freely through worldwide media. She
has developed a variety of television programs, and has produced a demo
called
Inside & Out
that features an interview with NASCAR champion
Jeff
Gordon.
Mary Ellen has the combined
talents of a writer, photographer, and graphics artist. In 1999 she
self-published Eloquence, a book of poetry,
then in 2002 John Wiley & Sons published
Songwriting
for Dummies, co-authored with Dave Austin and Jim Peterik.
In
addition to being the president of
DoveSong.com, visionary film producer
Mary Ellen Bickford and her husband, composer
Don
Robertson, have formed
Rising World Entertainment
in Nashville, Tennessee to handle their creative
productions of music, songs, film and TV projects, and books that they
have authored. She is currently developing a television special about Napa,
California, and producing music videos.
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