A Place of Warmth

It’s crunch time! My team members and I are embarking on our final stage of the storytelling process, editing. Our story is on The Gathering Place, which over the last month I have grown to love. The Gathering Place was a house that I walked past everyday last year on my way to class, never knowing how special it was.  It is a home-like atmosphere that supports the recovery of persons with mental illness by enhancing personal development and well-being, while fostering community involvement. There is a certain warmth about it, a warmth that could only be made possible by the people that build a sense of community there. My job as a videographer and editor is to try and capture some of that warmth and make audiences feel it as well.

 As a student practicing video for many years I have been in many uncomfortable and unpleasant filming situations. The Gathering Place however, is one of the most welcoming environments that I have ever filmed in, and that’s because of the people.  Part of my job as a videographer is to form a relationship with those whose story I’m telling, and the second part is to capture that story. The hardest part for me so far has been pressing record, because instead of filming I find myself engaged in conversation and interaction with people at the house. With the fast paced and stressful college environment I find myself in, it has been very refreshing to experience the people at the gathering place who seem very genuine and who are there because they enjoy being there and enjoy each other’s company.

Sometimes we can get so caught up in our own worlds and we forget that there are places out there that are run by people who spend their days not worrying about themselves but others. It’s eye opening. I appreciate everyone working at The Gathering Place who have allowed us to come in to film and have welcomed us as friends. The unsung heroes of this country are the ones that should be acknowledged and I hope that in our documentary we can acknowledge the people who are helping make The Gathering Place possible.  

- Andrew Thomas | Content Producer

           

UCM Lending a Hand Throughout the Area

Hey there, everyone, my name’s Ryan and I’m one of the content producers working behind the camera to make the multimedia pieces.  This year I’ve been assigned to cover United Campus Ministry.  In case you’re unfamiliar with UCM, they are a nonprofit organization that has been in Athens since 1968 and encourages engagement between Ohio University and the Athens community while promoting spiritual growth, community service, and work for justice through socially progressive interfaith values. 

Often times down here at OU there seems to be a real disconnect between the students on campus and the rest of the Southeast Ohio area that we call home for four or more years.  While there are certainly some Bobcats down here who couldn’t tell the difference between Albany and Amesville or Shade and Stewart there is a significant population of students who are working hard to break that stereotype by becoming involved not just in the immediate Athens are, but in towns throughout Southeast Ohio.  This Saturday I had the opportunity to tag along with a few of those students as a group of volunteers from UCM traveled up to Shawnee, Ohio bright and early to volunteer with the Little Cities of Black Diamond organization.

It was pretty amazing to see a group of college students gather at 8 a.m. on a Saturday morning and devote most of their entire morning and afternoon to helping out people in a small town almost an hour away from campus.  Though, really, the most impressive thing wasn’t the time commitment that the volunteers made, but rather how they interacted with the members of the community in Shawnee.  This seems to be an overarching theme in all of the work that United Campus Ministry does.  Trust me, it’s a big organization that is involved in a dizzying amount of activities and causes throughout the Southeast Ohio region, but it seems that at the heart of everything that UCM does is the desire to bridge the gap between students at Ohio University and the community that surrounds them.  Needless to say there are some parallels in that and what we hope to do here at Project C, so I’m pretty excited that we have the opportunity to work with them this year, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what more they have to offer the community!

- Ryan Young | Content Producer

Everyone Can Make a Difference. Learn What You Can Do!

As we begin the fourth week of spring quarter at Ohio University the Project C teams are working hard to bring you amazing, meaningful content in our 2012 edition! For those of you who may be unfamiliar with Project C, it is a student-run multimedia project that ultimately donates funds to local nonprofit organizations.

Students work together to create documentaries chronicling the activities of four local nonprofit organizations. Video documentaries, along with still photos, infographics, and feature articles are then presented on Project C’s website: www.clickingcreateschange.com.

With the click of a mouse, community members, as well as any other visitors to the site, can vote for their favorite organization. When users vote for an organization they are helping decide how to allocate funds to the featured nonprofits. This year, voting will take place from the time the site launches on Monday, May 28 until Friday, June 1.

Stay Connected with Project C

Join us in the social media spheres to keep up with all the latest happenings!

  Follow us on Twitter: @ProjectC_

  Like us on Facebook!

Get Involved

Just by telling your family and friends about Project C you’re making a difference in the Athens community! Project C strives to inform and inspire, and we couldn’t do that without the help of our supporters, and the ability each of you has to spread the word about our work, our mission, and the nonprofits in Athens, Ohio we feature and hope to raise funds to support.

Donate

Whether you can afford $1 or $1000, Project C and the organizations we are featuring this year will be forever grateful!

In 2011, Project C raised $1075 to assist the local nonprofits. This year we aim to raise more than $2000. Project C is reaching out to charitable individuals like you for financial support. Online donations can be submitted via IndieGoGo, a digital crowdfunding platform at www.IndieGoGo.com/clickingcreateschange. Online donations must be submitted by Monday, May 14, 2012 at 11:59 PM PT.

Help us give back to the wonderful and unique community that is Athens, Ohio.

Lauren Nolan

Public Relations Director | Project C

4 Causes, 7 Days, your Vote

I'm excited to announce that after nearly twelve weeks of production, Project C has launched! clickingcreateschange.com went live late last night to kick off the week-long voting period.


Please visit the site, learn about four nonprofits in Athens, Ohio, and vote for the one you'd like to support. Each computer gets 2 votes a day. And don't forget to spread the word to those around you!

Thank you to our supporters, donors, dedicated team of OU students & grads, and the exceptional organizations that we have worked with. It has really been an incredible experience - and I am excited that this is just the beginning!

We Are Here to Learn

On March 31, Pamela Pate met with the Project C team to educate and inform the group of the most dominant social issue affecting Athens and surrounding counties in Southeast Ohio: poverty. As an AmeriCorps Vista, Pate currently works for Ohio University's Campus Involvement Center. She has not only experienced poverty firsthand through her fieldwork, but has started the Jethro Project, an after-school community to tutor poorly performing middle school children, eat a nourishing meal together, and enhance social skills.

As storytellers and documentarians, Pate urged the group to hone in on one-on-one experiences with the subjects of our documentaries. Because of the intense level of poverty in some families and areas, she urged caution and gave words of advice when speaking with others. She believes that we are "not here to save, but here to learn."

Her charismatic personality and true passion for helping the people of Southeast Ohio deeply inspired the group to step beyond the boundaries of the university and experience the true culture of Appalachia before our time at Ohio University has gone.

Project C hopes to help sustain the Jethro Project by documenting the stories of the people involved. This will be one of four non-profit organizations that we cover.