Thursday, November 19, 2026 · The PACC, Waco

De Cordova comes home. On November 19, Waco's young people make the pitch.

In the 1850s, Jacob De Cordova mapped Texas and sold the world on it as the land of opportunity. He drew more settlers from the East Coast and England than any other Texan, and he founded Waco. On November 19, De Cordova makes a new pitch. This time the opportunity belongs to Waco's young people, who will tell Wacoans what Waco can become in the age of AI. The Do Good Club makes it all possible.

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One night, one film, one room full of Waco's next storytellers.

November 19: the Waco premiere

The first pathway is a seat in the room. On Thursday, November 19, the Youth Innovation Studio brings the De Cordova story home to Waco for one evening: the premiere of the Waco cut of the De Cordova documentary by filmmaker Ken Rogers, with key roles played by his former students, and Roy De Romero's paintings on the walls.

When: Thursday, November 19, 2026, from 6:30 to 8:00 pm. One evening only. Where: The PACC, 924 Austin Avenue, Waco, Texas.

On the screen that night is the Waco cut, the premiere screening of the De Cordova documentary by filmmaker Ken Rogers, with key roles played by his former students. Around the room, Roy De Romero's paintings will be on display alongside the screening, so the same story is told in two mediums at once, in film and in paint, by artists and young filmmakers learning side by side.

Why this night matters: the film is not just about De Cordova. It is the learning lab of the Youth Innovation Studio, where Waco students trained with filmmaker Ken Rogers, filmed interviews, and became published authors of De Cordova's story. November 19 is the night their work comes home and Waco sees it first.

After the Waco premiere, the film travels across Texas. The room on the 19th is where that tour, and everything that follows it, begins.

The evening, 6:30 to 8:00

Doors, the paintings, the film, and what comes next.

6:30 pm · Doors

Arrive, see the paintings

Roy De Romero's paintings on display as the room fills.

The screening

The Waco cut, premiered

The first Waco screening of the De Cordova documentary by filmmaker Ken Rogers, with key roles played by his former students.

After the film

What comes next

The Time Capsule, the Texas tour, and the community.

Note: full run of show and speaker names still to be confirmed.

Help us fill the seats

This premiere only happens once, and the room should be full when Waco's young filmmakers see their work on screen for the first time. Bring your family, bring a friend, bring a neighbor. Be in the room on November 19.

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The Do Good Club is how it all happens

The screening is one night. The film, the Time Capsule, and the community run all year, and they run on Do Good Club membership. Members fund the work month by month, and sponsors put a local business behind it.

Why it matters: Waco's stories do not preserve themselves, and young people do not get real creative careers from watching from the sidelines. When you back these storytellers, a student is paid to learn a marketable craft, sits across from a neighbor worth interviewing, and finishes with published, screened work they can show a college or an employer. That is confidence, income, and a portfolio built at home, plus a record of this place, in their own voices, that will still be here when the capsule opens March 1, 2049. Without that backing, those interviews are never filmed, those histories are lost, and talented young people leave to find opportunity somewhere else.

Join the Do Good Club $47 / month

For people who back the larger vision. Empower local youth. Preserve our stories. Build a just future. This is the most important way to help, because steady membership is what lets the Studio plan, pay stipends, and say yes to the next group of students.

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Special offer: 50% off for a year, $23.50 a month instead of $47, for anyone who joins by Monday, November 30, 2026.

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Where your $47 a month goes

Your Do Good Club membership is the monthly funding behind the Youth Innovation Studio. It goes straight to the students and the work:

Paid stipends and training in film, animation, and editing for local students
Preserving local histories and screening them in public, starting with the film on November 19
Portfolios and credentials students carry into jobs and college

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Signup runs through the Do Good Club membership page.

Young filmmakers working with cameras and production equipment during a Youth Innovation Studio program

Young filmmakers, real work, a story 177 years in the making

The Youth Innovation Studio teaches digital storytelling by doing it. Students learn from working professionals in media production, filmmaking, and emerging tech, then produce short films, multimedia exhibits, and digital archives that become part of their community's legacy. This is not a classroom exercise that ends at the bell. It is real work, for a real audience, with real credit attached to their names.

