Oh how we love the creative and strategic integration of a QR code into a communications campaign, initiative or event. I couldn’t resist blogging again today about Briar Chapel (client), and am eager to take part in the community’s Hunt for Green tomorrow as part of its Earth Day Celebration. Read more about how this QR code scavenger hunt will educate participants about the green benefits of living at Briar Chapel.
For our next installment of Green Thought Thursday, we wanted to fill everyone in on our client Briar Chapel’s upcoming Earth Day event. Briar Chapel is the largest green community in the Triangle and hopes to inspire folks to get out and go green this weekend.
The big event is THIS Saturday, and activities will span the entire day, beginning at 9:00 a.m. with the 3rd Annual Briar Chapel 5K Run. Not only will participants have a chance to enjoy the community’s scenic trails, but they will also feel good knowing that all proceeds benefit the Abundance Foundation, a local nonprofit dedicated to educating the community about local food and renewable energy. Those who register early will receive a locally made organic t-shirt from our friends at TS Designs. Feeling motivated? Register here!
Other activities will kick off at 1:00 p.m. Perhaps your first stop should be with local chefs Colin Bedford, Jimmy Reale, Greg Hamm and Kelly Taylor as they showcase dishes created for the Chatham County Chef Challenge. Each dish was prepared in hopes of encouraging healthier choices in the Chatham County Schools lunch program. The result? They taste delicious! You’ll have the chance to see for yourself Saturday, as the chefs hand out samples to the public. Check out our recent blog to learn more about the Chef Challenge.
Other events you won’t want to miss – the Hunt for Green, a scavenger hunt where participants will capture each QR code clue with their smart phones and have a chance to tour the model homes, and environmental education demonstrations on topics such as community gardening and vermiculture by Briar Chapel residents, local farmers and other non-profit organizations. Find out more about these special Earth Day events here.
Also, be sure to drop in at 2:00 for a question and answer session with local author Jonathan Bloom, where he will be sharing what he discovered while working on his latest book, American Wasteland, a chronicle of the waste of food from “farm to fork.” He will also give tips on how you can reduce waste in your own home. We can’t wait to hear what he has to say, and we’ll be sure to share some of his ideas in an upcoming Green Thought Thursday.
As if these weren’t all reasons enough, you’ll also enjoy treats from local spots like Angelina’s Kitchen, Bean and Barrel, Busy Bee Café, Fullsteam Brewery and Saxapahaw General Store.
We hope to see you at Briar Chapel Saturday!
One of the things I love the most about Clairemont is that we get to work with such smart, creative and community-focused people! Our clients at Briar Chapel are absolute pros at community support and involvement. The key? A philanthropic mindset from the top — Bob McCleod, CEO of parent company Newland Communities, has a long history of humanitarian efforts — coupled with people throughout the company who have a personal passion for making a difference.
The Chatham County Chef Challenge is the perfect example. Passionate about health and wellness, education and the environment, the Briar Chapel team partnered with the Abundance Foundation to conceptualize the Chatham County Chef Challenge. Designed to increase fresh vegetables and fruits in the student lunches, educate the students and parents on the importance of a healthy lunch and increase participation in the school lunch program, the initiative was an easy sell to local celebrity chefs who are familiar with types of events and organizations Briar Chapel commonly supports.
An important part of the program was a training session where our celebrity chefs worked with the school cafeteria staffs to show them how to make their special dishes using ingredients available to the school lunchrooms. Below is a brief snippet of a Briar Chapel blog post on the training day, and to meet the chefs and sample their dishes that will become regular Chatham County school cafeteria menus, come out to Briar Chapel’s Earth Day event Saturday.
Summarized from the Briar Chapel blog…
After spending weeks creating the dishes, our chefs gathered last week to teach the 17 Chatham County School Cafeteria lunch managers the recipes. The managers went back to their kitchens and cook these dishes this week for all of the county school children.
The managers are of course the experts in feeding hundreds of children in a short period of time. They know what kids will and will not eat. Participating chefs included Chef Colin Bedford of Fearrington House, Chef Kelly Taylor and Chef Gregg Hamm of the Natural Chef Culinary Program at Central Carolina Community College (the first of it’s kind in the country) and Chef Jimmy Reale of Crossroads Restaurant located in the historical and beautiful Carolina Inn.
I love social media, and at Clairemont, we love to effectively blend traditional communications with social media as part of a cohesive communications strategy. In recent years, “viral” and “engagement” have become social media buzzwords. Maybe that’s why I love when they exist in a live environment.
Check out these photos of what our smart clients at Drexel Heritage did last week during High Point Market. Something as simple as inviting guests to write on the showroom walls turned visitors into co-designers and created a who’s who of market visitors. See if you can spot the signature of a U.S. senator and what editors of top shelter magazines wrote.
It is our favorite thing about spring — High Point Market. We love being onsite with our clients and helping them introduce new collections to media. So far we’ve met with editors of top magazines including Traditional Home, Elle Decor, House Beautiful, Coastal Living, Good Housekeeping, Garden & Gun and Architectural Digest with appointments scheduled tomorrow with Southern Living, Country Living, Lonny Mag, Luxe and Real Simple.
Friday was a special day as U.S. Senator Kay Hagan stopped by our clients’ showrooms in support of North Carolina-based furniture manufacturers. We were pleased to host many regional and furniture trade news crews interested in covering Senator Hagan’s visit. In addition to crafting messaging, pitching media and coordinating logistics, we put the Clairemont touch on the tour by working with our clients to name a chair after Senator Hagan that was unveiled at the beginning of the media Q&A.
