Just like everyone has a picture of McMurran, everyone has a picture from Rumsey Monument. This is just a nice scenery shot on a nice day.

Although you can't entirely tell, the jelly fish in this picture is moving. I thought it would make for a really cool image since it was swimming around.

THis is from the aquarium at Mandalay Bay. I thought this would be a cool shot since it shows the people touching and looking at the Sting Rays that are in the pool.

This is one of my favorite shots I've taken so far. It's the Vegas Strip. I was there for a conference and just couldn't pass up the view. I feel like it could be used for a feature story about the Strip or the restaurant that we were in when I took this.

This is a working environment portrait shot that I took of my boss. I did a hail mary for this shot in particular, which I think really helped to see the surroundings of her office.

This is my favorite of all the snow shots I took. I like the lines of the benches next to each other. I didn't notice before, but there is a car parallel parking in the background, which shows that there was still life happening on such a crappy day.

I think everyone takes a picture of McMurran at some point. I really like the way this turned out. I was sitting inside the Sweet Shoppe when I took it. The fact that the paper snowflake was on the window added to the shot I think.

I think this could almost be printed off as wallpaper or something similar. I just really like the colors and lighting (the lighting for the shot was what was there, I used no flash). The lines in this photo are also really great.

This is another shot from Orlando. I really like this one. It is almost a silhouette shot, but not quite. I really like the expressions on the faces of the audience members.

I really like this photo. I think it is a good example of rule of thirds and makes good use of the natural light. Although you cannot really see the faces of the people in the picture, I think it's still a nice shot.

Planning a Chairty Event

Now that I am into the phase of my project where all the logistics of my two charity events are starting to come together, I researched different tips on planning an event. I learned the following things that I hadn't even thought about at the beginning of this process:

• Educated those that are attending about your organization. Turn attendees into advocates for your organization. To do this, I'm going to utilize the powerpoint presentation about PHWWO and give some general information about the group at each charity event. I also intend to use the brochure that is being created to inform attendees. On the back of the brochure there is going to be a donation form as well.
• Use social media to promote your event. Of course this is something that I had considered before, but adding information to the event and state that it will be an information session as well as charity event can help. This will encourage people that are not well-informed about the group, to attend the event.

Information obtained during my research came from Tips For Promoting Your Charity Event

Social Media Posting

Since the Potomac Highlands Wounded Warrior Outreach (PHWWO) has both Facebook and Twitter accounts, I researched the best timing to make postings so the outreach is the best.

• When you share a link on your company’s Facebook page, people are more likely to view that link on the weekends or early in the morning
• Pages that post every other day have more followers or “likes”. 
• The Twitter pages with the most followers tweet an average of 22 times per day.  When sharing your website through a link, try to tweet about your page once per hour at most

(This information was gathered from notes from "Science of Timing" webinar by Dan Zarella and HubSpot and a Platinum PR blog post that I wrote in April of last year.) 

I plan to use the program "HootSuite" for PHWWO. This program allows postings to both Facebook and Twitter at the same time and each post can be scheduled. I think the best approach is to have links to articles about PHWWO when posting a link on the Facebook page. The Twitter page can be used to promote the Facebook page by posting links to the organizations Facebook.

Distributing press releases

There are several companies and websites that handle press release distribution. I have been researching the different options that are out there and how much they cost. Since PHWWO is a non-profit organization, the budget for things like press release distribution is little, if any at all.

Some options include:

• PR Web
• PR News Wire
• ereleases.com
• prlog.org

PR web costs money for certain features, the rest have free options. The organization will have to approve which one is used.

Fundamentals of Non-Profits.

This week I have learned several fundamental tips on communications efforts for non-profit organizations.

• It is really important to build a relationship with the media outlets that the organization will use the most, especially since they may have little or no budget.
• I need to build relationships with the local media for the PHWWO. Most of the media in the area already know about them and have covered stories about their events before, so I plan to reach out to the regional media more-so.
• When reaching out about the organization there is a difference in a value the organization has and information about the organization.
• When educating the public about the PHWWO using a value the organization has as opposed to giving out general information may be a better idea. This will get people interested to learn more and contact the group or attend an event.
• When creating a publicity and communications plan for a non-profit, it must first be determined what kind of non-profit the group is. An individual behavior change group or a public will group.
• I think PHWWO is a mixture of the two. Although they are not involved with legislature that affects wounded warriors, they are still educating the public, they are affecting the social perception of helping our nation's wounded and veterans.

All information was obtained from http://www.mediaevaluationproject.org/Paper5.pdf

And the research begins..

So, now that I have my proposal finished and it has been reviewed by my director, Monica, I have began researching various topics related to my project.

First I began researching potential venues for the benefits events that I am planning. I found the following locations for the dinner:

• South Fork Ruritan building, Oak Flat. This is the locations of most of the PHWWO meetings. This location is inexpensve, and since a few of the PHWWO volunteers are Ruritan members, the location can be use for free. The president and vice president (my dad) are both members, so they would be the contact for this.
• Pendleton County High School, Franklin, WV. The high school's cafeteria is used for several benefit dinners. Since Franklin is a central location for the county residence, this may be a better option so the community outreach can be more wide spread. The phone number for the highschool is 304-358-2573 and the contct for this would be Sam Yokum.
• Sugar Grove Naval Base, Sugar Grove, WV. Since the PHWWO is a military related organization, they hold several events at the base when there are wounded warrior visits. I think that it is a good idea to have the navy community invovled with the group benefit since they tend to not be as active in the community outside the base. However, this location is on one side of the county, making it harder for the group to reach out to everyone. The contact that I found for this location is Keith Hill and he can be reached at 304-249-5667.

