00:03 - So. Good afternoon, everyone.

00:05 - Nice to see everybody.

00:06 - Thank you for being here.

00:08 - Welcome to the fifth annual America EPA

00:12 - Direct Effect Innovation Challenge, presented in partnership

00:15 - with the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission and supported by UGA Utilities.

00:19 - If everyone would please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance,

00:24 - I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America,

00:29 - particular college for which stands for nation under God,

00:33 - indivisible, liberty.

00:36 - Thank you.

00:39 - So for those of you who may not know me, I'm Cassandra Coleman,

00:42 - and I have the honor of serving as the executive director of America EPA.

00:47 - And we are the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Commission

00:49 - that was charged with planning and coordinating all of the programing,

00:53 - projects and events around the 250th anniversary of the United States in 2026.

00:59 - And we are thrilled to say that we have over

01:00 - a dozen programs and projects launched right now statewide.

01:05 - The Direct Effect Innovation Challenge is one of those impactful programs

01:09 - where we issue a challenge to Pennsylvania college students to come up

01:14 - with an integrated marketing plan to address that challenge that year.

01:18 - This year's theme was Diverse Stories, Unique Communities.

01:22 - One Pennsylvania.

01:24 - We challenged students to develop

01:25 - integrated marketing campaigns that would showcase diverse stories

01:29 - and unique communities in the Commonwealth and aid America to EPA's mission

01:34 - to engage every Pennsylvanian in every county.

01:38 - We're so proud of each and every one of you

01:41 - as the students who have participated this year and all of the students

01:45 - who have entered the challenge over the last five years and participated.

01:50 - And we're here today with the top five teams,

01:52 - and we cannot wait to see their epic presentations.

01:56 - Before we get started, I just want to recognize

01:59 - some of the members of the American team that are here with us today.

02:03 - So we have our director of development, Chris Casey.

02:07 - We have our director

02:08 - of operations, Leo Wolski.

02:11 - We have our director of partnerships, Victoria Rogers.

02:14 - Everybody wave.

02:17 - We have our director of projects and programing, Brian Langan.

02:21 - We have our executive specialist, Ivan Soltero.

02:25 - We have our engagement coordinator and past

02:27 - EIC participant, Andre Castillo.

02:31 - And last but not least,

02:33 - your host for today's finals, and also a former D.C.

02:37 - participant from our first year in 2019,

02:40 - and now our current brand and design manager, Bree Ferrand.

02:46 - So let's give a round of applause for Bree, especially as she kicks off

02:50 - today's program

02:51 - and also for all of the work that she has put in to this year's challenge.

02:55 - Bree.

03:01 - All right.

03:02 - Thank you so much, Cassandra. And good afternoon, everyone.

03:04 - Welcome to the fifth annual Direct Effect Innovation Challenge.

03:08 - It's so hard to believe that just a few short years ago

03:11 - I was in your shoes as a student for the 2019

03:14 - DTIC for Point Parker University.

03:17 - It feels like ages ago,

03:18 - but it's great to see the progression of this challenge every year.

03:21 - I greatly remember the brainstorming sessions, the late night staying up,

03:25 - perfecting the pitch

03:26 - and of course the nerves,

03:28 - as I'm sure you are experiencing now, getting ready to showcase your

03:31 - your best selves and to put your best professional selves forward.

03:34 - But rest assured, while it is intimidating, I can promise you

03:37 - this is a really great experience, regardless of the outcome today. It's

03:42 - a great opportunity to learn teamwork, adaptability, communication and more.

03:49 - This opportunity has

03:50 - really brought forth so many other opportunities for me

03:53 - and got me to where I am today, working full time for the commission.

03:57 - It's also brought on folks like Andre who work full time.

04:00 - We've had part time, we've had interns.

04:02 - And the one thing I always like to mention is that our teams actually did not win.

04:07 - So it really goes to show you the opportunities that are available here

04:10 - if you really take advantage of them and really put your best foot forward.

04:14 - So with that, I wish you all the best of luck today.

04:17 - Show us what you're made of, but just make sure

04:18 - to have fun in the process and really enjoy this experience

04:21 - while you can network with the folks that are here.

04:24 - They're they're willing to give you as much, you know, guidance as possible.

04:28 - So with that, I'd like to jump into the program here.

04:31 - We have some special guests.

04:33 - Three of the eight total judges that we're going to bring on

04:35 - to share some remarks with you.

04:37 - The first is Michael Coren.

04:39 - Michael serves as an America to commissioner,

04:42 - as well as our Education and Innovation Subcommittee chair.

04:45 - He's also an attorney at Claire Harrison, Harvey Bransford LLP, where he serves

04:50 - as general counsel and is a member of the Executive Committee for the Firm.

04:54 - He concentrates his practice in the area of commercial litigation with particular

04:57 - emphasis in corporate and securities litigation, post acquisition disputes,

05:02 - intellectual property litigation, lender liability in business torts.

05:06 - He represents numerous regional and national businesses and litigation

05:09 - matters in federal and state courts.

05:11 - Thank you for joining us.

05:27 - Thank you very.

05:31 - Thank you, Cassandra.

05:32 - It's hard to believe

05:33 - that this is the fifth year of the DTIC and that I've participated

05:37 - in this competition in each of the last five years.

05:41 - I really believe that the DTIC

05:43 - has become one of our signature events

05:46 - and also that the DTIC meets

05:50 - all four of the elements

05:53 - of our slogan Epic,

05:57 - which stands for for Educate,

06:01 - Preserve, Innovate and celebrate.

06:05 - The DTIC educates the students who participate

06:08 - about Pennsylvania's diverse history, geography and culture.

06:13 - It preserves by leaving US

06:16 - marketing campaign that can be used now

06:19 - and in the future to promote Pennsylvania.

06:22 - It leads to innovation because the competition attracts

06:26 - new ideas from college students throughout the Commonwealth.

06:30 - And finally, the DTIC celebrates Pennsylvania.

06:33 - That's after all, what this is all about.

06:37 - Generating ideas and marketing approaches

06:40 - that will promote Pennsylvania's past, present and future.

06:45 - So good luck to everyone and enjoy the competition.

06:48 - Thank you.

06:56 - Thank you very much, Michael.

06:58 - Next up, we have Kelly Roberts from our presenting partners,

07:00 - the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission.

07:02 - Kelly currently serves as chief strategy and communications

07:05 - officer of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission,

07:07 - where she provides strategic direction and communications leadership.

07:10 - She previously held the position of Director of Policy and External Affairs,

07:14 - providing leadership on initiatives of strategic importance,

07:16 - such as the conversion to all electronic tolling.

07:19 - The Commission has long range planning efforts known as Reimagining the Turnpike

07:23 - Projects to rebuild the Commission's customer service technologies

07:26 - and continued efforts to build and maintain

07:28 - maintain relationships in local communities.

07:30 - Thank you for joining us.

07:38 - Thank you, Barry.

07:40 - I want to say thank you for allowing

07:42 - the Pennsylvania Turnpike to be a part of this incredible event.

07:46 - This is the first year that we're the presenting sponsor.

07:48 - So we had the opportunity to be part of coming up with this phenomenal challenge

07:52 - that was put before you, one that is so critical to the Commonwealth,

07:56 - to the future of America, to 50, to make sure that we're engaging

08:00 - everyone that is here

08:02 - and throughout the country and making sure they have access to all the programs

08:06 - and all of the fun that will come along with the celebration.

08:09 - So I want to say on behalf of my chief executive officer,

08:13 - Mark Compton, good luck.

08:15 - Congratulations for making it this far.

08:18 - I'm I'm sure we have some really great things to see today,

08:21 - and I'm sure for some of you, it's a little bit of a unexpected partnership

08:25 - between the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission,

08:27 - which most people think of as a strip of roadway that goes through the Commonwealth

08:31 - and the DTIC.

08:34 - But really at the Pennsylvania Turnpike core,

08:37 - the people that work there and devote themselves to that organization

08:40 - have the same values as this wonderful challenge does.

08:44 - Innovation is something

08:45 - that's a part of what we do every day, and that's not just in technology

08:50 - or in transportation, but it's in how we support our staff.

08:54 - And it's about how we look at the world and how we make sure that we play

08:57 - a really significant role in getting people where they want to go,

09:01 - getting goods and services across the Commonwealth and making sure

09:04 - that the Commonwealth itself is successful and has a great place

09:08 - in the entire national economy that we're all a part of.

09:12 - And then, of course,

09:15 - there's the youth and the young

09:17 - who are involved in this amazing challenge.

09:19 - We are 100% dedicated in our organization as well as outside,

09:24 - to making sure that we support the youth of the Commonwealth.

09:29 - As you come up through the ranks and as you make choices and careers

09:32 - and what you're going to dedicate yourself to.

09:34 - We want to make sure that transportation technology

09:38 - and when the two come together,

09:40 - are open and accessible no matter your gender, your background.

09:44 - We want to make sure that everyone has a seat at our table.

09:48 - And so while a lot of times innovation in this challenge takes all different

09:53 - all different forms, we really felt this year it was important that we talk

09:56 - about the innovation that comes from diversity and diverse thought.

10:00 - And so we're incredibly proud to be a part of this this undertaking.

10:05 - We're really excited to be able to help set some of the

10:08 - the path for it in the next three years, three more years.

10:12 - And so we're super excited and we're really thankful to be a part of this.

10:15 - Thank you again for having us. Good luck.

10:18 - As Bree

10:19 - mentioned, I've worked in communications my whole life

10:21 - and I'm still a little nervous being up here, so don't feel bad.

10:24 - If you're nervous, take a deep breath and I'm sure you're all going to do amazing.

10:27 - So thank you again for having us.

10:35 - Thank you, Kelly.

10:36 - We appreciate it.

10:38 - Next up, we have Donald Minsky from UGA Utilities Inc.

10:41 - Don grew up in Music P.A.

10:43 - and is now in his third year of employment with UGA Utilities.

10:46 - Currently the director of business development as well as the spokesperson

10:49 - in this role, he oversees a team of sales representatives responsible

10:53 - for providing natural gas service to new customers, as well as servicing

10:56 - existing residential, commercial and industrial natural gas users.

11:00 - He attended Lehigh University in Bethlehem, P.A., and graduated with a B.S.

11:04 - in electrical engineering.

11:05 - Thanks for joining us, Don.