In Waco's pilot program, students filmed interviews with Fiona Bond and Calvin Smith, and ten Waco students became published authors of a book on De Cordova. In Longmont, Colorado, young filmmakers premiered their films to a full house at the Dairy Arts Center. Watch their films, and Longmont Public Media is now broadcasting the students' work.

Those outcomes matter because they change what a young person believes is possible here. A student who has been paid for creative work, published in print, and applauded at a premiere carries proof into every application and interview that follows. They also leave something behind for Waco: interviews, films, and stories that would not exist without them, preserved for neighbors today and for the Waco of 2049.

On November 19, that work comes home. Students do not just learn storytelling here. They get paid to practice it, publish it, screen it, and leave it in an archive that outlives all of us. Supporting the program means more Waco students get that same start, and more of Waco's history gets saved while the people who lived it are still here to tell it.

Learn. Create. Impact.

Learn

Hands-on training from industry pros in film, animation, editing, and emerging tech.

Create

Student work that screens in public, publishes in print, and goes into the archive.

Impact

Credentials, portfolios, and paid experience students carry into jobs and college, and stories Waco keeps.

How we got here

November 19 did not start in November. This is the road from a letter in the newspaper to a premiere at the PACC, so you can see where the screening sits in the bigger story, and why the capsule and the community come next.

January 2025

The announcement

During Waco's 175th, the Tribune-Herald published the letter announcing a 200-year time capsule, to be opened March 1, 2049, and a Youth Innovation Studio for Digital Storytelling.

Summer 2025

The Waco pilot

At Triple Win, Ken Rogers taught video. Students filmed interviews with Fiona Bond and Calvin Smith, and ten Waco students became published authors of a book on De Cordova.

Summer 2026

Longmont

In Longmont, Colorado, young filmmakers premiered their films to a full house at the Dairy Arts Center. Watch their films. Longmont Public Media is broadcasting their work.

Nov 19, 2026

De Cordova comes home

The Waco cut screens at the PACC, 924 Austin Avenue, 6:30 to 8:00 pm, with Roy De Romero's paintings on display. From there, the film travels across Texas.

Fill the seats on the 19th

Thursday, November 19, 2026, 6:30 to 8:00 pm at the PACC, 924 Austin Avenue, Waco. Come for the film and the paintings. Stay for what Waco's young people build next. Put it on your calendar now so the night does not slip by.

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One capsule ties it all together

Young filmmakers placing their films and stories into the time capsule, over the 1849 map of Waco, with downtown Waco behind them.

1849 2049 The capsule opens March 1, 2049, with a living archive and a virtual museum.

De Cordova's 1849 map showed settlers where the opportunity was. The capsule is Waco's map for 2049: the stories, artifacts, and visions Wacoans leave for the people who open it.

Young people lead that work. They interview, film, and write, and their vision for Waco goes in first.

Do Good Club members fund the capsule work, and their stories go in with the students' work.

Contribute to the capsule

Your story, artifact, or vision for Waco belongs in the capsule alongside the students' work. The intake form, where you submit items and stories, is being updated right now. Your place is held here, and the new intake opens in this spot as soon as it is ready.

Contribute Your Story — Coming Soon

The conversation continues after the screening

Everyone who comes through the 19th has a place to meet afterward. We are opening an online community where Do Good Club members, sponsors, young filmmakers, and our IBO network come together, with separate rooms for each group and a shared space where they all meet.

Do Good Club members have their own room in the community, and a shared space where members, sponsors, and young filmmakers meet.

The Longmont filmmakers are already coming in with their teacher, Alix Moad. Waco's young storytellers will join them. Walk out of the PACC on the 19th and straight into the room where the next project starts.

The community link is not live yet. It will be opening soon, and will be announced on Thursday, November 19.

Members RoomDo Good Club members

Sponsors RoomBusinesses and organizations

Filmmakers RoomYoung storytellers, Waco and Longmont

The Shared SpaceWhere all of them meet