The Latest

Walking the Talk: SC hosts Weight Watchers at Work

At high noon every Monday since mid-December, StoneArch Creative has been actively demonstrating our mission of promoting healthy initiatives by hosting a Weight Watchers at Work meeting for our employees and employees of companies in our Mill Ruins Building. For many of the participants, their efforts have been successful. 

Most people thought it was crazy to start our meetings right before the holidays, but it turned out to be an effective strategy. People were able to enjoy holiday gatherings without over-indulging, and had a head-start on their weight loss goals when New Year’s Resolution time rolled around in January.

The Weight Watchers at Work program requires a commitment of 15 participants. Weight Watchers sends a trained facilitator to run the meetings, which function like the meetings you can attend in your neighborhood. A half hour before the meeting begins, participants have a confidential weigh-in with the facilitator, and then participate in a half hour support meeting.
With spring and summer just around the corner, we’re looking forward to reinstating our Walking Group as well as the Weight Watchers program. If you’re in the StoneArch Creative neighborhood and would like to join our High Noon meetings on Mondays, contact me at nbelusky@stonearchcreative.com.

Dakota County Technical College Scores Big

The schoolhouse definitely rocked in StoneArch Creative’s recent collaboration with Dakota County Technical College located in Rosemount, Minnesota.  Go to http://www.dctc.edu to see the 57 videos we worked with them to produce in an effort to communicate and promote DCTC’s programs and services to prospective students.

Recently, we were extremely pleased and proud to learn that DCTC is a finalist in six different categories of the National Council for Marketing and Public Relations Paragon Awards.  Two of the categories have entries that feature StoneArch Creative video work. This was an extremely fulfilling long term project that allowed us to really get to know DCTC students and faculty—it’s great to see them get this recognition.

Being finalists in six different categories is a tremendous accomplishment for DCTC. There were over 1,700 entries in this annual competition that recognizes excellence in communications exclusively among two-year colleges across the country.  According to DCTC’s Director of Marketing & Communications Erin Edlund, “the fact that tiny DCTC is walking away with anywhere from 6-10 national awards will definitely not go unnoticed.  As a rule, the big guns with student populations of 25,000+ and budgets eight times the size of ours usually only walk away with a max of three.”

The awards will be announced at the NCMPR National Conference Paragon celebration on March 16 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  We can’t wait to learn the final results. Good luck DCTC and go Blue Knights!

Care Enough to Recommend CaringBridge

StoneArch Creative is teaming up with CaringBridge, a unique service that offers extraordinary support when people need it most. It helps family and friends connect by creating their own, free, personalized website during a serious health event, during long term care or during recovery. The numbers show its’ spread and popularity since its inception in 1987. Over a billion people world-wide have visited CaringBridge sites and over 20 million families have created a CaringBridge site.

CaringBridge wishes to help every family in need of their service. They have teamed up with us to develop a marketing program that will inspire hospital personnel and health care providers to recommend CaringBridge to patients and patient families experiencing a serious health matter. Surveys have shown that families appreciate when they are introduced to CaringBridge by caregivers, and that many feel the support they found in CaringBridge aided physical and emotional healing. Mike Stadelman, Director of Marketing and Communications at CaringBridge told me they chose StoneArch because of our “intimate knowledge of healthcare.” We consider it an absolute honor to be helping such a great organization and meaningful cause.

Many of us StoneArcher’s have experienced CaringBridge as a result of a friend or a loved one being hospitalized. One of our staff’s family used CaringBridge when her niece was diagnosed with retinoblastoma, and she and her family found it to be indispensible.  Her family easily stayed connected when travel was necessary for treatment, and they stay connected through CaringBridge with the many families they met experiencing similar illnesses.

If you are like me and savor stories, at this time of year in particular, of an act of kindness sparking ingenuity, read how CaringBridge got its start. And if you or someone you know, need to stay connected during a serious health event, I recommend CaringBridge.

The pigs win!

Thanks to everyone who helped us decide what animals to send packing this holiday season.  We had a great response to our email and holiday card asking clients and friends to help us help Heifer International.  It is a great organization that is dedicated to ending hunger and poverty through gifts of livestock and training. Given a choice between pigs, llamas, chickens and cows, we were told to send on the pigs! Llamas and cows were a close second with the lowly chicken pecking their way to a distant forth. Thanks again for your participation. And if you haven’t checked out Heifer International, I encourage you to take a look.