Does helping students justify patrons’ $4,000 a month?

In the midst of the longest dearth of new donations in the Ares warehouse effort, Axanar’s mouthpiece, the Fan Film Factor blog, shines a spotlight on the Georgia high school students producing short films on the Ares bridge set.

Blogger Jonathan Lane praises the efforts by kids, led by teacher Pasha Souvorin. Lane features four such films in his blog.

The feel-good educational opportunity at the Ares warehouse, published early Friday, offers Lane the chance to remind readers Alec Peters’ Patreon effort needs help.

Lane’s article caps nine days of zero new donors to the $4,000 monthly effort to keep the warehouse open. Except for one day with one new $5 donor, the streak extends to a total of 11 days.

No one can deny that students learning skills is a good thing offered by Peters, and their films are certainly heartfelt efforts. But the bigger picture is whether that’s really what donors signed up for, or if helping kids was supposed to be a side-benefit of the real goal: providing a production facility for the long-promised Axanar shorts.

Ask yourself this: Would the school district rather have free occasional use of the same set over and over again, or would it rather add another $48,000 a year directly to its video program’s budget (the amount Peters seeks for the warehouse on an annual basis).