Selma city officials were treated to a presentation at the St. James Hotel Friday, where they could mingle with a few celebrities and hear pitches for new ideas for job creation and educational programming.

Cylk Cozart, an actor and producer, spoke not only about his movie production and entertainment ventures, but also about his passion for helping children and the children of Selma.

“I thought everybody had a bathroom outside when I was younger,” Cozart said about growing up underprivileged in Knoxville, Tenn. He told his story and how it might relate to kids in Selma.

Cozart, who is known for movies like Conspiracy Theory and Eraser, studied child psychology and is now producing a new kind of talent.

Cozart started a children’s entertainment and film program called Keeping The Dream Alive. He wants to bring this, with the help of actor and Selma native, Timfreit Drane, to Selma.

“Cylk has a film institute in Knoxville that trains kids in front of and behind the camera,” Drane said. “We want to recreate the same thing in Selma.”

Keeping The Dream Alive is a non-profit designed to give children the chance to learn the business side of entertainment, like how to finance a movie, budget it and then market it to the public. Cozart said this allows real-world application for school subjects, especially for kids who feel like they are bad students.

“This is just the initial conversation,” Drane said about KDA. “Hopefully Cylk can come back to Selma and we can start the next stage of this.”

Also speaking at the invitation-only function was Doug Minter, from the Knoxville, Tenn. Chamber of Commerce. Minter presented a training program funded by the government that would train citizens in the area to transport Hazardous materials.

“We know this worked in Knoxville and we wanted to present it to the city officials to see if it would work here,” Minter said. “I feel compelled to give back because my grandfather is from Selma.”

Minter said that if this training program were to come to this area, it would provide jobs very quickly, which is important, he said, in a recession that has made us impatient.