2018 Charlotte Make-a-Thon Recap
November 17th marked the inaugural and independently-run Charlotte Make-a-Thon.
A big thank you to Charlotte Site Leaders Nicole Reyes and Kate Micham for sharing their experience. Read their words below.
To officially kick off Charlotte’s inaugural Make a Mark Make-a-Thon, we held a meet-and-greet info session at Blue Blaze Brewery. Connecting over local beverages, interested makers, volunteers, and nonprofits came to learn more about Make a Mark, how to get involved, and what positive impact it could have in our community.
As we moved into nonprofit selections, so many tremendous organizations in the Charlotte area applied, selecting the nonprofits was no easy task. In the end, the nonprofits chosen tackled a variety of issues that impact individuals and groups across our community daily. Addressing ongoing issues such as foster care education and homelessness to battling food deserts in local communities, encouraging teen health awareness and education and bridging educational gaps in lower income areas, these chosen nonprofit groups work tirelessly to solve our communities most difficult issues. Read more about the selected nonprofits.
After postponing the first scheduled event due to Hurricane Florence, the inaugural Charlotte Make-a-Thon finally kicked off the morning of November 17, 2018. Led by site leaders, Nicole Reyes and Kate Micham, 40 makers and volunteers collaborated for twelve hours to serve 11 deserving nonprofits in the greater Charlotte community through various branding, marketing and web initiatives.
The morning of the Charlotte Make-a-Thon makers were welcomed by volunteers at Hygge, a co-working space filled with a community of generous people doing awesome things. They fueled for the day with delicious coffee from Hex Coffee while sifting through their fun gift bags filled with a sticker and a t-shirt with the Charlotte Make a Mark logo designed by Lauren Harring and printed by Real Thread, snacks to keep them fueled and full, and fun items from global partners Abstract, Balsamiq, and Mindsense.
After gathering briefly as a group for information about the day and thank you’s to our amazing sponsors OrthoCarolina, Hygge and SHARE Charlotte makers spent the next several hours working together to create printed materials, redesign websites, update branding and collateral, provide social media toolkits and recommend marketing strategies for the nonprofits. Breaks were taken to enjoy a mid-afternoon coffee refuel provided by Not Just Coffee and strawberry kombucha from Lenny Boy Brewing.
Through mid-day, nonprofits joined their teams for a check-in. This would be the first time the nonprofits had the opportunity to see their teams, preview what the makers had been working on all morning, provide important feedback, and get excited for the final products.
The rest of the afternoon was spent taking the valuable feedback given by the nonprofits and incorporating that into the work — but of course taking time out to enjoy a true Charlotte lunch provided by a local staple, Mert’s Heart & Soul.
After the final rush at the end of the day, makers, volunteers, sponsors, nonprofit representatives, and friends all gathered in the Nest at Hygge — a large event room with a garage door opening to an outdoor patio. With the fresh air and cool breeze flowing in from outside, everyone nibbled on delicious bites from The Freckled Fork, sipped on wine from Raffaldini Winery provided by SHARE Charlotte and beer from local favorite, Legion Brewing, while mingling together.
Drinks + Demos soon started, giving maker teams the opportunity to showcase their hard work and share the final product with their nonprofits and the other makers. As we celebrated the success of the day, a palpable sense of community, accomplishment, and fulfillment filtered through the room. Tears of joy appeared on maker, volunteer, and nonprofit faces and it was clear that true good was done that day.
After heartfelt speeches from Amy Jacobs of SHARE Charlotte and Daniel Fogarty from Beds with Kids, DJ M kicked up the music and for the rest of the night everyone celebrated their accomplishments as individuals, teams, and a community.
Check out some of the amazing examples of the work completed in just 12 hours by volunteers.
Want to see more photos from the event? Check out the Facebook album below.
Thank you!
Many thanks to our event sponsors OrthoCarolina, SHARE Charlotte and Hygge Coworking. Additional thank you’s to the incredibly talented Lauren Harring for our logo design; the gifted and selfless Leonard Hilty for spending the full day with us capturing all our event photography and video; all of our amazing day-of volunteers who we couldn’t have succeeded without; John Pietrafesa and Tyler Hawes of MODE for allowing us to take over their space for interviews and meetings; and Ian Varrassi for lending a hand whenever we needed a quick social media, print or web asset. Last, but certainly not least, a huge shout out to Mert’s Heart & Soul, Not Just Coffee, Legion Brewing, The Freckled Fork, Lenny Boy Brewing, Hex Coffee, and Loftin & Co. for the wonderful in-kind donations.
And thanks to our organizational sponsors: Real Thread, Abstract, Balsamiq and Mindsense.
To stay up to date, subscribe to the newsletter or send an email to hello@letsmakeamark.org.
