SEQUIM, Wash — What's it take to get the attention of a movie star? Well, maybe, making a movie of your own.
Sequim High School is the alma mater of a great Olympian, Joe Rantz, a member of the 1936 rowing team that took gold in Hitler's Berlin. Rantz is the central figure in the bestselling book, "The Boys in the Boat."
"The students still remember the story," rotary youth advisor Colleen Robinson said. "They read it in the sixth grade and they're seniors now. And it touched them in a way, of what this person overcame and what his life turned out to be."
Like that legendary Olympian, Sequim High School's "Interact" service club has some big ambitions. And that's where George Clooney comes in. The Hollywood A-lister is currently producing and directing the new "Boys in the Boat" movie. So, what if Clooney would agree to bring his film here for a fundraiser screening?
"To raise money for the Joe Rantz Rotary Youth House," Interact president Ayden Humphries said.
The local rotary club made a few calls.
"Crickets," Robinson said. "They got nothing."
So the students stepped in to make their plea on social media.
"Teenagers are kind of savvy with that," explained Danika Chen, who edited the TikTok video the students filmed to make their pitch.
"I was kind of hesitant about posting it because I was like, only two people from Sequim are gonna see this, and it's gonna be me and my mom," Chen said. "So I posted it and then I went to sleep, and it had like 1,000 views, and I was like whoa this is way more than I ever expected."
The next day, it had 100,000 views.
"It's mind-blowing, really," Humphries added.
And one of those viewers was a business associate of George Clooney.
"They were really surprised, really astonished, and very excited about it," teacher Chelsea Reichner, the Interact club's advisor, said.
So now, Clooney's team is arranging to bring the film to Sequim for premiere week. A little Hollywood hype that could end up helping students in need.
"You can make a difference," Humphries said.
"This is students doing for students," Robinson added. "And I think that's really what touched people's hearts."
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