Turn it off. Shut it down. Hear the silence that is North Carolina.

Live Oak Communications crafted the statewide event, Campout! Carolina, on behalf of Earth Share of North Carolina, a non-profit network of regional environmental organizations.

The campaign began its stages of implementation before classes started in August. The ESNC team is comprised of account team leader senior Nikki Allem and account executives junior Kelsey Bryant, seniors Rachel Cruise and Kelly Soth and sophomore Jenny Cupero. They are a portion of the students who are involved in the student-run integrated communications agency, Live Oak Communications.

With the purpose of celebrating and showing support for North Carolina’s environment, participants are encouraged to pitch a tent in their backyard or favorite North Carolina campsite, turn off or unplug non-essential electrical items and enjoy an evening outdoors with family and friends on Oct. 19.

“The environment is something that affects everyone in North Carolina,” said Heather Beard, director of ESNC. “Campout! Carolina is a fun way to come together and share our support for this beautiful state.”

The Campout! Carolina campaign was originally thought up by students in Assistant Professor of Communications Lee Bush’s spring 2007 Corporate Campaigns class, and ESNC chose the campout campaign as the one to go into effect this fall.

“I am floored by how quickly this all came together. This campaign is a great example of the dedication a student-run communications agency can show,” Allem said.

Media relations efforts include virtually every North Carolina newspaper, television station, radio station, community newspaper and community public that the group could imagine— but there were still more people to reach.

“A large portion of our campaign is via ‘viral marketing’ or ‘word-of-mouth,’” Allem said. “We are spreading e-mails throughout the state to our friends, neighbors and relatives.”

Cinelon, Elon’s student film society, joined the effort and created a public service announcement for Campout! Carolina last weekend at the home of Assistant Professor of Communications Peter Kiwitt’s house. The video will debut on YouTube soon.

The team utilized in-class learning to create the various levels of their campaign. Other skills, however, were needed from outside sources, like Web design.

“The School of Communications faculty have been a great help, but the one person who stands out is Michael Shepherd, the Apple systems engineer. We are indebted to Mr. Shepherd: he has been such a great help and a great friend to us at the agency,” Allem said.

As the event date nears, team members are looking forward to watching the results of their campaign unfold.

“Despite the fact that we are full-time students with a variety of extracurricular activities under out belts, my team and the rest of the agency have pulled together to get things done on deadline, and I am so proud of them,” Allem said.

Founded in 1991, Earth Share of North Carolina has raised more than $5.5 million to protect North Carolina’s environment through workplace giving campaigns, and has educated residents on the value of protecting North Carolina’s natural resources through environmental non-profit organizations.

Earth Share of North Carolina will get an accurate tally of campers via a database and will also estimate the amount of energy potentially saved across the state.

The Earth Share of North Carolina team calls on Elon students to participate in the event. Next Friday, shut off all electrical equipment, unplug cell phones and laptop chargers and switch off the lights. Head over to the nearest REI location in Greensboro to receive a free tent and pitch it where you please—the back yard or a favorite camping spot like Pilot Mountain. Enjoy the outdoors free of man-made energy and help preserve the environment at the same time.

Visit the organization’s Web site, www.campoutcarolina.org, for additional information.

Features Editor: Caroline Matthews - 10/10/07