11:11 - Thank you, Bree.

11:12 - UGL Utilities is proud to be a sponsor of America 250 EPA

11:16 - and specifically the Direct Effect Innovation Challenge.

11:21 - You know, being a utility, we're in the homes of over 700,000

11:25 - Pennsylvanians and we know the importance of community.

11:30 - So I'm just the lucky person that works for you, guy

11:33 - that gets to come and represent us at events like this.

11:37 - And I'm so excited for the students and I can't wait to see what you have to

11:41 - in store for us.

11:42 - And I'm happy to be a judge. And thank you for having me.

11:45 - Appreciate it.

11:53 - All right.

11:53 - Now with that, I'd love to introduce you to the rest of our judging panel today.

11:57 - To the left here we have Lieutenant Lori Kissel.

12:00 - Lieutenant Lori Kessler is a native of Downingtown, Chester

12:02 - County, Pennsylvania, and enlisted in the state police in 2009, currently,

12:07 - Lieutenant Kissel was the Community Affairs Section commander in the Office

12:10 - of Community Community Engagement with the Pennsylvania State Police.

12:13 - Her team of 17 troopers and corporals serve

12:15 - all 67 counties across the Commonwealth, working with minority groups,

12:19 - mental health advocacy groups and others who support improving relationships

12:22 - with their communities.

12:23 - Lieutenant Kissell graduated from West Chester University

12:26 - with a bachelor's degree in criminal justice.

12:28 - Prior to applying to the Pennsylvania State Police,

12:31 - Lieutenant Kissel also holds a master's level

12:33 - certification in addiction studies from Immaculata University.

12:36 - Thanks for joining us.

12:38 - Next, we have Luke Bernstein, Lucas, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania

12:42 - Chamber of Business, an industry

12:43 - representing nearly 50% of the private workforce in the Commonwealth.

12:47 - He was previously senior vice president of external affairs with the Pennsylvania

12:51 - excuse me Pennsylvania Bankers Association

12:54 - from 2015 to 2017, and deputy chief of staff

12:57 - for former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett from 2011 to 2015.

13:02 - In addition to his executive leadership roles in the private sector

13:05 - and state government, Luke has experience working at the federal level as a former

13:08 - appointed advisor in the administration of President George W Bush

13:12 - and as an aide in the US Senate.

13:14 - He holds a bachelor's degree in political science and policy studies

13:17 - from Dickinson College, where he also served as adjunct professor.

13:20 - Thanks.

13:22 - Next we have Catherine Clements Jenkins

13:24 - MHR M p h r s h r m ACP.

13:28 - She who's a dedicated practitioner who is deeply committed

13:31 - to the work of equity, equity and inclusion.

13:34 - She's the co-founder of the Pennsylvania Turnpike

13:37 - Turnpike Commission's Women's Network, committed to addressing work life

13:40 - balance, professional development and gender equity within the workplace.

13:44 - Ms.. Clemence Jenkins obtained

13:46 - a master of human resource management from Saint Francis University

13:49 - and a Bachelor of Humanities degree from Pennsylvania State University.

13:53 - She holds certification in diversity and inclusion from Cornell University.

13:57 - Thank you for joining us.

13:58 - Again, we have Attorney Michael Korn with us today.

14:02 - Next, we have State Representative Valerie Gaydos,

14:05 - who has been a leader in fighting to make government more efficient,

14:08 - transparent and accountable to the citizens of the Commonwealth.

14:11 - She was elected to serve her third term

14:12 - in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in November 2022

14:15 - and will continue to be committed to putting her experience

14:18 - from the private sector to work to help grow the state's economy and improve

14:21 - opportunities for employers and employees across the Commonwealth.

14:24 - Prior to getting elected, she was the first woman

14:26 - president of the Pennsylvania Angel Network.

14:28 - She also serves as an America commissioner.

14:31 - Thanks for joining us again.

14:33 - We have Don Verbinski from Eugenia Utilities

14:36 - and Kelly Roberts from Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission.

14:39 - And lastly, but certainly

14:41 - not least, we have Denise Dennis, a seventh generation Pennsylvanian

14:45 - who is founding president and CEO of the Dennis Farm Charitable Land Trust.

14:49 - She's also the author of four books, including Bristol, Bud Samson,

14:53 - Patriot of the American Revolution, Black History for Beginners

14:57 - in a Century of Greatness,

14:58 - Outstanding African-American Philadelphians of the 20th Century.

15:01 - Ms.. Dennis is an alumna of Sport for College as well.

15:05 - So we'd really like to extend our sincere thank you.

15:08 - Thank you to all of you for joining us today.

15:10 - We really value your feedback and students really gain a lot from your

15:13 - your feedback as well.

15:14 - So if you wouldn't mind just a short round of applause for others

15:17 - today.

15:21 - And from there, I just would like to jump into really the formatting

15:24 - of today's presentations and kind of get the show on the road here. So,

15:28 - Andrea, with the next slide.

15:30 - Perfect.

15:32 - So each team today will present for 7 minutes,

15:36 - just a little bit of housekeeping.

15:37 - So once your team starts speaking, a member of our staff will begin

15:40 - the timer.

15:41 - When you have 30 seconds remaining, you're going to hear this sound

15:45 - great.

15:46 - And when you've reached 7 minutes, you'll hear this

15:50 - perfect.

15:51 - Thanks to

15:53 - our faculty member mentors.

15:55 - Once your team is called to the stage, please

15:59 - join Andre in the back to help with progressing the slides if needed.

16:02 - Teams When you are called to the stage, if you have any handouts for the judges,

16:05 - this is one.

16:06 - Go hand them out to the row of the second row there

16:09 - and then join your team on stage.

16:12 - Once your presentation is ended, the judging panel will ask you one question.

16:16 - Judges have been paired up.

16:17 - Judges, you were briefed on how that process works.

16:19 - But again, will reiterate as teams come up, you'll have one minute

16:24 - to respond to these questions and you will get and hear the bell once

16:27 - at the conclusion of your time for the one minute.

16:30 - Well, then have about a five minute intermission

16:32 - between every presentation so judges can finalize their rubrics.

16:36 - And at this time we'll be sharing some videos

16:38 - featuring some of our programing, projects and events from America to 50.

16:42 - So once all teams have presented, we'll have a short intermission to tally

16:46 - the final scores and then we'll move into our award ceremony from there.

16:50 - So with that, I think we're ready to jump into the team presentations.

16:54 - So first team up that we're going to presenting today is Kings College.

16:58 - So team, feel free to jump off.

17:31 - All right.

17:31 - Good afternoon, everyone.

17:32 - We are representing Kings College today and this is our EIC project.

17:35 - I'm right. Adams Wolski.

17:37 - I'm Jack Wilson, and I'm Julie Tang and our professor.

17:39 - Guiding us today is Dr. Amy Parsons.

17:42 - We chose National Pennsylvania Day for our DC project.

17:45 - However, we took a different approach to this America 250 M event.

17:50 - On today's agenda, we'll talk about our campaign and the goals of the campaign,

17:54 - our marketing channels with our target audience.

17:56 - We'll also showcase media examples of our campaign,

18:00 - then discuss about our key performance indicators, our scale budget

18:03 - breakdown, and with our campaign schedule leading up to the event

18:09 - for our integrated

18:10 - campaign, we created this image

18:14 - as a representation of all people in Pennsylvania.

18:16 - The key to motivating Pennsylvanians will be all ages, all backgrounds,

18:20 - to a healthier and better Pennsylvania,

18:22 - a healthy mentality and a healthy mind is a better mind,

18:25 - and we want that to resonate with our fellow Pennsylvanians.

18:28 - We want them to go above and beyond what is expected of them and to do better

18:32 - for their communities regardless of their age and their backgrounds.

18:35 - The reason for this is through our conducted research, we have found

18:37 - that volunteer work reduces stress and increases positive feelings.

18:41 - Many volunteers have said that

18:42 - it brings forth a sense of belonging, meaning and appreciation.

18:47 - So our first campaign goal was to follow mission and purpose.

18:50 - America hopes to engage all citizens of the Commonwealth

18:53 - so they can understand the origins of Pennsylvania better.

18:55 - This can encourage and inspire future leaders and let them appreciate

18:58 - everything our former Pennsylvania leaders have done for our great state.

19:02 - Our second campaign goal was to encourage participation to create a lasting impact.

19:05 - This is a show from our example from home page dot

19:07 - com where $20,000 were issued across 11 projects last year.

19:12 - National Pennsylvania is all about giving back to one another

19:15 - and to make our to make our state better.

19:17 - And many communities have contributed products that raise sufficient money

19:20 - and make Pennsylvania a better place to live.

19:22 - Our third campaign goal is to reach a diverse

19:24 - community of Pennsylvanians through our platforms impact and recognize

19:28 - doing things like visiting historic site or sharing a famous gem.

19:32 - Hidden gem.

19:33 - Our great ways to commemorate how great our state is and doing things.

19:36 - These things spreads unity throughout the state, allowing everyone

19:39 - to participate in this.

19:42 - So for our marketing channels, we've gone with the print media, digital media

19:46 - and social media, and our target audience is now around 90 civic ages.

19:50 - We are trying to incorporate all age groups in Pennsylvania

19:53 - that is showing our print media to target our older demographic and digital

19:57 - and social media to target our other age demographics pride initiative.

20:00 - We have a predominantly white population in Pennsylvania.

20:02 - We are trying to emphasize more engagement in the African-American, Hispanic,

20:06 - Latino and Asian communities, to name a few.

20:12 - So here are a few examples of how our social media post and paper ads

20:16 - would look leading up to July 20th, which is, of course, Pennsylvania Day

20:21 - and the top right here, we have an example of, let's say, an Instagram post

20:24 - where we would showcase real people of Pennsylvania

20:27 - and how it all kinds of different people every week

20:29 - we would call them saying why they like or love Pennsylvania

20:32 - and that they will themselves be attending Pay Day.

20:35 - In the bottom right corner.

20:36 - We have another example of a social media post where we would be

20:40 - encouraging them to follow the link and to sign up for pay day

20:43 - along with learning how they can help and volunteer in the state

20:46 - and the bottom left.

20:47 - We have a mockup of a newspaper ad that we have aimed

20:49 - towards our older demographic, showcasing more of the historical

20:52 - and reminding people reading the paper of what

20:54 - and when pay day is and how important it is to the community

20:58 - and the top left.

