For those of you following our Social Citizens Makeovers unfold, today we introduce you to Matt Chesney, 19, of Valrico, Florida.
Matt has been involved in the Little Red Wagon Foundation [2] since his younger brother Zach started it at the age of six. He says his now 11-year-old brother’s passion for helping underprivileged kids, and specifically homeless youth, is contagious.
After bringing attention to the cause and raising $25,000 by walking from Tampa to Tallahassee in 2007, Zach is planning a 625-mile-walk [3] from Atlanta to Washington, DC, this May to raise awareness around the more than 1.3 million homeless kids in the US. Matt says they hope to mobilize 1,000 kids to walk the last mile to the White House with them to draw attention to the country’s homeless youth.
This March, the Little Red Wagon Foundation will execute its fourth annual “Project 24 Hours [4],” a fundraiser and awareness event during which they organize Florida middle, high school, and college students to simulate a day in the life of a homeless youth.
Matt is already using Facebook, YouTube, email, and the Foundation’s website to reach others who might want to get involved by attending events, participating in campaigns, making donations or voting in contests. He hopes that a Social Citizens Makeover will help him share the inspiring story of his little brother’s Foundation with a greater number of people and allow them to make a difference for kids in need.
Watch this video [5] about the Little Red Wagon Foundation.
Comments
Wow, that's really inspiring to hear about a 6-year-old starting a charity organization! I checked out the Little Red Wagon Foundation's site and it looks great--Zach is doing an incredible job for someone so young! There's an organization that could really help them out, if they've never heard of it--The Jenzabar Foundation (http://www.jenzabar.net/about_jbar/Foundation.html [7]) awards students for their philanthropic efforts by helping to fund their projects. Zach and Matt have certainly done a lot for their young ages and deserve a little help to make sure they can keep up the great work! Good luck to Zach and Matt and their 625-mile walk! :)
Wow, that's really inspiring to hear about a 6-year-old starting a charity organization! I checked out the Little Red Wagon Foundation's site and it looks great--Zach is doing an incredible job for someone so young! There's an organization that could really help them out, if they've never heard of it--The Jenzabar Foundation (http://www.jenzabar.net/about_jbar/Foundation.html [7]) awards students for their philanthropic efforts by helping to fund their projects. Zach and Matt have certainly done a lot for their young ages and deserve a little help to make sure they can keep up the great work! Good luck to Zach and Matt and their 625-mile walk! :)
Hi Matt, Zach, and Laurie,
Congratulations on winning the Social Citizens Makeover contest. I have enjoyed working with you over the last few weeks to develop a few social media recommendations.
I have pasted below the plan we discussed on the most recent conference call. Please let me know what you think of this plan by adding a comment to this blog entry.
I'm suggesting we take a Twitter Centered approach to your makeover, specifically as it relates to your 625 mile walk to Washington DC.
Here's a list of Social Actions' social media recommendations.
- Create separate Twitter accounts for @mchesney, @lchesney, and @zchesney (assuming those are your last names for all three of you)
- Create additional accounts for @LittleRedWagon, @24HourProject, and @625MileWalk
- When tweeting about the two events, use the #hashtags #24hourproject and #625milewalk
- The goal is not to reach all of the people will participate in the walk through Twitter but to reach the people who will amplify your efforts in other settings (offline, on blogs, on social networks, in conversation)
- Overtime, you will build a tightly wound conversation with multiple real voices telling the story of what you're putting together
- The story will be very compelling
- From Twitter, you can direct people to YouTube videos, the Facebook Causes you have setup, and the WordPress blog
- Let's make sure the WordPress blog has the dialogue and feedback coming from Twitter
- Wherever possible, upload pictures and videos from the lead up to the events as well as the events themselves.
There are very few children have demonstrated Zach's commitment to helping other kids in need. Innovative use of Twitter will make the story all the more interesting. See you on Twitter.
Please let me know if you have any questions on how to setup the Twitter accounts I mentioned and how to start using them. We'll schedule a follow-up call for next week.
All the best,
Peter
Peter Deitz
Social Actions
@peterdeitz and @socialactions on Twitter