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BUZZ stars Boys & Girls Clubs of Southwest Virginia

BUZZ stars Boys & Girls Clubs of Southwest Virginia 900 483 Michael Hemphill

As broadcast on Blue Ridge PBS on Jan. 18, 2023 … our 27th episode of BUZZ features Boys & Girls Clubs of Southwest Virginia!

Celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2022, Boys & Girls Clubs of Southwest Virginia offers a safe place to learn and grow, plus life-enhancing programs and character development experiences for hundreds of schoolchildren. 

Within its 11 sites in Roanoke, Salem, Montgomery and Franklin counties, Boys & Girls Clubs of Southwest Virginia promotes the development of boys and girls by instilling “a sense of competence, a sense of usefulness, a sense of belonging, and a sense of influence.”

In need of a digital overhaul, Boys & Girls Clubs receives a website upgrade from BUZZ partner and marketing magician Carrie Cousins.

Funding for this BUZZ is provided by:

BUZZ 2022 Year in Review Video

BUZZ 2022 Year in Review Video 1024 583 Michael Hemphill

Thank you for being a buzz4good in 2022 and looking forward to more BUZZ 🐝 in 2023!

In our 2022 Year in Review, we feature the great work that nonprofits do in Virginia, and we highlight the marketing professionals who donated their time and talent to help these organizations attract more donors, volunteers and clients to their cause.

In 2022, these pros provided pro bono website development, social media campaigns, rebranding, new logos, free billboard and print advertising, and on and on, all to help nonprofits achieve more buzz!

BUZZ creator Michael Hemphill featured in Valley Business FRONT

BUZZ creator Michael Hemphill featured in Valley Business FRONT 532 900 Michael Hemphill

Two weeks ago, Tom Field, publisher of Valley Business FRONT, called to say he wanted to put me on the cover of the December issue. I was of course honored, but also prepared when the issue finally arrived.

What truly surprised and touched me were Tom’s words inside.

Hemphill started his marketing and development support business for nonprofits right when COVID-19 hit … he’s our FRONTList leader because of the creative and noble strategies he culled to produce one of the best entrepreneurial pursuits we’ve covered.

At the very time many would think there is no way to capitalize on community service organizations (who are always challenged and were often already struggling), Hemphill completely re-crafted an idea from Roanoke’s AAF advertising club (Createathon) where collaboration is used to develop publicity and awareness and fundraising to bolster and completely upgrade select nonprofits.

Specifically, his Buzz television show (on Blue Ridge PBS; third season), documentary, podcast, and other communications (from his journalism experience) serve as the main production to accomplish the upgrades and move organizations a big step up. The majority of funding comes from sponsors and intense, hard-earned connections.

It’s public service, indeed; but it’s also a business, no question. Well-deserved of our spotlight.

Valley Business FRONT – December 2022

None of this would have been possible without you and the many partners we’re fortunate to have in our Hive:

  • AAF Roanoke’s incredible marketing pros;
  • Our production partner: Dan Mirolli Photography;
  • Our broadcast partners Blue Ridge PBS and WFIR;
  • Countless sponsors and donors who believe in our cause;
  • And of course the nonprofits we’re privileged to feature in each episode of our TV and radio show.

So in this season of thankfulness, I thank you all – and Valley Business FRONT – for supporting our mission!

Michael Hemphill
Creator & Host

BUZZ features FRIENDS of the Blue Ridge in Episode 26

BUZZ features FRIENDS of the Blue Ridge in Episode 26 900 600 Michael Hemphill

As originally broadcast November 30, 2022, on Blue Ridge PBS …

For much of its history, FRIENDS of the Blue Ridge focused its efforts on helping the National Park Service maintain vistas and hiking trails along the Blue Ridge Parkway. But in 2020 the National Park Service ended the partnership, inspiring FRIENDS to pivot and expand its mission beyond the parkway to the communities of the Blue Ridge from Waynesboro, Va., to Asheville, N.C.

That pivot includes celebrating the region’s musical heritage by hosting the first-ever Blue Ridge Jamboree, an annual event with multiple shows in the communities where FRIENDS chapters are located. The 2022-23 Jamboree features “Doc Watson at 100” with performances by Wayne Henderson, Jack Lawrence, T. Michael Coleman and Jack Hinshelwood.

New to BUZZ, Big Lick Entertainment donates its time and expertise to help plan and promote the Jamboree.