20:59 - We have an example of an ad for selected websites

21:01 - that will guide them

21:02 - back to our own website, where they can learn more about Pay Day.

21:05 - And then all of these posts are aimed

21:06 - to be inclusive of all ages and all ethnicities.

21:10 - And here we have an example of a poster that we created

21:14 - for this campaign that would be displayed in colleges, schools and local businesses

21:18 - that we'd be partnering with to attract our younger demographic.

21:22 - And here's an example of how this poster would be displayed at school.

21:26 - Our KPI is we would use to evaluate our campaign as website

21:29 - visitors and social media engagement for website visitors.

21:33 - We're looking to monitor the website traffic of the Campaign

21:36 - for Digital and Social Media.

21:38 - We'll have a link strictly for these media channels, whereas our print media

21:42 - will utilize unique URLs and QR codes that will allow us to track

21:47 - how many users are viewing from this media channel for social media engagement.

21:51 - We'll be tracking likes, comments and shares

21:54 - between all of our campaign content to see how

21:58 - well the campaign is performing and to see how well-received

22:01 - the campaign is for the citizens of PEI

22:04 - and utilize that feedback to improve on the campaign.

22:07 - Our most important KPI, however, will be event registration.

22:11 - This final KPI will determine how successful the overall campaign

22:15 - is by seeing how many participants register

22:19 - to participate in National Pennsylvanian Day and will give us a clear insight

22:22 - on how well the campaign was perceived by Pennsylvanians

22:29 - for our scaled budget of $15,000.

22:32 - We applied it to just northeastern Pennsylvania, where our print media

22:35 - would be $7,000 due to the sheer expense of posters and newspapers.

22:39 - Our digital media would cost 4000 to cover our website ads

22:43 - and our social media being the smallest at 2500.

22:46 - Because we believe at a smaller scale, it'd be quite easy to manage

22:49 - a social media

22:51 - coming out to a roughly $13,500 or so,

22:54 - just about a surplus of $1,500, which will first be used

22:58 - for calculated error, while the rest of it going towards

23:01 - grants to fund local products to serve our communities

23:04 - and then at a larger scale, let's say multiply roughly six times

23:07 - coming out to $100,000 budget, we would allocate roughly $55,000 to print

23:12 - to create more newspaper ads and posters for the numerous new businesses

23:16 - and schools.

23:16 - We'd have to reach out to $16,000 for digital marketing as we have to expand

23:20 - more websites and more areas online and 21,000 roughly for social media.

23:25 - I know what you're thinking.

23:26 - That was our smallest budget on a smaller scale, but at a larger scale.

23:29 - To maintain that level of a high social media platform

23:33 - in an entire state, we would have to include more of a budget

23:36 - leading us to $90,000, which, like the scaled budget,

23:40 - the surplus of $10,000 would be used first for calculated error.

23:43 - And the rest of this will go towards grants to serve all of Pennsylvania,

23:45 - not just for local communities

23:48 - and for our campaign schedule.

23:50 - We would begin in December as this would allow us to conduct market research here.

23:54 - We would be looking at the different counties of Pennsylvania to view what

23:58 - demographic to target and market to promote National Pennsylvania Day,

24:02 - as well as determine what media channels to utilize to promote the campaign.

24:06 - In February, we will be finalizing relations

24:10 - with selected marketing channels, such as partnering with colleges, schools

24:14 - and local businesses.

24:15 - As we had mentioned before,

24:16 - getting their approval to help promote the campaign around the Commonwealth

24:19 - would allow us to spread the news about the event to a greater extent

24:23 - and if needed, we would adjust our budget to help allocate for the campaign.

24:27 - In April, we will begin to promote the campaign

24:30 - throughout Pennsylvania and in June we will evaluate and review

24:36 - the KPI's to

24:37 - help revise and improve the campaign that will bolster engagement

24:41 - and motivate those in pay to come and participate

24:43 - in National Pennsylvania Day a month before the event.

24:47 - And then our sources

24:57 - go If your campaign inspires

25:05 - Pennsylvanians of all ages.

25:09 - Yeah,

25:14 - I think it does, because we're trying to include everyone.

25:17 - And by going to the schools,

25:19 - including the kids, is really important with that poster that we were showing,

25:22 - because I think with the poster, we're going to be using

25:25 - kids that want to support their state and they're going to bring their families

25:28 - and grandparents.

25:29 - And it's going to

25:30 - I think that that's probably our biggest drive on our social media

25:33 - or print media aspect is that we're trying to bring in kids to lead the future

25:39 - and they're going to be our biggest bring in for people.

25:42 - And going off with Jack said

25:44 - where we should all feel honored to be Pennsylvanians and in doing

25:47 - having a National Pennsylvania Day

25:49 - and starting with kids at a younger age all the way up to adults,

25:52 - it shows more appreciation for our state and doing things.

25:55 - Like I said before, about visiting

25:57 - a historical site or showcasing a hidden gem

25:59 - that people may not know about Pennsylvania.

26:01 - It's a great things that we can do to show how great our state is

26:15 - and this

26:32 - thank you so much to kings.

26:34 - And as Brie mentioned earlier, in between, each presentation will have roughly

26:39 - about a five minute break for the judges to finish their scoring and the rubric.

26:44 - And then one of our team members will come and collect the scoring sheets.

26:48 - But during that time, we're going to show you some exciting videos

26:51 - that we've produced over the last five years of this commission to just

26:55 - get you a little bit more acclimated to some of our programing and projects.

26:59 - So to start, while all of you are familiar

27:02 - with the D I c, we have this video today for those watching on PC

27:07 - and to learn a little more generally about the D

27:10 - I see

27:17 - the America

27:19 - Direct Effect Innovation Challenge was started in a partnership

27:22 - with the United States Postal Service.

27:24 - This initiative started in 2019,

27:28 - challenged Pennsylvania students from any Pennsylvania college or university

27:32 - to come up with and design integrated marketing concepts to help America.

27:37 - G 50.

27:37 - In our awareness efforts, America G plans to continue

27:42 - the Direct Effect Innovation Challenge throughout 2026.

27:45 - Our Commission sees this historic moment in time as a way to engage

27:50 - our next generation of Pennsylvanians, but not only engage them, but use history

27:55 - and stories of our Commonwealth to encourage and inspire that.

27:59 - My personal experience watching these students participate

28:02 - in the Direct Effect Innovation Challenge is nothing short of inspiring.

28:07 - After having a conversation with a group of student participants,

28:10 - I asked them why they chose to participate in this project.

28:14 - And without skipping a beat, one young woman replied,

28:18 - She is now a part of history.

28:20 - That story alone should inspire every Pennsylvanian

28:24 - to want to be part of the America D 50 initiative,

28:28 - to truly have impact on communities across our Commonwealth by 2026.

28:33 - We encourage each and every one of you to join us and become a part of history

28:54 - next grade.

28:56 - So all the judges finish up tallying the rubrics here to sharing

29:00 - a few stats from the EIC from 2019 to 2022.

29:03 - So far, it's amazing to see these stats grow every year.

29:06 - So so far we've had 40 participating post-secondary institutions.

29:11 - We've engaged over 300 students from various disciplines

29:14 - from across the Commonwealth and of the participating institutions.

29:17 - We've engaged at least 20 Pennsylvania counties in the process.

29:20 - So as we continue on through 2026, obviously hoping to grow those numbers

29:24 - and reach more counties in the process as well.

29:28 - So far every year we've had a different team win

29:30 - with Wilkes University being the first, followed by Saint Francis University

29:34 - Point Park University and the Pennsylvania College of Art and Design.

29:38 - With the EIC being an annual challenge, it's

29:40 - never too early to get your school involved as well.

29:42 - So we encourage you to share your experience here today

29:45 - and encourage more schools to get involved in the future as well.

29:48 - So looks like we're all collected.

29:49 - So I'm going to introduce the next team of Pennsylvania College of Art and Design.

29:54 - The judging questions will be Katherine and Michael for this one.

29:58 - Thank you, Amanda.

30:23 - 1/2. Okay.

30:34 - All right.

30:36 - All right.

30:36 - I'm O'Mara.

30:37 - I'm presenting with Pennsylvania College of Art and Design,

30:41 - Salem, I'm Melissa.

30:42 - I'm able and I'm Amanda.

30:44 - And today we're going to present to you our emcee, better known as Great P.A.

30:48 - 250 Melting Potluck.

30:51 - The idea behind this is to sort of highlight

30:54 - community and culture and diversity through food.

30:57 - We want to do is hold

30:58 - a series of block parties and potlucks throughout the state to sort of promote

31:02 - and foster that general idea of unity, bring people together over the stories and

31:06 - the history this year, and really just focus on the things that make us

31:10 - one unified state and nation overall.

31:14 - We want to meet a group.

31:15 - We want to make sure that with a mind map that we made,

31:17 - that our focus was on community.

31:20 - I mean, our big three really where community storytelling in food

31:22 - is a major focus, but we want to make sure that everybody feels unified, feel safe,

31:26 - and that we hold these things in spaces that are going to be local

31:29 - to the communities that we're representing.

31:31 - So that can be anything from a plaza to a park

31:34 - to something that matters personally to them.

31:36 - We don't want to force people to drive out into a single space

31:38 - and make it inaccessible to everybody else,

31:40 - because inclusivity was at the forefront of all of our sort of considerations,

31:46 - the major platforms that we wanted to speak

31:47 - toward were nourish, forum and experience.

31:52 - Thank you.

31:54 - And basically we wanted to focus on nourish

31:56 - first with food being the major theme, really highlight experience

31:59 - through the selection of locations and focus on

32:03 - counties and locales.

32:04 - And then forum would be the way

32:06 - that we sort of archive preserve and remember the event overall.

32:10 - So things like additional activities is alternative contributions to the event.

32:15 - Oh sorry, additional activities

32:18 - and alternative contributions to the event would be another major focus for us.

32:21 - So if someone can't bring food, if someone doesn't have a history to tell,

32:24 - they might instead choose to like,

32:26 - have a testimonial, whether that be video or audio,

32:28 - or maybe provide something in the form of like a short, quick, easy, accessible,

32:32 - handmade craft, like a scene which we'll discuss later in the presentation.

32:36 - Thank you.

