The Project
www.teensreadthebook.com
McKay Nelson
Troop 2020
Boy Scouts of America
Mission Viejo, California
April 8, 2021
To my fellow teens around the world:
I could really use your help. If you haven’t already, watch this video or visit www.teensreadthebook.com.
For my Boy Scout Eagle Project, I want to create an audio recording of the Book of Mormon, which is one of the sacred texts for my church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Audio recordings of this book already exist, but I want to do a new one made by teens like you and me. I think this will add variety and interest to the listening experience and let people enjoy it in a new way. This will also make the Book of Mormon more accessible to those who are blind, who don’t understand English, or for whom English is a second language.
If you're a teenager, all I need you to do is to send me an audio recording of yourself reading a chapter of this book. I will stitch the chapters together into a podcast series that can be enjoyed by listeners throughout the world.
Use this tracking spreadsheet to sign up and reserve any chapter you want and provide some basic information about you. Please only sign up for one chapter -- I want to get as many people as possible to participate.
Visit www.teensreadthebook.com for some tips on how to get a good recording. When you’ve got it, upload it to this site and enter the date you uploaded it in the status column in the tracking spreadsheet above. I also need you to sign and send in the permission slip linked on the main page of this website so I can use your voice in the podcast. If you’re under 18, you also need a signature from your parent/guardian. You can also indicate in the tracking spreadsheet if you’d like me to share with you some feedback we get on this project. I hope it will be good!
You don’t need to be a member of my church to do this. In fact, it’s great if you aren’t. Hearing your voices as you experience this sacred text for the first time will make an authentic and meaningful listening experience for everyone. Don’t worry if you have trouble pronouncing some of the complicated pronouns or other words -- everybody does. :) Just do your best.
To you guys who are members of my church, please invite at least one person who hasn’t read the Book of Mormon before to participate. This will make it cool.
Thanks for helping me make a really meaningful project. Let’s do something that will have an impact on people around the world.
McKay Nelson
P.S. There are some costs associated with this project, including paying for the podcast hosting site, etc. If you can convince your parents to donate a few dollars, that would help me to keep the site live for more years in the future. Send them to this gofundme site to contribute. Thanks!