Trio Solutions is proud to be kicking off our annual CreateAthon project to benefit some of the Lowcountry’s most important nonprofits. We will be offering free marketing services to five local organizations who have little or no marketing budgets during a 24-hour, work around-the-clock creative blitz. This year’s projects include two Web sites, one logo, one communications plan and the design of a fundraising coupon book. All hands are on deck and we’re ready roll!

Check us out on ABC News 4!

Congratulations to the 2008 CreateAthon beneficiaries:

Camp Good Times
Coastal Crisis Chaplaincy
Family Resource Center for Disabilities and Special Needs
Fields to Families
Lowcountry Environmental Education Programs (LEEP)

And many thanks to the 2008 CreateAthon team:

Brad Caricofe
Jennifer Cherock
Brian Dadin
Jordan Freeman
Roxanne Hicks
Nancy Lyons
Jessica Munday
The Cultigraphic Girls!

The Trio team is thrilled be supporting such worthwhile causes and we can’t wait to see what we come up with throughout the day and night!

Everyone at Trio is very excited to announce that this week we are gearing up for CreateAthon. In anticipation of the event we wanted to make everyone aware that Trio Solutions Inc. will be closed on Thursday and Friday, September 18 & 19 for CreateAthon 2008. During this time we will be providing free marketing services to five area nonprofits as part of our annual CreateAthon, 24-hour, work-around-the-clock creative blitz. This year’s recipients include Camp Good Times, Coastal Crisis Chaplaincy, Family Resource Center for Disabilities and Special Needs, Fields to Families and Lowcountry Environmental Education Programs (LEEP). If you have an urgent need during this time, please feel free to let us know, however if you have a non-urgent matter we will be available on Monday, September 22. Be sure to follow our creative blitz progress on our blog. We would also like to give special thanks to our creative partners, who have graciously agreed to donate their services to our CreateAthon recipients - Kristen and Catherine at Cultigraphics, Brian Dadin and Brad Caricofe.
 

Jessica Munday, president and founder of Trio Solutions Inc, is celebrating the birth of her third child, a beautiful boy named Hudson James. Hudson was born on September 8 just before midnight. Jessica was happy to announce that he has all ten fingers and ten toes, and weighed in at a healthy 8 pounds, 14 ounces. Everyone at Trio sends a big ‘congratulations’ to Jessica and her family!

May 12, 2008 marked the beginning of another postage increase through the United States Postal Service. Across the board on all postage the increase was over 2%. Of course this will have a slight effect on direct mailing efforts. Trio Solutions has a mix of for profit and nonprofit clients with both types of clients relying on direct mail efforts to get their message out to the public. Keep in mind, that direct mail is a relatively inexpensive way to advertise, even after the increase in postage. With the growth of the Internet and Web based services many individuals and companies strive to be as “paper-less” as possible. In the past this has caused the USPS to cut back on cost and raise rates. It is very likely that the postage rates will continue to increase over time. On a good note, they are allowed to increase the rate only once per year and are required to give a 90-day notice to the public. Remember that direct mail remains an effective and cost-wise way to advertise, postage increase or not…

NOTE: If you have nonprofit status make sure you are a registered nonprofit organization through the USPS. It could save you a significant amount on postage when doing direct mailings.

A few weeks ago I had an amazing opportunity. I had a chance to watch my autistic son surf. OK, maybe not by himself, but on a long board with a professional surfer. This was all made possible through a wonderful nonprofit organization, Surfer’s Healing.

It is very challenging to have a child with special needs. Fortunately, my son is high functioning so he does get to participate in a lot of the same activities as a normally developing child. I do know from being involved and working with other children with special needs that this is many times not the case.

What I witnessed on August 12 at Folly Beach was truly fantastic. I arrived late in the day but enjoyed seeing many children and adults enjoy themselves thoroughly. It was amazing to see the turn out of volunteers in the Charleston area. People were so warm, friendly and eager to help.

My own son who has many phobias, one of which is deep water, wanted me to buy him his own surfboard after he finished surfing. It was also wonderful to see a child (my child) that has many sensory issues not whine and complain about having to go home with sand all over his feet. I do believe the experience was therapeutic for him and many others.

The event itself was extremely organized and accommodating to all. I do hope they come back to Folly Beach again next year, but if they do not I believe we are going to take a road trip to their closest camp.