32:38 - I will be

32:38 - sharing the implementation of this campaign in four steps.

32:41 - The first step is marketing and advertising.

32:44 - This includes distribution of both physical and digital branding.

32:48 - The main goal is to make sure we reach as many Pennsylvanians

32:51 - as possible from region to region.

32:53 - The amount of time it takes

32:54 - is mostly based on producing and distributing materials.

32:58 - We're aiming for design and implementation

33:00 - to take roughly two and a half weeks.

33:03 - The channels in which we'll be reaching the audience consist of our website,

33:07 - social media marketing, the America to podcast

33:10 - billboards and additional advertising through local businesses.

33:14 - The second step is material distribution.

33:16 - Once we have all of our participants in line

33:18 - and we know how many people are interested in throwing potlucks

33:22 - as indicated by website analytics,

33:24 - we can begin distributing kits and reaching out to participants.

33:28 - This may also

33:29 - include location scouting and our third step event day.

33:33 - This step involves setup, prep work and overall event organizing

33:36 - for any centralized potlucks thrown by any county commissioners,

33:40 - whether these potlucks are taking place on Pennsylvania Day for any specific

33:44 - designated days, dependent is dependent on the wishes of each participating group

33:50 - in either case, this is where EMS safety teams,

33:53 - porta potties, security and other physical accessibility

33:56 - and navigation details will be sorted out and put into action.

34:00 - Step four is the first event interaction.

34:03 - Participants will be able to create scenes and add their own recipes to the site.

34:07 - We encourage recorded testimonials

34:10 - for excuse me from the locals in each city to submit experiences, stories

34:15 - and recipes to the campaign to be shared.

34:19 - Speaking of scenes, I will be introducing our zine website aspect of our campaign.

34:24 - So in short, what are zines?

34:25 - Zines which are abbreviated magazines are self-published booklets

34:29 - and works created by independent artists and writers.

34:32 - Zines are also, more often than not handmade, which we believe plays

34:35 - a key role into our theme of not only diversity, but individuality.

34:39 - Each theme will be provided as a sheet of paper to be created by participants.

34:44 - Each team will be created.

34:45 - Each being created will be inherently unique as each person, no matter

34:48 - how similar, will have a creative and unique way to create each design.

34:53 - And we believe this is a very general.

34:54 - This fits the general idea of our campaign.

34:57 - A website will be our main hub of communication

34:59 - and will feature links to our all our social media and where to contact

35:02 - us, as well as ways to contact America to prepare.

35:05 - The website will feature clear typography and a clear and easy

35:08 - to navigate web design translations to its most spoken languages.

35:13 - And, and excuse me.

35:15 - And it will feature translations to paste most spoken languages or domain

35:18 - will roughly $10 a year in our host site will cost 105 per year.

35:23 - We believe that a website will help us archive the project for years to come, as

35:27 - it is better to rely on website than it is to rely on social media websites

35:31 - that are a bit finicky with how long they tend to stay up.

35:37 - And so I will be

35:39 - presenting our information budget and research part of our campaign.

35:43 - So the big question is how will we execute our melting pot?

35:45 - The idea by creating physical and digital how to kits designed by Picard

35:50 - The Pollocks will be easily accessible

35:52 - to whole communities and to those who want to try some recipes themselves.

35:55 - Physical kits would be sent to county commissioners of peers,

35:58 - largest population centers, who would then collaboratively establish

36:01 - a local community potluck day

36:03 - to create a fun and memorable event for their community.

36:07 - Digital kits would be made available for residents

36:09 - who might want to throw their own party or potlucks whenever and wherever.

36:13 - This way, everyone has a chance to celebrate.

36:16 - We've utilized our budget to fund three primary aspects of our campaign

36:20 - marketing and promotion website design and production

36:22 - and design and deployment of the potluck kits.

36:25 - The majority of the budget will be focused on promotion and advertisement

36:27 - to make sure these events are known by as many residents as possible

36:31 - because of the relative affordability of production of potluck kits,

36:35 - we're able to maximize funds allocated towards promotion and advertisement.

36:39 - We also expect local news, local businesses and local farmers markets

36:42 - to hear the buzz of, the exciting news happening within their communities,

36:46 - and they will want to take part themselves a.k.a free promotion

36:50 - within our scaled budget

36:51 - under 15 K we focus primarily on website and kit production.

36:56 - Social media is easily accessible these days

36:58 - and almost everyone has it right in their pockets.

37:00 - With that in mind, we've minimized our advertisement spending

37:03 - for a scaled budget, focusing instead on social media advertising

37:07 - to make our promotion material accessible to residents as possible.

37:11 - We based our price estimates on real data sources, which can be found

37:14 - in our budget spreadsheets as well as standard creative industry rates.

37:20 - Thank you.

37:27 - Thank you.

37:35 - What is the target audience?

37:37 - We're not asking all ages.

37:39 - So can you is there any

37:42 - is there any sort of focus within,

37:46 - you know, the stated target audience of all Pennsylvanians?

37:51 - I mean, the major focus for us was to keep it accessible for everybody.

37:55 - The target audience is very broad, but it's more about sharing

37:58 - that history and understanding that it's evolving both past, present and future.

38:01 - We want to see if we can make it intergenerational and intercultural

38:05 - so that everybody has that way of, like, archiving, telling their story.

38:35 - So thank you so much to Picard and another one of our programs, the Keystone

38:41 - Classroom Initiative, kicked off its second school year last month

38:45 - out in Allegheny County, actually in state Representative Voulgaris district.

38:49 - And she will offer some remarks about the amazing day that we had.

38:53 - But America 50 Pay goes out with our partners into pre-K

38:57 - through fourth grade classrooms.

38:58 - We read Case for Keystone and we partner with local mascots

39:02 - and historical re-enactors and distribute fun gift bags

39:06 - for America, for the children that we actually read to and visit.

39:09 - And this program alone will reach 50,000

39:12 - students by 2026 when the anniversary rolls around.

39:15 - So with that,

39:16 - I'll let Representative Gaddis reflect on our day in Allegheny County.

39:21 - Thank you.

39:21 - Thank you, Cassandra.

39:22 - And it was a fabulous day that we reached a number of kids at Moon Area High School

39:28 - or excuse me, Moon Area School, but it was the Brooks Elementary School.

39:33 - And like Cassandra said, we had all the children reading.

39:36 - It was so exciting and there was so much enthusiasm

39:39 - that we had history lessons and the kids got involved

39:43 - and we had the pirate parent come in to see the kids.

39:45 - So we're going to show you the video of what a great time and hat we had.

39:49 - And hopefully we're going to be doing this next year and other schools.

39:52 - So look for those applications on the website.

39:56 - So make sure you apply if you want these types of programs to come to your school.

40:00 - So here we go.

40:01 - Amazing video.

40:11 - We are the first school this school year that the Keystone Classroom

40:15 - Initiative is occurring. And it's going to be a great day.

40:17 - So please have fun. Our kids are really going to enjoy it.

40:21 - I'm State Representative Valerie Gaydos.

40:23 - I am so excited to be here.

40:25 - My grandparents came as immigrants in this country, and we just can't

40:28 - celebrate enough how what this country has has done in the past has done presently.

40:35 - And I'm excited what we're going to do in the future.

40:37 - This program alone, the Keystone Classroom Initiative,

40:40 - will actually reach 50,000 students by the time 2026 rolls around.

40:44 - So we're really excited about that.

40:46 - Most of the people I would be preaching to would have white students,

40:51 - but maybe liked my preaching.

40:53 - And sometimes I just went out by myself and preach

40:57 - and boy, did I get a reputation.

40:59 - And you know what?

41:00 - They heard about me in Philadelphia.

41:03 - And in 1786,

41:07 - I accepted an invitation to come and preach

41:12 - and join the ministry at St George's Methodist Church in Philadelphia.

41:18 - Three years from now, we are going to celebrate

41:21 - America for 250 years.

41:24 - So this book is going to talk about Pennsylvania.

41:28 - A is for Amish plain people avoiding strife,

41:34 - artisans, quilters, family, folk living a simple way of life.

41:40 - B is for Betsy Ross,

41:42 - who made the first flag over our nation to be used

41:47 - by revolutionary.

41:50 - All right, here we go.

41:52 - Yes, I

41:59 - have.

41:59 - You had a lot of fun today so far.

42:02 - Excellent. Well, guess what?

42:03 - Guess who I brought with me.

42:05 - The Pittsburgh Pirates parrot.

42:14 - So we brought the parrot in

42:19 - from the Pittsburgh Pirates parrot.

42:26 - Come on. 90.

42:37 - Who was that?

42:38 - All right.

42:39 - He was so good. That's what they told us.

42:42 - And they said, Make sure every single one of you gets one of these

42:45 - little special treat

43:08 - for your.

43:23 - Hi. This is State Representative Valerie Gattis, and I am so excited

43:26 - to be here at the Moon School District and celebrating America 250.

43:31 - I am the appointee, the House appointee to the America 250 Commission.

43:34 - And I'm here with Cassandra Coleman, who's the executive director, and Bishop

43:38 - Allen, who we just did a reenact ment for the school students here.

43:42 - Can you tell us a little bit about what we just did?

43:45 - Well, I'm telling you what, I'm very impressed with what

43:48 - I saw in terms of the design of this program.

43:51 - You know, some people are very hesitant

43:54 - to touch certain topics

43:57 - like slavery, equal liberty.

44:01 - But I was glad that when I came in, what came involved in this

44:07 - situation that was not an issue.

44:11 - What so ever.

44:13 - And the kids loved it.

44:14 - I'll tell you, the excitement was unbelievable.

44:16 - They were so happy to hear your story and the reenactment.

44:20 - And we're greatly appreciative of what you did to to present America

44:24 - 250 to our kids.

44:25 - It's my honor and pleasure, and I hope this is the first of many.

44:29 - Oh, absolutely.

44:30 - Well, Cassandra, what is the

44:31 - what is the plan for the year that we're going to be going

44:33 - throughout the state, doing more of these, reading to the kids,

44:37 - offering coloring books and just getting a whole lot of excitement for America.

44:41 - 250 to celebrate.

44:43 - 250 years of America to celebrate

44:45 - the best of our past, present, and of course, make a better future.

44:48 - No, of course.

44:49 - So this is a part of the Keystone Classroom Initiative,

44:52 - which is a part of America, 250

44:54 - over a dozen programing and projects that we have across all 67 counties.