Funding for this episode comes from Mast General Store, Partners in Financial Planning, and Appalachian Power.

25th BUZZ stars West End Center + 5Points Creative

25th BUZZ stars West End Center + 5Points Creative 900 503 Michael Hemphill

As originally broadcast Oct. 19, 2022, on Blue Ridge PBS …

In the 1970s during summers and after school, children often wandered the streets without supervision of Roanoke’s West End, a neighborhood defined by poverty and crime, vacant lots and vandalized buildings. But then a group of churches and civic groups came together to establish West End Center as a safe haven — and more importantly, hope — for the neighborhood children.​

Today, West End Center serves about 150 children each year, providing them and their families with low-cost academic enrichment, wellness programs and leadership training to become productive, responsible adults.

BUZZ partner 5Points Creative returns to provide a comprehensive marketing package to promote West End Center to a wider audience.

Funding for this episode comes from the Louise R. Lester Foundation and Freedom First Credit Union.

More buzz for BUZZ in Roanoke Times

More buzz for BUZZ in Roanoke Times 713 447 Michael Hemphill

Editorial: A public service project in Roanoke that benefits public services

The Roanoke Times | October 2, 2022

One perk of Michael Hemphill’s public service project is that he got to spend time with some of the best examples of “Man’s Best Friend” that anyone could ask for.

A former Roanoke Times reporter who also worked for several Roanoke Valley nonprofits, Hemphill is the founder and host of the locally produced television show “Buzz,” which airs 7 p.m. Wednesdays on Blue Ridge PBS and which you can also find on the YouTube channel Buzz4Good.

In the most recent “Buzz” episode, which premiered Sept. 21, Hemphill and his crew and associates paid visits to Saint Francis Service Dogs, the Hollins area nonprofit that trains service dogs to assist people with many different types of disabilities.

Alongside the interviews conducted with Executive Director Cabell Youell, board members and staff, the show spends time with a few of the 150 Virginians throughout the state that the dogs help.

One of those stops introduces the viewer to 37-year-old Felipe Aquino, who has cerebral palsy, his mother Lindsey and Felipe’s “best friend” Brutus.

Aquino and his mother describe how Brutus both helps in ways one might expect from a service dog — such as delivering money to the counter when Aquino makes a purchase — and in ways you might not think of, such as simply making people who approach Aquino more aware of his presence so they don’t blithely walk right into his wheelchair.

Hemphill also indulges in some canine-centric puns that are real, um, howlers, such has describing the show’s intentions to help make Saint Francis’ big annual fundraiser, Barks ’n’ Rec, “paws-itively fur-nomenal.”

“Buzz” means to be a version of the makeover show, in which a person gets a new fashion look or a house gets a remodel.

What Hemphill’s show does, though, is connect a local nonprofit with a local advertising company that provides a pro bono marketing boost. In this instance, “Buzz” brought in LeadPoint Digital marketing director Carrie Cousins (another Roanoke Times alum) to design a social media campaign.

Theater premieres, time travel

The next episode, No. 25, premieres Oct. 19 with a watch party at Roanoke’s Grandin Theatre, as has been the case with previous episodes. The next focus of “Buzz” will be West End Center for Youth on Patterson Avenue Southwest, which for more than four decades has run summer and after school programs for children from disadvantaged neighborhoods. The center is getting marketing assistance from 5Points Creative.

The “Buzz” concept grew out of Hemphill’s own nonprofit career — specifically, when he was the Science Museum of Western Virginia’s marketing manager. Museum staff came up with an idea for a 5k-ish fundraiser run with a couple of science-y twists. The “Time Traveler Pi-Miler” involved running 3.14 miles during the Daylight Saving Time change in November. The race began at 1:50 a.m., just before clocks were scheduled to “fall back,” so runners finished the race at an earlier time than they began.

“We didn’t really have any money at that time to promote the race.” The American Advertising Federation of Roanoke, a membership-based organization of the region’s advertising and marketing talent, had an annual event called “CreateAthon” in which members would come together and take on various nonprofit projects, executing them over the course of a 24-hour period. “There was a team that produced, over that 24 hour all-nighter, a 30 second TV commercial that got to be aired on one of the local TV stations. It was a cool commercial, and we ended up having 300 runners for our inaugural event at 1:50 a.m. on a frigid November morning.”

