Case Study · Philanthropy Film

The Wellness Trail

A cinematic, donor-facing film that helps a community feel a $12 million healing trail before it is built.

Title card for The Wellness Trail: an aerial view of the AdventHealth Waterman campus and its lake at dusk, with the AdventHealth Foundation Waterman logo. ▶ Watch the finished film · 2:00
Client
AdventHealth Waterman Foundation
Project
$12 million Wellness Trail
Audience
Donors, community, caregivers and families
Campaigns
Capital Campaign push and/or Giving Tuesday
Film
2 min
Style
Cinematic, natural light, authentic moments

The Challenge

AdventHealth Waterman is launching a $12 million Wellness Trail, a project rooted in the CREATION Life philosophy and designed to promote whole-person health, community connection and environmental stewardship. The Foundation needed a film to capture the early vision of the project and to carry its capital campaign. Filming took place alongside ongoing trail construction.

The brief asked for cinematic, evergreen content that could do four things: capture the early vision of the trail, explain the why behind the investment, align visually and emotionally with CREATION Life, and be reused across donor campaigns, events and digital platforms. The tone: hopeful, inspiring and mission-driven, with calm, intentional, forward-looking pacing.

The task: make donors feel the finished sanctuary while the trail is still dirt, fencing and promise.

The Approach

Because the trail was under construction, the film could not simply show it. We had to sell the feeling of the future park, so the script and the shot plan were built together around that problem.

  • Lead with a question, not a pitch. The script opens on a need everyone recognizes: in the rush between diagnosis and recovery, where do we go to catch our breath? The trail arrives as the answer.
  • Write to CREATION Life. The narration carries the philosophy without lecturing: the sun on our face (environment), strength returning to our stride (activity), a shared glance (interpersonal relationships), a quiet prayer (trust in God), caregivers finding rest, and a legacy for future generations (outlook).
  • Shoot the feeling of a finished trail. The shot plan used cinematic technique in place of a finished path: shallow depth of field and foreground leaves and branches to soften construction fencing, a low-angle gimbal following a patient’s footsteps to simulate the glide of a paved trail, and sunrise and golden-hour backlight to make raw land read as a deliberate sanctuary.
  • Cast the people the trail is for. A male patient works with a team member in Inpatient Rehab, which overlooks the trail site, then walks the trail with his wife, healed and back to normal life (activity and outlook). A female caregiver, representing all hospital team members, stops to feel the sun (rest and environment). A single mother and her young son explore the water’s edge, and a father, mother and young daughter walk hand in hand (interpersonal relationships and trust). Images of team members at work inside the hospital tie the trail back to the people who care for the community.
  • Make it evergreen. The film is written around mission and legacy instead of a date or a dollar figure, so it can anchor the capital campaign, Giving Tuesday, events and future Foundation storytelling.

Inside the Film

The film runs 2 minutes and moves in seven beats, from a question to an invitation. The voice shifts from “we” to “our” to a direct “you” at the end, so the viewer moves from observer to participant.

  1. 0:12
    Ask where we go to breathe. “In the rush of our lives, in the moments between diagnosis and recovery, where do we go to catch our breath, to find peace?”
  2. 0:25
    Move healing outdoors. Healing does not only happen inside a hospital room. We were made to feel the sun on our face, strength return to our stride, reassurance in a shared glance, and the peace of a quiet prayer.
  3. 0:45
    Make the promise. “Extending the healing ministry of Christ outside our hospital walls. That is the promise of the wellness trail.”
  4. 0:58
    From body to soul. “For years, we have built a hospital to heal the body. Now we build a sanctuary to restore the soul.”
  5. 1:06
    Name the philosophy and the legacy. The trail is CREATION Life manifested, the next chapter of whole-person care in the community, and a legacy of healing for future generations.
  6. 1:21
    Imagine who it is for. A place where patients find courage, where caregivers find rest, where families connect with each other. “Healing is not a journey we take alone.”
  7. 1:38
    Invite the viewer in. “For our community, for our caregivers, for our families. The only thing missing is you.”

“Walk with us.”

The film opens from above on forest canopy, then follows one patient from Inpatient Rehab, which overlooks the future trail site, to the trail itself, where he walks with his wife at sunrise, healed and back to normal life. Along the way a caregiver pauses in the golden-hour sun, families explore the lakeside land, and team members are seen at work inside the hospital. It closes on an aerial reveal of the Waterman campus and its lake, with the title and Foundation logo.

The Result

The Wellness Trail was published on September 23, 2026, ahead of the Foundation’s fall giving campaigns. It gives AdventHealth Waterman Foundation one reusable film that captures the early vision of a $12 million project, explains why it matters, and invites the community to take part.

“This is a path we build together, one step at a time.”

From the film’s narration

Written, filmed and produced by j michael media for AdventHealth Waterman Foundation, September 2026. Narrated by Mabel Valdivia, Executive Director | Foundation, AdventHealth Waterman. Video: The Wellness Trail | AdventHealth Waterman.