44:57 - And we are so glad to be here today at J.H.

45:01 - Brooks Elementary School with Richard Allen with the Representative.

45:04 - This program alone will reach

45:06 - 50,000 Pennsylvania students by the time 2026 rolls around.

45:10 - And we are reaching them at their level.

45:12 - We are coming in.

45:13 - We are reading Case for Keystone,

45:14 - which is a Pennsylvania authored and illustrated book.

45:17 - And we hope that in 50 years all of these students will remember

45:20 - that they were part of history with us for the fact that these kids are our future.

45:23 - They are excited to bring all the kids involved and just celebrate America to 50.

45:29 - And I don't think you could have chosen a better school.

45:33 - These children so well-behaved and very attentive.

45:37 - It was a real pleasure,

45:39 - but then excited the excitement, the smiles that I think was the best part.

45:43 - Absolutely. Thank you.

45:44 - Thank you to both. Really appreciate it.

45:46 - Thank you.

46:00 - Great.

46:01 - All right.

46:01 - We have all the scores in, so we're going to move on to our next team.

46:05 - Our next team to present is Rosemont College.

46:08 - And the questions for the judges are representative.

46:10 - Kudos and Don Verbinski for this one.

46:13 - Thank you.

46:41 - Good afternoon, judges.

46:42 - We are representing Rosemont College.

46:44 - My name is Tyler Howard.

46:46 - I'm from Lilly.

46:47 - I'm Kendall Strohl, and we are all here.

46:51 - Our event is a historic restaurant call.

46:53 - This will bring people together to enjoy authentic food shared over stories

46:58 - and learn about different historical towns and places.

47:01 - One historic town and each county will host a restaurant crawl

47:05 - showcasing a restaurant and sites

47:08 - participating participating locations.

47:10 - We'll give out one free sample and welcoming registered guest crawls

47:14 - will take place in the beginning of July to the end of August.

47:19 - So our crawl is going to gather people together.

47:21 - Time is going to be set

47:22 - for each restaurant to meet other crawlers and share stories from diverse counties.

47:27 - Negativity Podcast is president each crawl to collect these stories.

47:31 - A Marketing efforts are going to start in early spring 2024

47:34 - to promote restaurants and the counties and our restaurants and walking routes

47:37 - in each county are going to be set by fall 2024 on the pier on the Crawl website.

47:42 - And these stories are then shared on the America to Video podcast.

47:45 - All right.

47:45 - For a preparation timeline, first, we would need to identify

47:49 - any historical towns and, cities within each county.

47:52 - We will then with our criteria for restaurants, which would be ample

47:56 - parking, accessibility and the ability to hold large crowds.

47:59 - We will then choose those and then we will start setting up our crawl pay website.

48:05 - There we can have our patrons sign up in restaurants.

48:07 - Also sign up.

48:08 - That's where most information be held.

48:10 - We will then, if you would like to check page three in your calendar.

48:14 - We've had an example date set up

48:17 - for our crawl calendar and then we will launch our marketing campaign.

48:22 - Our target audience is specified to adult in hopes

48:25 - they bring their parents and or grandparents, but also their children.

48:32 - So this picture represents the 67 counties in Pennsylvania,

48:35 - and the black dots on this picture represent the historic towns that we have

48:38 - decided to do in each county.

48:40 - Judges on your packet, I think on page four it describes

48:43 - the calendar as to when each county is going to hold their call.

48:47 - And we plan to do a sort of spiraling pattern throughout the whole state

48:50 - that spirals inwards and ending in Harrisburg for our call.

48:54 - We wanted to bring some of America to 50 CPA's ideas into our campaign,

48:58 - so we decided to bring in every crawl for all one Pennsylvania.

49:03 - We will educate people on the anniversary of America's 250th birthday.

49:08 - We Will embrace the architecture of local monuments.

49:11 - And we will bring people together for different backgrounds

49:13 - as they share their ideas and cultures.

49:15 - And, of course, celebrate America's 250th birthday.

49:20 - We we'll be leveraging to America

49:22 - to 50 platforms that being destination to 50 pre

49:26 - and showcase to 50 destination because we would also like to set up

49:30 - people visiting landmarks around these historical restaurants

49:34 - and showcase because we want America, America

49:37 - to 50 people out there and hopefully our patients can show up to other events.

49:43 - We will also

49:43 - be using the America to 50 Way podcast program.

49:46 - This will be set up in every restaurant, hopefully,

49:49 - and we will have it interview our patrons there.

49:52 - These will then be uploaded for those that couldn't make it.

49:56 - So for the metrics, we're going to be creating a crawl pay website.

49:59 - This is going to keep track of who's

50:00 - going where they're from and which cause they intend to go to.

50:04 - This will capture emails to do a post crawl interview as well

50:07 - for the postcard survey, and the restaurants

50:10 - can keep track of how many people will be attending the restaurant,

50:12 - how many people are coming and when they arrive.

50:15 - And this podcast, these podcast interviews will be counted

50:18 - and cataloged by county and date.

50:22 - So the benefits for the

50:22 - restaurants participating in our craft is going to be long term publicity.

50:26 - They're going to be involved in celebrating America's 250th birthday.

50:29 - They'll also be able to make money back from their free samples

50:32 - through tips and personal purchases within the restaurant.

50:35 - These restaurants are also going to be interacting

50:37 - with potentially new customers who have not gone to the restaurant.

50:40 - They'll be a part of making history, and their corporate

50:42 - social responsibility will also be engaged.

50:46 - We have chosen five total marketing channels, three of which are paid.

50:50 - Those will be direct marketing, dark meat mail, social media and posters

50:54 - and are two free marketing channels are word of mouth and co-marketing.

50:59 - co-Marketing is just one restaurant

51:01 - repost their social media.

51:05 - So for our first marketing channel, we chose direct mail

51:09 - and this would be a postcard.

51:10 - We chose this because we were able to effectively reach many people,

51:14 - but due to our tight budget, we cannot send to every household.

51:17 - So we will rely on word of mouth.

51:20 - And this

51:21 - is an example of what a postcard could look like.

51:26 - So for our second paid marketing channel, we're going to do posters.

51:29 - So why are we doing print?

51:30 - People are going to notice us all over town.

51:31 - So these posters will be hung up

51:32 - around town, near libraries, shops and community centers.

51:36 - And this form of marketing is effective for engaging people around these areas

51:39 - to hear about the event going on in a local town nearby.

51:42 - This is an example of one of the posters could look like

51:47 - our final paid marketing channel will be social media.

51:50 - We'll be using Instagram and Tik Tok to reach the younger adult audience

51:53 - and they will be using Facebook and Twitter to reach an older adult audience.

51:58 - And that's an example of what a Facebook or Twitter ad

52:00 - could look like.

52:03 - And then, as you might have noticed on our previous slides,

52:07 - we have created a hashtag hashtag crawl.

52:10 - And this will appear in all of our marketing channels.

52:12 - Crawl stands for citizens, restaurants, authentic,

52:15 - welcoming and locations.

52:19 - So with our event, we were given a $100,000 budget.

52:22 - And judges, if you go in your pack and go to page five,

52:24 - you can see how we broke this down even deeper.

52:26 - But from the power point, you can see that most of our budget

52:28 - will be spent on direct mail.

52:30 - This is just for the cost of mailing

52:32 - and then some money left over for the restaurants.

52:34 - We're giving each restaurant, each county a sum of money

52:37 - as well as the cost of social media.

52:39 - It's just a boost on multiple platforms.

52:41 - And of course, the costs for posters.

52:44 - So this slide show is kind of more of a breakdown of what the scaled budget

52:47 - would look like.

52:47 - So with our scaled budget of 10 to $15000, we decided to do a smaller

52:52 - or mini crawl in these 17 counties.

52:57 - We researched, we did a lot of research.

52:58 - We found the total occupied households in these counties, and we broke down

53:01 - the number to about 150,000 households that we would send mail to.

53:06 - With that price coming out to $10,000.

53:08 - And then when we combine that with the money spent on posters

53:10 - for these 17 counties, which we plan on paying about 60 to 70 posters per town

53:16 - and the price for the money that each restaurant will be getting.

53:20 - We get out to our scale budget of about $14,500.

53:25 - These are our sources.

53:34 - Just a quick question about

53:36 - how is it going to be accessible for everyone

53:40 - to reach these sites?

53:42 - Can talk a little bit about the accessibility

53:44 - for all Pennsylvanians to get at these sites.

53:47 - Are you referring to the restaurant sites? Yes.

53:52 - Okay.

53:52 - So we pretty much are due to our criteria for restaurants.

53:57 - We are hoping that they will be any good spot.

54:01 - So that way people from, you know, the bigger counties could still make it over.

54:05 - And that with their accessibility options, they can still cater

54:10 - to those Pennsylvanians that may be handicapped

54:14 - like.

54:31 - So thank you to the Rosemont team.

54:33 - So now we'll move on to one of our projects,

54:37 - our Semi Quincentennial Bells.

54:40 - These are bronze permanent bells that will be placed

54:43 - in historically significant locations across the Commonwealth

54:46 - with a focus really of highlighting stories

54:49 - that may have been left out of the history books.

54:52 - And our first Bronze Permanents and my Quincentennial Bell

54:56 - was dedicated this past June at the Denys Farm.

54:59 - You met a seven, the seventh generation direct descendant

55:03 - of this farm here today who's a judge with us, Miss Denise Dennis.

55:08 - And this farm is actually the longest

55:11 - continuously owned, African-American owned farm in the country,

55:15 - right here in the Commonwealth up in Sussex, Johannah County.

55:18 - And we've been working with Denise and her family for so many years.

55:22 - It was honestly such a beautiful and wonderful day to finally unveil this bell.

55:28 - So we hope you enjoy this video.

55:40 - The American

55:42 - Sami Quincentennial Bell idea was thought of to be used as an avenue

55:47 - to highlight untold stories here in the Commonwealth,

55:50 - but not only highlight how do we recognize and permanently lock into history

55:56 - remarkable stories that were sometimes left out of the history books.

56:00 - Enter the Denys Farm

56:04 - in 1793.

56:06 - Our ancestors, Prince and Judith Perkins, came to this region from Connecticut

56:12 - as free people and purchased land.