That experience shaped the “Buzz” conceit. Hemphill developed the show in partnership with the Roanoke advertising federation. The federation’s members are already regularly working pro bono with regional nonprofits. “They’re already doing this. My goal was to essentially give them a little buzz as well.”

Some more buzz for ‘Buzz’

There’s no limit to the show’s topics, Hemphill said. “Nonprofits literally do everything and so each episode can be a radically different story. You can go from the ballet to a homeless shelter to service animals to a food bank to brain injury services, and we’ve done all of those.”

Beyond the show’s advertising makeovers, “Buzz” works as an excellent promotional tool in its own right. As just one example, if you want to see a sweeping overview of the astonishing variety to be found in the Roanoke Valley’s art scene, you can’t really outdo the March 23 episode of “Buzz,” full of footage and interviews from the Roanoke Arts Pop! festival that took place inside the Taubman Museum of Art — the result of a partnership with the Roanoke Culture Endowment that will see “Buzz” producing a total of six episodes revolving around arts and culture organizations and events.

“Nonprofit organizations are absolutely vital and absolutely under appreciated, not only in our region, but in every region,” Hemphill said. Nonprofits are often told to operate more like a business, to find some way to be self sufficient, but that’s not a realistic expectation when you consider what nonprofits exist to do. “I’m sorry, there’s no money to be made in helping the homeless. There’s no money to be made in feeding a family that otherwise couldn’t afford to eat.” Nor can anyone build a business empire “teaching kids how to be exceptional ballet dancers or having a zoo on top of Mill Mountain.”

In some other countries, the government provides these services, funded by higher taxes. The U.S. has nonprofits supported by philanthropy, but those organizations often go unrecognized. “I’m passionate about nonprofits and want to feature them on this TV show, which hopefully elevates their status in the public’s eye,” Hemphill said. “So they get more buzz.”

“Buzz” is a terrific public service in its own right, and we’re more than happy to give this worthy project a bit more buzz ourselves.

BUZZ nominated for Kendig Arts & Culture Award

BUZZ nominated for Kendig Arts & Culture Award 900 524 Michael Hemphill

Definitely the “who?” in this Who’s Who list of 2022 Perry F. Kendig Arts and Culture Awards Nominees … but we are buzzing by this surprising honor.

Founded in 1985, the Kendig Awards is a programmatic offering between Roanoke College and Hollins University honoring:

  • Individual Artist
  • Arts and/or Cultural Organization
  • Individual or Business Arts Supporter

This year’s nominees:

  • Michael Hemphill: “a true believer in partnership, collaboration, and lifting up the arts community in Virginia’s Blue Ridge through his company Buzz4good.”
  • Seth Davis “has inspired thousands of children and teenagers with the gift of music.
  • Doug Jackson: “long-serving and faithful ally of the arts … invested in finding ways to make the arts compelling and accessible to all.”
  • Michael Mansfield: “director, actor, guest artist and designer, and teacher whose talents have been experienced by every theatre in Virginia’s Blue Ridge.”
  • Sandra Meythaler: “choreographer, dancer, and teacher who has been at the helm of Roanoke Ballet Theatre since 2007.”
  • Roanoke Valley Children’s Choir “has served the people of the Roanoke Valley for 34 years by meeting the musical needs of our young people.”

We look forward to celebrating with these exceptional artists at the awards reception Oct. 11!

New Buzz stars Saint Francis Service Dogs

New Buzz stars Saint Francis Service Dogs 900 670 Michael Hemphill

As originally broadcast Sept. 21, 2022, on Blue Ridge PBS …

For more than 150 Virginians with disabilities, dogs are not only best friends, they literally make life meaningful and possible.

Since 1996, Saint Francis Service Dogs has provided incredibly trained four-legged caregivers that assist in daily living for families confronting autism, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, rheumatoid arthritis, brain injuries, amputations and paralysis.

Lesser known is the fact that these dogs also provide service to inmates at Bland Correctional Center who help raise and care for them through a prison puppy program. And they provide comfort and calming in facilities throughout Virginia, namely Blue Ridge Autism and Achievement Center.

Dog-lover and marketing maven Carrie Cousins, director of marketing at LeadPoint Digital, returns to BUZZ to help Saint Francis Service Dogs enhance its popular “Barks & Rec” fundraiser. 

