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More buzz for BUZZ in Roanoke Times 713 447 Michael Hemphill

More buzz for BUZZ in Roanoke Times

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.

Episode 21 features Brain Injury Services of Southwest Virginia 900 507 Michael Hemphill

Episode 21 features Brain Injury Services of Southwest Virginia


As originally broadcast June 29, 2022, on Blue Ridge PBS …

In 1997, 10-year-old Jason Rooker accidentally hung himself while playing in his front yard. The brain injury he suffered would eventually take his life … and inspire his parents to found a nonprofit to help other New River Valley families struggling with such tragedies: Brain Injury Services of Southwest Virginia.

But over the years BISSWVA has grown beyond the NRV to provide resources to 11,000 square miles of Virginia, from Martinsville and Lynchburg to Alleghany and Lee County. And the unwieldiness of the name can be a mouthful to say and difficult for clients to remember.

In this episode, we feature the emotional stories of individuals and families whose lives have been challenged by brain injury.

And we are thrilled to welcome back to BUZZ marketing specialist Wordsprint, which helped rebrand Mill Mountain Zoo and Eastmont Community Foundation in previous episodes.

We thank these individuals and businesses for providing the sponsorship support for this episode:

Buzz4Good Radio Hour talks Gun Control Nonprofits 1024 617 Michael Hemphill

Buzz4Good Radio Hour talks Gun Control Nonprofits

As a professor in Norris Hall, Catherine Koebel’s father would have been a victim of Virginia Tech’s 2007 mass shooting had his class started an hour earlier. Brenda Hale wasn’t as lucky: when she was a little girl, her father fatally shot her mother.

Now both have teamed up to launch an aspiring nonprofit – Groceries Not Guns – that seeks to stem this cycle of death one household at a time. Groceries Not Guns, along with the Roanoke chapter of the NAACP and Roanoke Quaker Meeting, is coordinating a buyback on June 25.  

While mass shootings like the tragedy in Uvalde, Texas receive a lot of media attention, they comprise just a fraction of the 45,000+ gun deaths – suicides, inner city homicides and accidental shootings – occurring each year in our country.

Such killings are just part of living in the United States.

Listen to BUZZ creator Michael Hemphill‘s conversation with the leaders of these organizations.

Also in this episode … a sneak peek at an upcoming BUZZ TV show episode featuring Brain Injury Services of Southwest Virginia.

Are you a nonprofit with an event that we could help promote? Or a marketing problem we could help fix? Contact us and we’ll share on an upcoming episode.

Watch Party June 8 for GIVE Roanoke episode of BUZZ 900 506 Michael Hemphill

Watch Party June 8 for GIVE Roanoke episode of BUZZ

Watch Party on July 27

Name

As originally broadcast May 18, 2022, on Blue Ridge PBS …

Free HIV testing, delivering food and comfort to Covid-positive homeless individuals, coordinating the statewide 211 Virginia call center, founding Total Action for Progress, RADAR, and the Community Foundation Serving Western Virginia — these are just a few of the programs that the Council of Community Services has provided over the last 60 years. 

In April 2022, CCS embarked on its newest venture by hosting “GIVE Roanoke,” a day of philanthropic giving for more than 100 nonprofits throughout the Roanoke Valley. BUZZ invited Freedom First and Lamar Advertising to provide some needed, well, buzz for the 24-hour online event, which ended up raising more than $300,000. 

BUZZ and CCS invites the community to attend our free Watch Party on June 8 at 6 pm at the Grandin Theatre where GIVE Roanoke prizes will be awarded.

“12 Buzz4Goods” Song 900 506 Michael Hemphill

“12 Buzz4Goods” Song

Here on the 12th day of Christmas, BUZZ creator Michael Hemphill presents his “12 Buzz4Goods” song!

Here we look back on the 12 nonprofits that have been featured on BUZZ since our debut in August 2020 on Blue Ridge PBS. We also thank our sponsors and the marketing pros who gave these organizations more “buzz.”

And we look ahead to an exciting 2022!

  1. Southwest Virginia Ballet & Carrie Cousins
  2. Healing Strides & 5Points Creative
  3. Mill Mountain Zoo & Wordsprint
  4. RAM House & Wheeler Digital
  5. Eastmont Community Foundation & Wordsprint
  6. Feeding Southwest Virginia & Access
  7. Virginia811 & Carrie Cousins
  8. Giles County & 5Points Creative
  9. Blue Ridge Women’s Center & Wheeler Digital
  10. Christiansburg Institute & Soectrum Media Solutions
  11. Children’s Assistive Technology Service & 5Points Creative
  12. Habitat for Humanity of the New River Valley & 5Points Creative