What the world needs now, is love sweet love. It’s the only thing that theres just too little of.

Collaboration is like a big ol pot of love. As a team leader for CreateAthon this was one of my biggest fears, that my team and I would not mesh well at all. My mind was set at ease when we went to the meet and greet and everything was awesome, actually better than awesome. This whole better than awesome undesirable thing continued to the event. By the end of the event we were all having a huge jam session to the greatest hits of the 90's and cranking out amazing work. We lost one team member during the event, but it was all gravy. If anything losing that person brought us closer together. (i think the lack of sleep also lead us to this, because we also collaborated in a literal sense by having a shoulder to rest your head on) By the end of the event we were all a little sad to leave each other and the room that we had all spent more than 24 hours together in. 

Thursday night seems like it was just on big giant blur, if you were to blink you would miss it. Never in my life did I think staying up for 24+ hours would be so easy. (I only had one cup of coffee) As I have a had a few days to reflect I have been thinking of the biggest thing I will take away from this experience and I can't pick just one but I could possibly pick one that is of higher importance. 

The one major thing that I will take away from this event is how good it feels to do something awesome and see how much people enjoy it. The night of sleeplessness, blood, sweat and tears that went into creating an amazing new brand identity for ACTS was all worth it when my team and I showed them the work we had done in the morning which of course they loved. It was a total change from the previous even thought we kept somewhat of the same color pallet to keep the roots. But thats a little ahead of what I'm talking about I just feel so excited, that words cannot accurately express, about the work we did and how much it is going to help ACTS now and into the future. 

I hope they are still impressed with the mark we have made for them 20 years from now. Also I would like to extend a big thank you to my team even though we had someone leave during the night we stuck together and meshed together pretty well. Its pretty inspiring to see how close a group of pretty much strangers can become in 24 hours with the help of sleep deprivation and some crazy music.

I would not exchange this experience for anything in the world and if I could be a team leader again or basically just do CreateAthon over again tomorrow I would do it with no complaints. When ever I talk about the event I can't help but get a lll giddy like a 5 year old getting to pick a box of cereal at the grocery store. 

As I sit here gathering some last minuet things I think, what have I gotten myself into getting up at 7 on the most beautiful day of spring break to stay up and inside for 24 hours. Then I remember what the purpose was to help these non profits like they so effortlessly help their clients. I hope that my team is ready for a night of craziness and that the ACTS team is ready for complete and total awesome work. 

Everyone has a story, whether its good or bad we embrace it because it is our story, and for the most part we have the greatest effect on it. The story of ACTS is one that is still growing its at the very beginning still introducing the setting and characters, in some peoples opinion the best part of a book. I feel the way I connect with ACTS is that my story is also just beginning, the characters and settings are still being put into place but come this time next year we will be beginning building up to the next chapter after life in school.

  Another wide belief is that everyone has a spirit animal one that describes them in every way, ACTS I feel is much like Bambi, a new born deer, learning how to walk at a good pace and eventually making it to the ability to RUN, with the help of CreateAthon ACTS will be up and sprinting in no time. The story of ACTS I feel like right now is a bit fuzzy, but clarity is soon to follow.

I couldn't find the video of Bambi walking for the first time but, walking on ice will have to work:  

If theres one think I know that I am exceptionally good at, it is making lists. Lists help me to somewhat organize this crazy place I call my brain. I've decided to make a list telling my feelings about CreateAthon. 

(The most important) I am more than ecstatic about the final product, the fact that I have worked hard to help create something that will completely change the way my organization will conduct business. The change will always be for the positive, no matter what way I have helped them they will be on the up, not to say they are not doing this on their own, just that they will sky rocket after CreateAthon is all said and done.

One thing that I didn't expect coming into CreateAthon was the amount of work involved this both excites me and scares me at the same time, which is in fact a strange feeling. The best thing about this opportunity is the challenge that it brings, but it is a challenge that I have taken wholeheartedly and no matter how worn out I am this will be a number one priority. 

I am excited to finally get the ball rolling and see how things are going to pan out during and after the event, and FINALLY figuring out who my team is going to consist of. 

The networking opportunities and future ventures coming out of participating in such an awesome event also make me very happy. Happy in a way knowing that if I want to eventually use my super hero powers for good to save the world I am more than capable. 

The final thing that makes me ecstatic is the actual event. All I can hope for is that my team is ready for some crazy stuff, because I myself am quite the crazy person, they also have to like loud random music and those strange wee hours of the morning conversations even one has about those really weird topics. For example "Why does my arm have hair?" Ha ha.

I've have found some pretty cool videos to share too one about CreateAthon at VCU and another by Leslie Jensen-Inman who talks about the 4 P's: Passion, Purpose, Promise, and Pursuit, which are 4 pretty good words you can use to describe CreateAthon on Campus.

The 4 P's video- its 45 minuets long but more than worth it. 

As advertisers we are taught to tell stories, stories in print media, commercials, and logos just to name a few outlets. This is also a connection between nonprofits and CreateAthon they both have a story.  The most compelling stories are the ones that give us great movement. Some of the best ways to make a compelling story is to make people fall in love with all of the elements, the characters, the plot, and most importantly the tone. The tone is what drives the whole story and these rules don’t just apply to novels, they apply to music, movies, even advertisements and commercials. (We all know we either cry or change the channel during the ASPCA commercial)

            Being a compelling storyteller isn’t something that comes naturally or easy to most people and it is a tricky craft to learn, thus the reason for few good authors and songwriters. One of my favourite authors is F. Scott Fitzgerald, as I know he is many peoples favourite author and there is a reason for that his writing style provokes feeling and keeps you absorbed in the story. Upon doing some good research of great songwriters I don’t think I could even begin to compile a short list or even come up with a number one favourite songwriter.

            Storytelling is one of our oldest traditions as humans, it was used a way of communication and entertainment. It began as word of mouth thus the reason we have so many different variation of the same story and the genre of folklore. Storytelling evolved from word of mouth but not by much we now write out stories but they are eventually told, whether it’s about the Facebook status you made last week or the song you are listening to on the radio. Storytelling is a tradition that has been around forever and doesn’t have any plans of leaving anytime soon.

Finally I leave you with this because who doesn’t love a cute kid telling a story: