ENGL 380 – Jingle Bell Run/Walk Article

Walking through the Webb Center at Old Dominion University during activity hour you’re always guaranteed to find something interesting going on, but with the jingle of jingle bells everyone is drawn to one table.  At the table several students are handing out pizza, flyers, and candy canes.  There is also a laptop on the table where Facebook’s homepage is open.  What could all of this be about?

Flyer that students were asked to post a picture to Facebook or Instagram

It turns out to be a group of students gathering volunteers and participants for the upcoming Jingle Bell Run/Walk for Arthritis.  During the activity hour students from English 381, which is a Public Relations course offered at Old Dominion, were asking students to use different forms of social media to promote the event.  Students were asked to post a picture of the flyer to Facebook or Instagram or students could post a tweet to Twitter about the event.  If the students shared the event using one of the forms of social media they were rewarded with a free slice of pizza.  Was the bribe of free pizza effective?  According to Aleasa Whitaker she thought it was “really effective that we had free pizza.”  Aleasa Whitaker said they had purchased some 96 slices of pizza and all were gone by the end of activity hour.  Therefore the event was shared at least 96 times by using social media.

Arthritis Foundation flyer

The event has been hosted by Old Dominion for the past few years and helps to gain awareness and money to help fight arthritis.  Old Dominion partners up with the Arthritis Foundation to host the run/walk on campus during the end of the year.  The Arthritis Foundation works to research for treatment, risk factors, and new sciences to improve the lives of people who suffer.  The foundation also works to change the lives of people affected and works to get more funding from the government.

 

The event is this Saturday, December 1.  The Reindeer Run starts at 7:30am followed by the 5k Chip-timed Run at 8:00am and the 3k Walk at 8:15am.  Be sure to wear your holiday gear and be full of holiday cheer!

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *