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buzz4good

BUZZ Livestream of Smith River Singers’ Christmas Concert 900 506 Michael Hemphill

BUZZ Livestream of Smith River Singers’ Christmas Concert

In case you can’t attend in person this holiday event, BUZZ is proud to livestream Handel’s “Messiah” as performed by the Smith River Singers to culminate its 10th anniversary season.

BUZZ featured this extraordinary Martinsville, Virginia nonprofit community choir earlier this year.

“From just 23 singers in 2014 to more than 80 today, the Smith River Singers stands as one of the best community choirs in Virginia,” says BUZZ creator Michael Hemphill. “We enjoyed a magical time in Martinsville and Henry County filming this amazing all-volunteer ensemble as it celebrates its 10th birthday, and hope to provide the choir with much-deserved … buzz!”

As part of the pro bono marketing “buzz” provided in the show, professional livestream producer Rob Orthwein offered to broadcast the popular Christmas concert so that the choir’s friends and fans throughout the world can watch and enjoy.

The concert is being held at the Galilean House of Worship in Henry County. Doors open at 6:15 pm.

Why I regret #GivingTuesday 900 506 Michael Hemphill

Why I regret #GivingTuesday

Now that Giving Tuesday is over, let me share why I regret Giving Tuesday.

Yesterday I received at least 43 emails from 27 different nonprofit organizations asking for my support on #GivingTuesday. This doesn’t count all the texts, social media posts and so forth. 

Mind you, I don’t fault the nonprofits. They’re taking advantage of this one day — fabricated with good intentions, I’m sure, in 2012 — to inspire us to think beyond ourselves during the holiday hustle and donate to these organizations that bind us together when so many other institutions have failed.

But the unintended consequence of Giving Tuesday is a further relegation of nonprofits to subservient status. By hyping this one day for charitable giving, we suggest that the countless causes with which nonprofits grapple aren’t important the other 364 days.

In our for-profit world, nonprofits are already consigned to the lesser ranks inhabited by Oliver Twist nearly 200 years ago: “Please, sir, I want some … more?”

This scarcity mindset calls to mind the tiresome adage I’ve too often heard in nonprofit board meetings: “Nonprofits should operate more like a business.” 

Are there some best business practices that all organizations should incorporate? Sure. But let’s do without the condescension when we talk about nonprofits as if they’re puppies scrambling for scraps at the dinner table.

The motivation of business is to make money … and there’s no money to be made in housing the homeless, feeding the hungry, spaying stray cats and dogs, teaching literacy to immigrants and native-born Americans, showing children how to dance and sing, preserving African-American history, awarding scholarships for kids to afford college, creating art in low-income neighborhoods or helping the frightened single mom care for her baby — just some of the nonprofit missions we’ve highlighted and helped on our TV show BUZZ. 

As I share in the opening of every episode: “their profit comes not in the thing they sell, but the good they do.”

This goodness deserves celebration year round, not just 1/365th of the year. 

If we as a society say that these missions are important, then let’s resolve in 2025 to celebrate Giving Tuesday each week, not just the first one of December. 

That nonprofit we professed such care about yesterday will be working just as tirelessly, just as heartfully, those Tuesdays as well.

Always buzzing,
Michael Hemphill
BUZZ creator

Buzzing in California! 900 416 Michael Hemphill

Buzzing in California!

BUZZ is now on in California!

Carol Jessee, former executive director of Southwest Virginia Ballet, which we featured in our first episode in 2020, texted us: “Just got a note from a friend who lives in LA saying he turned his TV on and there I was! The ballet Buzz4good was on!!! WOW! Congrats!”

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Top 10 BUZZ of 2023 900 432 Michael Hemphill

Top 10 BUZZ of 2023

Thank you for buzzing with us this year!

We hope you enjoy this highlight reel of our Top 10 buzz-worthy moments of 2023 … and look forward to highlighting and helping even more nonprofits in 2024!

No. 10: The Y is more than a workout as we showed in our episode starring YMCA of Virginia’s Blue Ridge. See the stories of some at-risk teens served by “Rise 540.” Watch full episode. 

No. 9: Nonprofits literally do everything – from homeless shelters and children’s art programs to organizations like the Regional Accelerator and Mentoring Program that helps entrepreneurs design cutting-edge drugs and patent portable optical laser cutters. Watch full episode.

No. 8: The Roanoke City Public Schools arts program teaches kids how to dance, sing, paint, sculpt, play a stringed instrument, march in the band, produce digital music … and recycling and turtle-stacking? Watch full episode. 

 No. 7: How excited was the Community Foundation of the New River Valley when it soared past its goal for the 10th annual GiveLocalNRV? Watch full episode.

 No. 6: With its scenic waterfalls, hiking trails, gurgling streams and star-gazing skies, Alta Mons pulses with divinity for the thousands of people who retreat each year at the 800-acre eastern Montgomery County camp. But its human heart beats within one man: Jim Pearman. Watch full episode.

 No. 5: We buzzed at the chance to talk to Virginia Tech’s Liz Kitley, Kenny Brooks and Brent Pry for our episode starring The Hokie Way, which helps VT athletes use their Name, Image and Likeness to promote local nonprofits. One of those nonprofits is the Lifering Foundation, founded by Kelly Woolwine amidst incredible suffering. Watch full episode.

 No. 4: We’re fortunate to have Dan Mirolli in our hive as our cinematographer. His work really buzzes in our episode featuring The Least of These homeless ministry at night. Watch full episode. 

 No. 3: How proud is Norma Mondragon’s mother for the life she has built thanks to Literacy Volunteers of the New River Valley? Watch full episode.

 No. 2: BUZZ creator Michael Hemphill returns to his hometown of Birmingham where he connects with old friends and his alma mater to produce episodes on four impactful nonprofits that began airing in December on Alabama Public Television.

 No. 1: In our most viewed video of 2023, musicians Bryan “Harvest Blaque” Hancock and J.P. Powell – joined by Roanoke Symphony maestro David Stewart Wiley, Opera Roanoke’s Brooke Tolley, Roanoke Cultural Endowment’s Shaleen Powell, and the Roanoke Valley Children’s Choir – provide the artistic beat for what makes Roanoke, Virginia, a great place for business. Watch full episode.

BUZZ Creator Named to Virginia Business “100 People to Meet in 2024” 810 540 Michael Hemphill

BUZZ Creator Named to Virginia Business “100 People to Meet in 2024”

BUZZ creator Michael Hemphill has been named to the Virginia Business list of “100 People to Meet in 2024.”

Appearing in the December 2023 issue, Hemphill was part of the “Impact Makers” category:

A native of Birmingham, Alabama, Michael Hemphill moved to Virginia in 1997 when his wife was doing her residency in family medicine. Since then, Roanoke’s been his home and he’s helped tell the region’s stories throughout his career, including as a former reporter for The Roanoke Times, as a marketer, and now as host of the Blue Ridge PBS TV show “Buzz.” The show’s focus is on nonprofit groups in the Roanoke and New River Valley regions and the good they’re accomplishing. Hemphill also started Buzz4Good, a pro bono marketing company that helps attract volunteers and donors to nonprofit organizations. Outside of work, Hemphill enjoys traveling, and in 2015 he followed the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada, catching soccer matches across 8,000 miles and five time zones.

Read all about it here.