Students put their creative talents to work for local nonprofits at CreateAthon, and now the teams know who came out on top.
The most anticipated award, at least for the nonprofits themselves, was the "Best Outdoor" award, which comes with a spot on a digital billboard at Assembly and Gervais streets. Diana Stevenson, CEO of Grace Outdoor, presented their award to Suzanna Pavlovsky, creator of Ensemble Eclectica.
During CreateAthon earlier this month, Pavlovsky expressed hope that her team would get the billboard.
"It has all the components, and if it can win the competition, I think it's going to be really cool," she said. Now that her hopes have come true, she's excited to celebrate.
"I will definitely send email at least tomorrow morning to the entire team and say how fantastic it is to have this space," Pavlovsky said.
The other award this year was the "Best of Show." It was given to the Beginnings SC team for "excellent performance in all aspects of media." Beginnings SC works with families that suffer with hearing loss, specifically with children. They aim to spread awareness and support so that kids can grow to their fullest potential.
Doing charity work, however, means it’s not all about the awards. Third-year advertising major Griffin Weaver has continued to work with the Carolina’s Children’s Garden even after the presentations.
“We also did revisions on the work,” Weaver said. “[Wednesday] I’m headed to a board meeting to present their board, the creative work that we did. That’s not required, but I just offered to do that for them.”
Some of that work has even already been put to use and made an immediate impact on the organizations.
“We actually created an interactive map of the garden with little icons and everything so you can scroll over them and see what the gardens are all about,” Weaver said. “They said it’s been great to have, because their virtual tour before was a little bit lacking. But this one definitely gives them a more fun way to go.”
With awards presented and nonprofits outfitted for success, it's already time to get ready for next year. Associate Professor Karen Mallia and her team are already developing plans for the next event.
"We gotta get press releases out by March. So we’re pretty much on a year-round process to do something that on paper takes one day," Mallia said.