VCU news

By Megan Schmidt

Red-eyed from being awake for more than 24 hours, Tyler Fearns explained why he decided to join CreateAthon onCampus as a team leader for the nonprofit organization Brain Injury Association of Virginia (BIAV).

“Since it was my senior year, I wanted to get involved with something I hadn’t done yet. I wanted to work on my leadership skills,” said Fearns, an undergraduate senior studying creative advertising. “Plus, I had a lot of friends that had done it before and they told me how much fun it was. And Peyton is awesome, of course. She was a huge reason that I did it.”

CreateAthon onCampus is structured with a handful of university organizers led by Peyton Rowe, associate professor of advertising in the School of Mass Communications in the College of Humanities and Sciences, roughly 30 mentors made up of professionals from the community, six gO! Team students, 11 team leaders registered in Rowe’s spring Non-Profit Management course, and more than 70 student team member volunteers eager for hands-on experience during their Spring Break.

“It’s about collaboration, students working together, because that’s what you have to do in the real world. So, you’ve got to figure out how to do it really well and you might as well do it and leave the world a better place,” said Rowe, pausing before adding, “Wow. How altruistic.”

Thanks to the positive and challenging atmosphere, alumni of the 2012 CreateAthon onCampus came to Rowe after the event and expressed their passion to be involved again in 2013. This request led to the development of the gO! Team, which began work on this year’s event in August. The team of alumni consists of a project manager, art director, webmaster, social media director, copywriter and videographer who act as additional mentors to the student leader teams.

“There’s a lot that goes into CreateAthon besides just allowing the teams to just sort of create things,” said Bradley Bowers, gO! Team social media director and public relations senior scheduled to graduate in May. “You have to give them structure.”

Besides filling CreateAthon onCampus’ Facebook page with photos and stories throughout the 24 hours, Bowers also arranged for a Twitter Wall, which followed the event’s hashtag (#CreateAthonVCU2013) and projected tweets onto a wall every time anyone used it.

“My role in social media was to constantly generate content to keep people outside of the event excited,” Bowers continued. “It was very successful. We gained 50 new Twitter followers. We had a ton of likes and comments on Facebook. People were really interested. So it was just fun to see all of the excitement, not only within the event but also outside of it.”

Another gO! Team member, and arguably one of the most passionate, is project manager Jacob McFadden, senior undergraduate studying creative advertising.

“I wanted to stick around,” said McFadden, in speaking about his motivation to be a part of gO! Team. “Plus, I love Peyton. Peyton needs help. So, I help.”

When asked about his experience over the past seven months, McFadden let out a deep sigh.

“It’s been good,” McFadden said. “Like all projects, there’s been times when it’s been terrible. There’s been times when it’s been very fulfilling.”

A redesigned CreateAthon onCampus website, created by Rocket Pop Media, was one of those fulfilling times for McFadden. Other moments came in the form of generous donations from local businesses, such as the 400 cans donated by Red Bull to keep the students alert and enthusiastic throughout the night.

“I really think the last four hours are just tough,” said Gabrielle Perretta, a two year veteran of CreateAthon and volunteer team member for The Giving Heart, from her makeshift bed on the floor. “It’s so much fun, but then you hit a certain point and you’re just dead.”

While the energy drinks may help them stay awake, many students said knowing their work directly helps charities keeps them motivated throughout the long hours.

“When you look at the person doing all the work for the organization, and you realize how much they’ve been doing on their own, then that makes my work seem really small,” said Robert Black, another student volunteer for The Giving Heart. “My 24 hours will be hard, but this woman has put a ton of work into her nonprofit and she deserves whatever help we can give her.”

For a nonprofit, the value of the students’ work is immense.

“They’ve given us some really interesting logos,” said Anne McDonnell, executive director of BIAV, while holding up examples from Friday morning’s presentation. “They’ve given us bright colors and they came up with a fabulous idea for a 30th anniversary fundraiser.”

“Really, I’m done,” said Morgan Bailey, development manager, with a genuine smile on her face. “I don’t have to work for the rest of the year. They did my job for me.”

“It’s fresh,” said Dee Couvelha, agreeing with her colleagues. “It’s a new set of eyes. We’re all immersed in brain injury so we look at it from one perspective.”

“The beauty of CreateAthon is that the freshness comes from kids who are in the moment, thinking about it, studying it – they’ve got their creative juices flowing and it pulls us out…” said McDonnell, pausing to think of the right description.

“It pulls us out of our rut,” said Couvelha, excitedly finishing her colleague’s thought. “When you’re doing something, it becomes second nature and you tend to walk the same steps again and again. These guys had not put the first foot into our footsteps, they created their own path, which is just cool."

As for what happens when the 24–hour blitz is complete, after Friday’s presentations, the clients take the work home where they’ll look at it and make notes of any changes needed.

The team leaders will make those changes then send the material to Carter Printing, a three-year sponsor of CreateAthon, which then prints all deliverables for the nonprofits.

Once these tool kits are completed, they’re presented once more to the charities at a dinner in April. From there, the organizations are able to take them and use them as they see fit.

The three women of BIAV, grinning the entire time, went on to praise their group of students one last time.

“We won the CreateAthon lottery,” said Couvelha. “Team Tyler really rocked it.”