56:16 - The interesting thing about this is that at that time,

56:20 - 90% of African-Americans were enslaved.

56:25 - Only 10% were free.

56:28 - But here on this land, everyone was free.

56:38 - I can't imagine

56:39 - what our ancestors would think about being honored with.

56:42 - The Commonwealth's first Semite Quincentennial Bell.

56:46 - But I have a feeling that they are celebrating today and proud for us

56:51 - and pleased that our nation, though still imperfect,

56:55 - particularly when it comes to race, has made progress.

57:00 - Let's proceed in the positive.

57:03 - Undaunted, as my ancestors did,

57:07 - moving in the light with Lincoln's

57:10 - better angels of our nature guiding our way.

57:15 - Thank you.

57:18 - As the

57:18 - oldest African-American owned farm in the country,

57:23 - the Denny's farm has served for so many years as a symbol of resilience

57:27 - and prosperity throughout Pennsylvania and across the nation.

57:31 - May this bill serve as a physical reminder for us all

57:36 - to continue the legacy of the Perkins Denny's family

57:41 - by fighting for freedom, spreading peace and preserving our environment.

57:46 - Signed Kamala Harris, vice president

57:48 - of the United States

57:55 - on behalf of America.

57:56 - FTA In addition to unveiling the bell, we would like to present to Dennis

58:00 - Farm Charitable Land Trust with $25,000.

58:08 - But we wait. Hold on, hold on.

58:12 - We're not done yet.

58:13 - I'd like to ask George to come up here a second on behalf of Kotara Energy

58:17 - and this special day that it is, we will not only see what is happening

58:21 - here, we will match the dollars from the Commonwealth,

58:24 - but I also know that the Dennis Farm has an outstanding grant.

58:29 - This money will actually represent

58:31 - a $100,000

58:37 - year and crown

58:41 - good will

58:45 - brotherhood

58:49 - from sea

58:52 - to Lucia dining scene.

59:13 - Oh, I love that video.

59:14 - Get goosebumps every time I see it. It's

59:18 - all right.

59:18 - Or we are good with the judges here and the rubrics.

59:21 - I'll sit.

59:22 - All right.

59:22 - Next team up is Ursinus College.

59:25 - Judges will be Kelly in Denise for this one.

59:28 - Thank you. Yes.

59:55 - 777 And imagine

01:00 - 22.816 500,000 small businesses being promoted through America to 50 and 1 million people

01:00 - 28.222 being brought together on July 4th, 2026, the anniversary of America's founding.

01:00 - 33.127 Our one Pennsylvania Unity Festival will be a 4th of July weekend plan

01:00 - 36.196 for many families who want to learn about the past

01:00 - 39.199 and celebrate our future.

01:00 - 41.168 I'm Carly Schiller.

01:00 - 43.837 I'm Donald Lattanzi.

01:00 - 46.073 I'm Hermann.

01:00 - 49.309 I'm Mohamed Abdel-Ati and we're representing Ursinus College

01:00 - 52.413 one Pennsylvania United.

01:00 - 54.581 Through more two businesses, we will showcase

01:00 - 58.919 how each use their unique position to diversify and enrich their communities

01:00 - 05.092 will utilize Merrick to social media platforms, to outreach these businesses

01:01 - 10.297 and then use America to be a website and podcast as well as print media.

01:01 - 14.134 To further share these stories, we may be one Pennsylvania,

01:01 - 18.205 but through this festival we will showcase hundreds of of diverse

01:01 - 23.143 cultures, traditions and ethnicities.

01:01 - 27.080 You may ask why a festival festivals are a gathering point for communities

01:01 - 31.985 to come together, celebrate, share experiences and and

01:01 - 35.055 and appreciate the diversity of cultures,

01:01 - 39.126 traditions, cultures and traditions.

01:01 - 42.029 On average, 32 million people

01:01 - 46.366 attend at least one festival a year.

01:01 - 50.237 So our objective is to present an integrated marketing campaign

01:01 - 55.742 that showcases the diversity of Pennsylvania through small businesses.

01:01 - 58.712 So we specifically chose to target small businesses

01:01 - 01.915 because they're the anchors of diversity in many communities,

01:02 - 05.652 and they also stimulate economic growth within the Commonwealth.

01:02 - 07.955 So to reach our objective, we have two phases.

01:02 - 11.225 Phase one, we want to promote the collection of small business

01:02 - 14.261 stories on the America 250 Pay website.

01:02 - 19.099 This can be either a write up or video, and for phase two,

01:02 - 21.935 we want to promote our festival where everyone can come together.

01:02 - 25.305 On the far right, you can see where the businesses

01:02 - 26.974 would upload their information.

01:02 - 29.243 It's really easy to fill out and then at the bottom

01:02 - 31.044 they could submit a story.

01:02 - 34.581 So let's watch an example from a small business.

01:02 - 36.917 Hi, we're the College Ville Italian Bakery

01:02 - 39.553 from Collegeville, Pennsylvania, and we're more than just a bakery.

01:02 - 42.155 Our business was started by my wife's parents.

01:02 - 46.627 Immigrants from New Scho Italy as a small Italian bakery, deli and market.

01:02 - 51.064 Since then we have truly flourished into a one stop shop for all things Italian.

01:02 - 52.833 Thanks for sharing our story.

01:02 - 56.336 America 250 and we're more than excited to share yours.

01:02 - 00.173 Thank you.

01:03 - 04.211 So America 250 Pierre will really showcase and show the stories

01:03 - 06.046 of small businesses throughout Pennsylvania,

01:03 - 09.216 will bring together their supporting community members.

01:03 - 13.086 We are also going to utilize two of them active FTA platforms, the

01:03 - 14.354 first being Forum 250.

01:03 - 18.225 This will showcase a diversity of small businesses

01:03 - 21.762 and, really showcase their supporting community members

01:03 - 25.566 and the next is innovated FTA and this way

01:03 - 29.236 Pennsylvanian small Pennsylvania businesses will showcase their pride

01:03 - 33.807 through telling and sharing their stories of having and owning a small business.

01:03 - 38.145 And Pennsylvania, the one Pennsylvania Unity Festival,

01:03 - 40.180 is extremely inclusive and accessible.

01:03 - 43.150 No matter the size or type of business.

01:03 - 47.087 We venture through our application process a diverse and pool of businesses,

01:03 - 51.525 whether that be me, whether that may be through food, music or crafts.

01:03 - 55.495 The festival is completely free of cost as well, with onsite staff

01:03 - 58.999 to aid throughout the day.

01:03 - 03.170 So for phase one of our marketing campaign to we want to market to the businesses

01:04 - 08.041 so they know that they can upload their stories to the America 50 Pay website.

01:04 - 11.545 With doing this, we want to utilize the in-place partnerships of Americans who,

01:04 - 14.815 such as the Pennsylvania Turnpike and Lottery,

01:04 - 17.751 in addition to sponsors, sponsors

01:04 - 20.554 excuse me, such as Uggie and Wawa.

01:04 - 25.292 We do have some examples in the packet of our promotional material.

01:04 - 28.161 We also want to utilize the already place

01:04 - 32.466 social media accounts of Americans who play along with their podcast.

01:04 - 35.535 And we understand not all businesses are on social media,

01:04 - 39.439 so we do have traditional advertisements such as emails, brochures and fliers.

01:04 - 43.276 For step two, we were having a big festival.

01:04 - 45.712 We need people to show up, so how are we going to do it?

01:04 - 47.948 We're going to market to all Pennsylvanians to say, Hey,

01:04 - 50.884 this festival is on July 4th.

01:04 - 52.386 You know, you can come.

01:04 - 55.856 So on the far left, we have examples of social media accounts

01:04 - 58.859 of businesses in our area.

01:04 - 02.863 The Cultural Bakery has 45,000 followers, and Buka,

01:05 - 06.867 a small Asian restaurant, has 2.8 thousand followers.

01:05 - 09.002 So what you see in the middle is an example post

01:05 - 12.139 from the college or bakery that basically says America

01:05 - 15.709 250 Unity Festival, July 4th, 2026.

01:05 - 17.944 Please come out and see us.

01:05 - 21.048 So now all 45,000 of the eligible bakery's followers

01:05 - 24.384 will see that, and they would want to come to this festival.

01:05 - 28.755 Multiply that by, let's say, 100,000 businesses in Pennsylvania.

01:05 - 31.758 The results of people who could show up to this festival

01:05 - 36.663 are exponential.

01:05 - 40.434 We will begin collecting stories on July 4th, 2025,

01:05 - 42.469 which is a year prior to the festival date.

01:05 - 45.572 We will do this through the survey tool that Don showed us earlier,

01:05 - 47.374 which is simple and easy to use.

01:05 - 51.244 And we will put it on the America 250 pay website, social media.

01:05 - 54.981 And by utilizing our assets for phase two,

01:05 - 58.351 we are going to hold the America 258 Unity Festival.

01:05 - 02.222 We are going to encourage the small businesses that submitted their stories

01:06 - 05.492 to come to the festival and be a part of the marketplace.

01:06 - 08.562 We also encourage their networks to come.

01:06 - 13.600 We'll get more general attendance by highlighting the 4th of July fireworks.

01:06 - 15.702 We are going to measure the success of our integrated

01:06 - 18.872 marketing campaign by qualitative and quantitative data.

01:06 - 21.074 The qualitative data is the story.

01:06 - 25.746 Small businesses submit the data is outreach over a digital story sharing,

01:06 - 28.682 which will be monitored by impressions, likes,

01:06 - 31.017 shares, followers and repost

01:06 - 35.055 or other quantitative data is the number of vendor booths registered

01:06 - 38.792 and the number of general attendees for the festival, which will be monitored

01:06 - 43.964 by multiple systems including turnstiles.

01:06 - 48.368 So when planning a festival, the budget is obviously a big consideration.

01:06 - 52.572 So in the top, in the blue, you'll see our breakdown of our $100,000 budget,

01:06 - 56.042 starting with our advertising costs of around $21,000.

01:06 - 00.514 And the bottom in the red is our event cost of around $50,000.

01:07 - 03.517 And then to the right in the red, you'll see our scaled down budget.

01:07 - 07.821 Now we want you to come with us to this festival

01:07 - 13.093 to help celebrate the small businesses and the 250th anniversary of Pennsylvania.

01:07 - 24.371 Thank you.

01:07 - 24.805 That's very

01:07 - 45.358 thank you.

01:07 - 46.927 Okay.

01:07 - 48.962 Thank you very much.

01:07 - 54.234 Our question is, how would you integrate all counties into this single event or?

01:07 - 56.536 Would you actually suggest there be more than one event?

01:07 - 01.007 So we are suggesting one large festival

01:08 - 04.444 to encompass all of Pennsylvania as one.

01:08 - 07.647 Now we have the digital story submissions

01:08 - 10.383 which people from every county can submit.

01:08 - 14.387 But in addition to that, all the businesses are invited.

01:08 - 18.425 So it can be it doesn't have to be businesses from a certain county.

01:08 - 20.493 It doesn't have to be businesses from a certain region.

01:08 - 23.063 All of Pennsylvania is invited to this festival

01:08 - 26.132 and there are all invited to share their stories online.

01:08 - 42.849 So thank you.

01:08 - 46.419 So thank you to the your scientist team as we add American

01:08 - 49.489 to build a strong foundation across the Commonwealth

01:08 - 53.193 are amazed at the every day Pennsylvanians we meet along the way

01:08 - 57.664 and we're proud to report that we are the first state in the nation

01:08 - 03.536 that has all 67 counties who have passed the resolution becoming official partners.

01:09 - 06.406 So we're thrilled, thrilled, thrilled about that.

01:09 - 08.341 And we

01:09 - 12.212 have been hosting spring and fall receptions from Philadelphia

01:09 - 16.850 to Erie to the Lehigh Valley, Pittsburgh and everywhere in between.

01:09 - 24.357 So here is a recap video from one of our spring receptions.

01:09 - 25.025 Here we are.

01:09 - 27.227 We only have four short years left.

01:09 - 31.264 And we just want to thank everyone in this room for coming out

01:09 - 32.132 and supporting us.

01:09 - 36.069 Our commission is truly based on each Pennsylvania.

01:09 - 40.307 Everything we do is for Pennsylvania and all 67 counties

01:09 - 43.510 helping each county to be epic education,

01:09 - 46.813 preservation, innovation and celebration.

01:09 - 52.385 We saw this as an opportunity to truly have impact on communities

01:09 - 57.257 across this Commonwealth while engaging every Pennsylvanian in every county.

01:09 - 00.093 It's going to take every single one of us in this room

01:10 - 03.363 to do this together, to continue to lead the nation to ensure

01:10 - 07.000 that Pennsylvania is truly in the spotlight in 2026,

01:10 - 10.203 to see the

01:10 - 14.074 the bipartisanship is what this will all be about.

01:10 - 15.709 We all be involved.

01:10 - 16.977 Make this in Pennsylvania.

01:10 - 19.612 In my judgment, I'm a little biased

01:10 - 24.551 is leading the way.

01:10 - 28.722 We've been named one of the four host cities for the United States of America.

01:10 - 34.027 And I think we will wind up being the focal point of the celebration.

01:10 - 36.396 We intend to have fun because that's important.

01:10 - 38.064 We want people to have fun.

01:10 - 40.834 And by the way, our people deserve a little fun.

01:10 - 44.504 Secondly, it's important that as we celebrate,

01:10 - 47.841 we not only commemorate and celebrate

01:10 - 50.543 the things that we've done well, the events that we made,

01:10 - 54.047 and the unprecedented level of freedom our people have.

01:10 - 58.218 But it's also important that we highlight the challenges

01:10 - 03.790 that still remain.

01:11 - 06.092 We are the first country in the world.

01:11 - 11.798 We're going to marry a set of values with democratic behaviors based on freedom.

01:11 - 14.734 We meant that.

01:11 - 18.505 We mean that we're the longest running republic in the history of the world.

01:11 - 21.674 So your work is uniquely American

01:11 - 25.945 and I hope you understand that question was asked of me

01:11 - 29.015 what makes Pennsylvania great

01:11 - 32.152 so I want you to look around the room

01:11 - 35.855 because it's you that makes Pennsylvania great.

01:11 - 38.925 The diversity,

01:11 - 43.863 the back rooms, the history that is in this room

01:11 - 46.833 is what makes Pennsylvania great.

01:11 - 50.136 So I remember, and probably most of you do,

01:11 - 54.274 the excitement and the patriotism when we had America's

01:11 - 59.179 bicentennial celebration of 1776 all across the United States,

01:11 - 03.883 everybody came together to celebrate the history and the future

01:12 - 09.155 of the greatest nation on earth.

01:12 - 13.026 I just want to thank each and every one of you for being here with us tonight.

01:12 - 15.028 Thank all of you for your support.

01:12 - 18.431 And I hope that each and every one of you will join us

01:12 - 29.042 and become a part of history.

01:12 - 29.676 Okay.

01:12 - 31.845 I think we're going to go to the last school,

01:12 - 35.315 but certainly not least is Westmoreland County Community College.

01:12 - 38.251 And the judging for this will be Luke and Katherine

01:12 - 27.233 thanks.

01:13 - 27.767 All right.

01:13 - 30.436 So everyone here, I'd like to ask a question.

01:13 - 36.609 Who likes a little fun treasure hunt from out of that.

01:13 - 37.110 All right.

01:13 - 40.113 So our passports, the app will help all

01:13 - 43.249 Pennsylvanians discover and

01:13 - 46.319 we'll help discover

01:13 - 50.823 different destinations without pay or without direct pay.

01:13 - 55.195 Sorry, we're representing the only community college here today.

01:13 - 57.463 I'm Elizabeth Bridge.

01:13 - 58.831 I'm Daniel Marine Jack.

01:13 - 00.733 And I'm Jessica. Though,

01:14 - 04.771 without further ado, Daniel is going to explain our campaign passports API.

01:14 - 06.706 We hope you. Enjoy.

01:14 - 10.443 So what is passports to appear like?

01:14 - 14.013 Jessica was saying you want it to be an app and but also a website

01:14 - 16.482 that is free for all Pennsylvanians to use

01:14 - 18.918 on this course.

01:14 - 20.086 What's going to be on this website?

01:14 - 23.189 When they access this website, each user or participant

01:14 - 25.458 will be asked to enter in what county they live in.

01:14 - 29.329 Upon entering that, they will be given digital passport

01:14 - 33.933 that will have locations that are historical sites, state

01:14 - 37.837 parks and landmarks that are all within their county.

01:14 - 41.574 Then once they have that, they're able to go to these places

01:14 - 46.045 the historical sites, state parks, landmarks and scan a QR code that

01:14 - 50.149 each one will place at the chosen locations and they'll stamp it off

01:14 - 52.252 on their digital passport.

01:14 - 56.589 And also the first 1000 people who complete their passport

01:14 - 59.425 will a free t shirt.

01:14 - 01.027 So that's cool and everything.

01:15 - 03.596 But why why do passports to pay.

01:15 - 06.666 Well we really want to engage

01:15 - 10.036 all Pennsylvanians with diverse stories and unique communities.

01:15 - 14.340 And what better place to discover these great destinations

01:15 - 16.376 than in our own backyard

01:15 - 19.712 and our own counties and our own communities that we live in?

01:15 - 21.981 There's so many hidden gems in Pennsylvania.

01:15 - 26.986 It's in Pennsylvania, and some of them are just at our own backyard.

01:15 - 32.125 Okay, so what's another way that we can?

01:15 - 34.427 Oh, okay. Sorry.

01:15 - 36.529 So, yeah, what's another way that we can

01:15 - 41.434 make engage Pennsylvanians in telling their story about Pennsylvania?

01:15 - 44.270 And that is through the America to 50 podcast.

01:15 - 46.239 The start here America did

01:15 - 50.576 are also on the website one creating their account

01:15 - 53.513 each person will be asked if they want to enter in a raffle,

01:15 - 57.383 if they want to tell their story about being a Pennsylvania on the online

01:15 - 00.153 podcast.

01:16 - 04.123 And so, okay, how do we how do we let people know about passports to pay?

01:16 - 08.494 Well, through advertisement, we have chose three advertising channels

01:16 - 13.366 a digital social and print.

01:16 - 15.635 And so where do we want to advertise?

01:16 - 17.603 Well, Pennsylvania, a lot of Pennsylvania's

01:16 - 19.939 population is in the urban areas.

01:16 - 22.875 So we want to focus a lot of our especially our print billboards

01:16 - 26.245 in those cities and the large cities in and around

01:16 - 31.050 those areas as well.

01:16 - 32.452 And so who are we targeting?

01:16 - 35.722 We want to target all Pennsylvanians, regardless

01:16 - 39.025 of race, gender or creed, whatever you are.

01:16 - 41.160 We really want to involve you with this.

01:16 - 43.129 And another

01:16 - 45.465 thing as well that we also want to

01:16 - 51.037 target with our advertisements, we believe that with our $100,000 budget

01:16 - 54.107 that we're able to efficiently

01:16 - 57.176 spread evenly with our digital, social and print media.

01:16 - 01.848 These are pretty equally the digital side will involve our Google

01:17 - 04.517 ads, our website and our app.

01:17 - 08.988 The social side, it will be a social media is like tik-tok, facebook, Instagram

01:17 - 11.023 that will get the message about passwords, the pay

01:17 - 14.627 and also with the digital and social.

01:17 - 18.131 These will be a big hitters for also the rural areas in Pennsylvania.

01:17 - 22.201 But it's not only as much as it is in urban areas, there are a lot of people

01:17 - 23.069 also in rural areas.

01:17 - 27.607 And we also want to hit and we want to include all Pennsylvanians with our campaign

01:17 - 30.042 and then

01:17 - 32.578 alongside with the print, we have also like T-shirts,

01:17 - 37.216 billboards, yard signs and other things as well

01:17 - 40.853 that after talking to local business owners, we believe we have efficiently

01:17 - 45.558 got good estimates with our materials on what we need to advertise

01:17 - 48.394 are campaigns and we really want to put these yard signs

01:17 - 52.965 really around the locations themselves, the state parks, historical sites

01:17 - 56.536 and landmarks so that people nearby know what's going on.

01:17 - 58.504 Hey, this is nearby.

01:17 - 00.506 We really want to help advertise them.

01:18 - 03.810 And another thing, along with our website and our app, we really want

01:18 - 08.815 to make sure that is accessible, especially our to people who maybe,

01:18 - 13.252 maybe have visual impairments, who have a hard time viewing websites.