Oh what to do... Senior Capstone problems

I don't know about anyone else that is in my senior capstone class, but after the first class I thought I could have a panic attack. I had already began stressing about what to do for my capstone project on the last day of the fall semester. I felt like I was the only one that didn't know what to do or where to start. There are several things that interest me, but what could I spend my entire semester doing to show that the last 3 and a half years of my education were beneficial and taught me something (and still enjoy that something afterward)? I had no clue. All I knew was I wanted it to be great.

After gaining my composure and keeping myself from having a huge freak out in the middle of the Comm lab, I talked to Monica. They call her the "Comm Mom" for a reason, ladies and gents; she knows her stuff and also knows all of her students really well. She pointed out to me that I had a deep passion for the Potomac Highlands Wounded Warrior Outreach program, an organization in my hometown. This being so very true, I left class on a mission to collect ideas of what to do for PHWWO.

So now here I am, proposal written, plans made, and ready to get the ball rolling on my year long public relations plan for PHWWO. This is going to definitely allow me to utilize all the skills I have learned throughout my time at Shepherd and through my internship at Platinum PR. I have a pretty big plan drawn out, so it's going to be pretty tough, but I'm prepared (I think)!

I really want to learn more about the event planning area that is involved with public relations. I have assisted with some event details, but not enough to fully understand. That is why I plan to create two event plans for PHWWO. I plan to have one large benefit event and one small. Even though PHWWO is not a big organization, I think there will be a lot of work to plan the large event. In order to do this I will need to improve my organization skills. Since I will be doing this while still attending classes and working, I will need to make sure I have a detailed schedule of what needs to be done and when.

I also want to understand more about working for a non-profit organization. I'm currently assisting with several non-profits through my job, but I haven't fully taken on anything on my own. I am interested in working for non-profits once I graduate, so I am really excited to learn about the process through this "hands-on" experience.

Website Navigations

When thinking about what I'm going to do for my website, I need to consider how I want my site to navigate. I looked at two websites when thinking of how I want my layout to go. First, I looked at a site similar to what I want to creat for PHWWO. The Wounded Warrior Project website has very similar content to what I wish to put on my site I'm creating. I like that when you click on each tab you can see what pages are under that tab. The site keeps with the same color scheme and isn't too overwhelming. They don't have a "flashy" page, which allows the focus to be on the content and purpose of the site, which I like. I do not like that they don't have a photo gallery of projects and wounded warriors on here. I think that is something that should be included.


The second site is just a site that I personally like. Luke Bryan is one of my favorite country music artists and like most artists, he has his own website. I like his website because it is simple and has lots of photos in a photo gallery. The site has all the information you could want about Luke, unless you're trying to find really personal information, in which case, you may be a stalker. The site has tour dates and information on where to get tickets to his shows. I really like the news section. This is something that I want to have on my website for PHWWO. This is another way to give viewers more information by linking them to articles and videos about whats going on.

Website Ideas

Coming up with ideas for a website has not been easy. I'm usually someone that is interested in many things at different times, so finding something that I am very interested in for a whole semester is going to be tricky. There are several topics I have remained interested in for several years or as long as I can remember, but will they be able to become 25 pages of a website?

An idea that first came to mind was creating a website for the Potomac Highlands Wounded Warrior Outreach. This is an organization that my father is greatly invovled with and I help as much as I can. PHWWO is dedicated to helping injured soldiers once they have returned home. When a group of wounded warriors come to PHWWO they are treated to a weekend out of the hospital and all the poking and proding. They take the wounded warriors hunting, fishing and just get them out into the great outdoors. The group is all volunteer based and they try to raise money periodically to fund the trips. I would really like to create a realy website for them, or the beginnings of one that can later be finished by myself, or someone with more experience than I.

My Favorite Character

Comm 403- Blog 5

My favorite character right now is Rapunzel in the new movie Tangled. It's based off of the traditional Rapunzel story, but it makes her journey more interesting. Rapunzel plays the princess who doesn't know she's a princess.

In this version of the old tale, a piece of the sun falls to Earth and a beautiful, magical flower appears. The flower can heal any alement and give an elderly person back their youth. An old lady that lives far away from the town in the woods finds it and uses its powers. When the Queen becomes sick the towns people go looking for the flower to heal her. The flower is used to make a tea for her to drink and she is fine. When she gives birth her daughter, Rapunzel, ends up having the same magical powers, except its in her hair. The old lady discovers this and takes Rapunzel away and raises her as her own.

So, Rapunzel lives her life in this tower that is hidden deep in the woods. She knows no one except for her mother and a lizard that is her pet. By being the princess and not knowing it she has a journey that the viewers see take place. She is very voulnerable, nieve and believes everything her mother tells her.

There are so many signs through the movie that should tell her that she is the princess, but she doesn't completely understand until the end (typical).

My Favorite TV Show

Comm 403 Blog 4

My favorite TV show is Bones. To me, this show is the perfect combination of serious, adventure and it still has it's funny moments. Pictured below are the two "heroes" of the show. The female lead, Temperance "Bones" Brennan is a forensic anthropologist. She works together with Special Agent Seeley Booth to solve murders. Together they are quite the pair. Bones is very serious and technical, she understands very little of the modern life because she studies it rather than living it. Booth is the very laid back jock that understands very little outside his gun-toting, ladies man life, including and especially anything that Bones says. 

With the two of them playing the hero role together, the tend to butt heads and in one episode Booth was stuck between a friend that was being investigated for a murder and doing his job. This is an example of a time when a hero comes to a cross roads when he doesn't know which way to go and he has to make the decision himself. He had his partner telling him to do one thing and an old friend begging him to do another. This shows the journey that a hero must make.

This can also relate to character and character functions. Bones can be interpreted as the one to discover herself and Booth can be seen as the guide for her journey