What started out over 45 years ago, as a little league appreciation day is now a multifaceted American green baseball parks movement that encourages community spirit, camaraderie, leadership and education called Pack the Park? Through organized fundraising, community business leaders and volunteers, in cooperation with civic leaders, work together to refurbish or initiate new green-wise athletic parks.

Pack the Park also offers a turnkey league organizing program, which includes coach & team roster planning, season schedules, playoff schedules and awards ceremonies. Initially, equipment (uniforms gloves, bats, balls, bases, etc.) is sponsor (Rawlings) provided. In subsequent years and as needed, equipment is replaced through fundraising donations.

Additionally, Pack the Park provides numerous real-world educational opportunities, both for young athletes and media students. Athletes will learn through friendly competition and media students will learn through hands on production experience, all will learn from teamwork.

As part of a higher education curriculum, each field installation is documented by teams of film and video students (from the Atlanta Art Institute) under the direction of industry professional advisors and educators. After filming, students will produce a series of broadcast quality documentaries, promos and EPKs, which will become part of their portfolio and used in placement search after graduation.

How the fields are built.

Once a municipality has appropriately prepped a field-site, two donated and customized 40-foot shipping containers (dugouts) are delivered to the site. Each container is filled with the materials required (dugouts, bleachers, fencing, lighting, lawn equipment, etc.) to build and maintain the park. Through a highly choreographed 2-day dawn-to-dusk weekend launch event, dozens of volunteers and construction professional’s work as teams to install the field.

Mil Cannon

Mil Cannon of Image Mil Studios ia a multi-award winning Director, Cinematographer, Editor, and an accomplished photographer with a career in the entertainment/broadcasting industry that spans over 25 years. He has served 6 terms as Governor in Atlanta Chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (The Grammy's) and has developed a client list of world-reowned artists and fortune 500 Companies that span the globe. Over the years, he has consistently achieved top recognition including CINE, EMMY, ADDY, ITVA, LETVA, PROMAX and TELLY awards. Mil won a Gold Metal at the New York Film Festival and was hopeful for a GRAMMY nomination in 2006 for Directing Usher's record breaking "Truth Tour" DVD series.

ImageMil clients range from corporate, broadcast and commercial, to entertainment, music and film. Mil's portfolio of work and awards are extensive but include IBM, Nike, McDonalds, BellSouth, AT&T, Verizon, Ford, TNT, Direct TV, HGTV, Fine Living Network, DIY Network, Starz Encore Network, Cartoon Network, NASCAR, PGA Tour and Coca-Cola. While under contrat with Coca-Cola for the 1996 Olympic Games, Mil was recognized for his award-winning Olympic torch file "Reach Higher" Featuring Glora Estefan and the pre-opening feature entitled "Power of the Dream" with Celine Dion.

Image Mil Studios has developed an impeccable reputation in the music/entertainment industry with clients from the top labels in the world including Arista, Universal, Columbia, Atlantic, Sony, Bad Boy, LaFace, Zomba and USH Records. Mil has produced and directed some of the industry's most creative music features of MTV, VH-1, BET and HBO including "Behinf the Music", "Making the Video", "Bio-rhytm the HBO Concert Series", the awrd-winning "Fan Mail" pay-per-view special with TLC, as well as film and video design for Usher's 2005 World Tour.

Mil is a turnkey talent and his clients rely on him from concept to completion. His work is a reflection of his life - the consummate talent who looks through a lens every day and decides how to make something extraordinary happen.

Music for Mother Earth

On Nov. 21, the legendary Tree Sound Studios hosted more than 300 guests and musicians as various artists recorded a "Mother Earth" anthem as the theme for the 2010 Pack the Park movement. The mission of Pack the Park is to refurbish or build green-wise parks in various communities across America.

A proclamation was read from Gov. Sunny Perdue to kickoff the festivities to officially mark the event as a historic and authentic moment in GA music history. The Pack the Park organization had no problem gathering the ‘who’s who’ of the GA music industry for the event. Members and representatives of the Grammys, Art Institute of Atlanta, Georgia Sports Hall of Fame and Georgia Music Hall of Fame all attended this momentous event.

Award winning musicians, producers and composers including Chuck Leavell from the Rolling Stones and the Allman Brothers, Ed Roland of Collective Soul, Drivin N Cryin, Caroline Aiken, Tina and Toya from BET and Lil Mama all contributed in their own way to propel the experience. Jan Smith of Jan Smith Studios served as record producer and vocal director, and Tammy Hurt of Placement Music served as project manager.

Additionally, the extravaganza was catered by more than 20 local and regionally based organic farms and the studio in which the song was created was powered for the night by solar, wind and biodiesel-based energy systems.

"We are thrilled to be a part of this historic moment," said Paul Diaz, owner of Tree Sound Studios, "I have been dedicated to bringing the message of unity and preservation to the world, through music, for over 20 years. It’s an amazing thing to see it all come together here at Tree Sound to help support Mil Cannon and his Pack the Park movement."

Tree Sound Studios already has a reputation of being the country’s largest green recording and production facility. Policies include rainwater systems, organic gardens, onsite waste composting and recycling, solar hot water, solar power, carbon offsets and biodiesel. In conjunction with Pack the Park, the event didn’t even leave a carbon footprint.

Mother Earth concept and lyrics were inspired by film &video Director Mil Cannon, and the songwriter was Toney Reyes (Janet/Crystina/Leona/Shakira) The film & video was created by Cannon and his long time company ImageMil Studios.

Both the song and video were pre-released on January 1st, 2010.