I am attaching the video I took of Jacob surfing. Notice that he asks to go again. Did I mention that he was scared to go at first, even telling me when I signed him up for the camp that he would NOT go? Congratulations to Jacob (my son) for being scared and doing it anyway. Lastly, “Thank You” to Surfer’s Healing and the sponsors of the camp which made it possible for over 50 children with Autism to surf and enjoy the beach for the day!

Trio Solutions Inc. is happy that Jordan Freeman joined our team. Jordan is a recent graduate of NC State University (but we aren’t holding that against her) and will be working on our Nonprofit Nook Web site as well as a variety of other marketing projects during her time with Trio.

Well, after much deliberation, we have selected the winners for this year’s CreatAthon! It was a tough decision considering all of the worthwhile nonprofits in the area but we finally narrowed it down to five groups that we’re thrilled to be working with!

The organizations selected as CreatAthon recipients this year include:

• Camp Good Times
• Coastal Crisis Chaplaincy
• Family Resource Center for Disabilities and Special Needs
• Fields to Families
• Lowcountry Environmental Education Programs (LEEP)

The five beneficiaries will receive free marketing services provided by Trio during a 24-hour, work around-the-clock effort designed to help local nonprofits with little or no marketing budgets. The staff at Trio, along with a few generous vendors and freelancers will lock ourselves in the office starting at 8 a.m. on Thursday, September 18, and work all day and through the night until Friday morning at 8 a.m. It’s a creative extravaganza - lots of work, fun, and what we value the most…giving back to the community!

Trio Solutions - working hard, enjoying life, and making a difference. You know how we do!

Trio recently joined the world of Twitter. With Facebook updates, and now Twitter, it appears that society really wants to know our business. Gone are the days of being private and keeping to yourself. I’m very interested to watch how Twitter transforms the marketing communication industry. For those of you still wondering what the buzz is all about, I recommend you check out my friend, Lee Lefever’s video about Twitter. He and his lovely wife do a great job of producing educational video about things that are oftentimes complex and difficult to understand. Their specialty? They explain it in plain English.

No one can avoid the subject with all the media attention. However, most of us live in a dream world and think things like foreclosure will never affect us. Well, it’s time to wake up. The national housing crisis is real and very close to home.

Sunday the Charleston Post and Courier reported on foreclosure statistics in the Tri-County area. They were staggering! Charleston County had 451 foreclosure filings for the 2nd quarter of the year and Berkeley County had 225 for the same period. That’s a 59 percent increase from the same quarter last year. Dorchester County experienced a 73 percent increase from last year and even areas like Mount Pleasant doubled with around 200 filings. No one is exempt from this crisis, Kiawah and Seabook islands had a dozen foreclosures. Up until this point I knew there was an issue, but didn’t realize my local community had been affected in such larger numbers.

Trio has been working with a nonprofit organization over the last few months to address the foreclosure issue.

Family Services Inc., based in Charleston, received a grant from the federal government at the end of 2007 to assist South Carolina residents with mortgage default counseling. By working with a homeowner and his or her lender to develop a reasonable action plan that offer relief to the borrower and help save these folks’ home.

Last year Family Services’ staff assisted more than 500 S.C. residents in foreclosure and was able to save more than 350 homes from foreclosure. Already this year, they have assisted more than 800 homeowners facing foreclosure throughout South Carolina.

The more people they can reach the more homes they can save. All of their services are free to anyone having financial difficulties.

On August 9 they will hold a statewide mortgage default clinic in Columbia at the Radisson Hotel on Bush River Road from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. It’s a one-day event where homeowners can meet with a HUD-approved counselor one-on-one to discuss their options.

I would urge South Carolina homeowners having trouble paying their mortgage, to attend this clinic or call 1-888-320-0350 to receive free foreclosure counseling. To learn more visit www.ForeclosureHelpforSC.org. The sooner a homeowner’s issues can be addressed the more likely they will have a positive outcome.

After coming across some interesting statistics about newspaper audiences from Journalism.org. I thought I would share one in particular that really stood out to me. Take a look at this graph of “Daily Newspaper Readership by Age Group.” This graph represents the percentage of individuals reading newspapers in an average week from 1999-2005 (editor’s note: in walks the Internet and Web 2.0).