Please join us in thanking these sponsors for making this episode possible:

Coming this fall/winter on BUZZ

Coming this fall/winter on BUZZ 1024 576 Michael Hemphill

Mark your calendars!

We’ve been buzzy producing new episodes – and more importantly helping new nonprofits – for Season 3 of BUZZ!

Tune in to Blue Ridge PBS every Wednesday at 7:00 pm (or our YouTube channel) to watch previous episodes and these new ones:


September 21- Saint Francis Service Dogs

For more than 150 Virginians with disabilities, dogs are not only best friends, they literally make life meaningful and possible. Since 1996, Saint Francis Service Dogs has provided incredibly trained four-legged caregivers that assist in daily living for families confronting autism, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, rheumatoid arthritis, brain injuries, amputations and paralysis.

Lesser known is the fact that these dogs also provide service to inmates at Bland Correctional Center who help raise and care for them through a prison puppy program. And they provide comfort and calming in facilities throughout Virginia, namely Blue Ridge Autism and Achievement Center and Virginia Tech School of Medicine.

Dog-lover and marketing maven Carrie Cousins, director of marketing at LeadPoint Digital, returns to BUZZ to help Saint Francis Service Dogs enhance its popular “Barks & Rec” fundraiser. 


October 19 – West End Center

In the 1970s during summers and after school, children often wandered the streets without supervision of Roanoke’s West End, a neighborhood defined by poverty and crime, vacant lots and vandalized buildings. But then a group of churches and civic groups came together to establish West End Center as a safe haven — and more importantly, hope — for the neighborhood children.​

Today, West End Center serves about 150 children each year, providing them and their families with low-cost academic enrichment, wellness programs and leadership training to become productive, responsible adults. 

BUZZ partner 5Points Creative returns to provide a comprehensive marketing package to promote West End Center to a wider audience.


November 30 – FRIENDS of the Blue Ridge

For much of its history, FRIENDS of the Blue Ridge helped the National Park Service maintain vistas and hiking trails along the Blue Ridge Parkway. But in 2021 the National Park Service ended the partnership, inspiring FRIENDS to pivot and expand its mission beyond the parkway to the communities of the Blue Ridge.

That pivot includes celebrating the region’s musical heritage by hosting the first-ever Blue Ridge Jamboree, an annual event with multiple shows in the communities where FRIENDS chapters are located. The inaugural Jamboree features “Doc Watson at 100” with performances by Wayne Henderson, Jack Lawrence, T. Michael Coleman and Jack Hinshelwood. 

New to BUZZ, Big Lick Entertainment is donating its time and expertise to help plan and promote the Jamboree.


January 4 – Boys & Girls Clubs of Southwest Virginia

Celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2022, Boys and Girls Clubs of Southwest Virginia offers a safe place to learn and grow, plus life-enhancing programs and character development experiences for hundreds of schoolchildren. 

Within its 11 sites in Roanoke, Salem, Montgomery and Franklin counties, BGCSWVA promotes the development of boys and girls by instilling “a sense of competence, a sense of usefulness, a sense of belonging, and a sense of influence.”

In need of a digital overhaul, BGCSWVA receives a website upgrade from a member of the American Advertising Federation of Roanoke.


January 11 – Roanoke City Schools’ Art Program

From marching bands and string ensembles to musical theater, visual arts and all-star choruses, Roanoke City Public Schools’ arts programs are second to none in Virginia. 

But coming out of the Covid pandemic, many students and their families too often aren’t aware of all the free artistic offerings — and life-long opportunities — that the school system provides. 

In partnership with the Roanoke Cultural Endowment and City of Roanoke, BUZZ highlights the programs and people that comprise the Roanoke City Public Schools’ arts education … in hopes that more children will be inspired to participate. 

BUZZ Season 3 premier features Grandin Theatre Film Lab

BUZZ Season 3 premier features Grandin Theatre Film Lab 900 504 Michael Hemphill

As originally broadcast August 10, 2022, on Blue Ridge PBS …

Since 2016, Grandin Theatre’s Film Lab has provided an after-school program for high school students eager to learn how to make movies.

But dozens of films later — some of which have received EMMY awards and been screened in festivals around the world — and the Film Lab remains somewhat unknown despite the fact it’s earned its own red-carpet treatment.

Using Film Lab’s own tools and talents, BUZZ seeks to shine a spotlight on this amazing program with a special hour-long episode that launches of our third season on Blue Ridge PBS.