01:18 - 16.923 Access to be is a great company that we want to work with

01:18 - 19.926 who make sure is that it is accessible to people who have

01:18 - 25.631 those visual impairments and have a hard time viewing websites.

01:18 - 28.968 So or timeline how do we want to stretch this out

01:18 - 31.604 briefly and stretch it out in a three month timeline?

01:18 - 33.906 The first front will be on

01:18 - 38.044 asking the counties what do they want on their digital passport?

01:18 - 39.645 What locations do they want?

01:18 - 42.181 We want each county to have the same amount of locations,

01:18 - 45.318 but it's up to them what locations they want and

01:18 - 48.955 also what designs do they want, how they want to describe their county?

01:18 - 50.389 What do they feel best

01:18 - 53.793 represents represents the Pennsylvanians that live in their counties.

01:18 - 57.730 And then the second month will involve designing those passports.

01:18 - 59.265 What do they look like?

01:18 - 00.500 Well, like I'm

01:19 - 03.169 getting them already, getting the website ready, getting the apps

01:19 - 06.606 and all the advertisements which will then come into a third month,

01:19 - 08.374 which would then

01:19 - 11.377 be releasing the advertisements,

01:19 - 14.580 releasing the apps out to the public.

01:19 - 17.350 The advertisements will last about a month.

01:19 - 23.523 However, the website and the app can last much longer afterwards.

01:19 - 28.961 And so after that, how do we know if people are so engaging?

01:19 - 30.796 Do we really want to continue this?

01:19 - 33.900 And that's where a return on investment I can really get to see

01:19 - 38.004 with on our apps app and on our website how many people are involved,

01:19 - 41.641 how many people are looking at our app or looking at our website?

01:19 - 46.879 How many people are stamping stamps on the digital passport?

01:19 - 51.150 Yes, really get the feedback that we need and hopefully to can you continue it on

01:19 - 55.187 our marketing campaigns goal

01:19 - 59.325 is to get people to discover destinations throughout Pennsylvania.

01:20 - 03.162 Again, thank you for this opportunity and we hope enjoyed

01:20 - 14.507 and thank you for your proposal.

01:20 - 17.209 And just one question that we had for you.

01:20 - 22.615 What about those in Pennsylvania that don't have access, an app or website?

01:20 - 26.419 How could they participate and be involved with the passports?

01:20 - 35.027 Yeah.

01:20 - 38.898 So I guess I think a lot of this is running about the website and the app.

01:20 - 43.636 So if you don't really have, you know, maybe access to these things,

01:20 - 47.440 I think a lot of the print advertisement is what I think just in general.

01:20 - 50.710 So you don't necessarily need a website, an app to see

01:20 - 55.014 that are advertisements, billboards or yard signs.

01:20 - 58.517 I think those visible things like, Hey, check this.

01:20 - 01.721 I know we want to really advertise not only the website and app,

01:21 - 05.191 but the historical sites and the state parks and landmarks.

01:21 - 08.227 So I think having the advertisements focus,

01:21 - 11.697 especially on those not just the app and the website, can really help people

01:21 - 15.234 to view view them

01:21 - 33.686 and think, thank you, Westmoreland County Community College

01:21 - 37.390 and we'd like to finish our judging scoring

01:21 - 42.495 with this final video from last year's Direct Effect Innovation Challenge,

01:21 - 46.132 which was again our fourth annual and it features are winning team

01:21 - 51.671 from last year which was the Palm City College of Art and Design.

01:21 - 58.844 Well, good afternoon, everyone.

01:21 - 00.713 My name is Jacqueline Victor.

01:22 - 04.450 It is my pleasure to welcome you all here today to America

01:22 - 08.487 to 54th Annual Direct Effect Innovation Challenge.

01:22 - 12.825 Every year, our lives internally and has these discussions

01:22 - 14.126 and says we are just wowed.

01:22 - 18.064 The engagement that all of you have here with us and in your communities

01:22 - 20.933 and in your schools are so Pennsylvania proud, all of you.

01:22 - 22.501 So good luck today.

01:22 - 25.538 Congratulation and thank you for becoming a part of history

01:22 - 27.907 with our project.

01:22 - 32.111 It's a traveling educational experience and America 250

01:22 - 35.481 has been really about reaching everybody in the state.

01:22 - 39.351 And with our traveling bus, we would be reaching every school

01:22 - 42.855 that we could possibly reach to really educate students

01:22 - 45.057 and get them motivated to focus on leadership,

01:22 - 48.494 not only on big levels, but also small levels within their communities.

01:22 - 52.631 By having this bus go around in person to see all these kids, we think that

01:22 - 55.901 that's going to be more impactful than just having a project or something.

01:22 - 59.238 We want to be able to integrate ourselves

01:22 - 02.608 what they're doing, and I hope that helps the teacher.

01:23 - 05.745 And our first place winner is Pennsylvania College

01:23 - 11.884 of Art and Design.

01:23 - 14.220 The whole time we were trying to debate who do we think is going to win?

01:23 - 17.323 And we got the third response.

01:23 - 18.124 We did the second one.

01:23 - 20.626 We're like, okay, it's either us or maybe like one other team.

01:23 - 21.727 Second they said our name.

01:23 - 25.765 I just said yes and was very excited because we worked so hard for it.

01:23 - 27.133 Winning first place

01:23 - 29.135 and being from an art school, it's a bit of a more

01:23 - 32.204 unconventional perspective and I think that kind of shows

01:23 - 33.005 that it doesn't

01:23 - 34.707 necessarily matter where you're coming from

01:23 - 36.976 or whether you're going to a prestigious school or not.

01:23 - 39.078 I think that as long as you're putting the work in

01:23 - 42.548 and you care about what you're doing, I think you should be good to make it

01:23 - 59.832 somewhere, at least far in large scale projects like this.

01:23 - 00.566 All right.

01:24 - 03.469 So that brings us to the end of our final presentations.

01:24 - 06.472 Thank you to all the teams for sharing your epic ideas today.

01:24 - 07.573 You all did an amazing job.

01:24 - 13.813 Let's give a final round.

01:24 - 14.313 Okay.

01:24 - 18.851 So now be taking a ten minute intermission to tally the final scores.

01:24 - 21.487 So we'll meet back here in about 10 minutes for the award ceremony.

01:24 - 24.657 In the meantime, we encourage you to watch a short video shared

01:24 - 39.071 by our presenting sponsor, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission.

01:24 - 41.173 Yes, we are definitely an integrated culture

01:24 - 45.211 working together, and we do a great job of communicating.

01:24 - 46.712 I like to see new things.

01:24 - 49.782 I like to see bigger pictures.

01:24 - 55.354 So this job is definitely appealing for me because you get management experience,

01:24 - 58.791 you get to work with teams and you do get you do get that technical side.

01:24 - 01.160 I'm a brand new employee. I'm as green as it gets.

01:25 - 04.196 And I've had the chance to be involved in these really amazing things as we're

01:25 - 09.101 winning awards,

01:25 - 12.037 I really feel like we are a family here,

01:25 - 15.174 and I think that it shows kind of every day

01:25 - 18.310 and we all kind of have each other's back to get those projects accomplished.

01:25 - 20.312 We're constantly trying to make things better.

01:25 - 21.847 What can we improve on?

01:25 - 24.149 You know, what's new out there that we can try on our way?

01:25 - 27.119 We have a lot of opportunities for training of professional development.

01:25 - 30.089 If it's something that we're interested in, we're absolutely empowered

01:25 - 32.791 to go after and learn a little bit more about it.

01:25 - 37.129 You can't get better benefits than what you have.

01:25 - 42.902 Two weeks ago, I just had my son and the benefits were phenomenal to let you know,

01:25 - 45.905 not many people have what we have.

01:25 - 47.239 While I've here.

01:25 - 50.976 I've worked on completing my bachelor's degree

01:25 - 55.414 and my master's degree and both I use

01:25 - 00.219 tuition reimbursement that's offered here to do large portions of that.

01:26 - 03.455 Our CEO wants us to be state of the art,

01:26 - 07.593 not just the best in our industry, not just the best in Pennsylvania.

01:26 - 10.863 He wants us to be the best across the board.

01:26 - 15.000 And those things cannot be accomplished without innovation, without diversity,

01:26 - 16.168 without inclusion.

01:26 - 19.872 And the fact that that's coming from the top down,

01:26 - 25.644 this company's values align so strongly with my personal values.

01:26 - 28.614 It's not even it doesn't matter what I'm doing day to day.

01:26 - 29.815 That's why I'm here.

01:26 - 30.983 That's why I come every day, and that's why

01:26 - 38.891 I'm so excited about being an employee here.

01:26 - 42.361 Okay, folks. So everybody back. Yeah. Okay.

01:26 - 46.732 So thank you again to each of you for joining us

01:26 - 50.269 and becoming a part of history each and every year.

01:26 - 54.807 We are just amazed at the talent and creative ideas

01:26 - 57.376 and the innovation of all of our Pennsylvania students.

01:26 - 04.149 So let's give you another round of applause for participating.

01:27 - 05.684 And again, you continue to amaze

01:27 - 08.654 us, so thank you for making us all Pennsylvania proud.

01:27 - 12.825 Before we announce the winners of the fifth Annual

01:27 - 16.328 Direct Effect Innovation Challenge, I just want to give some special

01:27 - 17.262 thank you's.

01:27 - 21.800 So to all of our judges, we appreciate you and you spending your day with us.

01:27 - 24.370 So thank you so much

01:27 - 30.743 to all of our round two judges who participated

01:27 - 34.747 in the virtual round as we also hope that they're watching us on PCN.

01:27 - 35.914 So thank you to them

01:27 - 41.253 to PCN,

01:27 - 45.457 who always helps us promote all of our programs, projects and events.

01:27 - 50.996 So thank you to PCN, to Commonwealth

01:27 - 54.733 Media Services for always being there to support and help us as well.

01:27 - 57.870 So thank you to the guys in the booth

01:28 - 03.609 to the House Republican Communications Office that is here as well.

01:28 - 05.277 So thank you for covering as well.

01:28 - 09.314 Thank you.

01:28 - 12.217 A lot of the videos that you saw today during the intermissions,

01:28 - 15.454 we want to thank Discover NEPA, who was our videography partner.

01:28 - 19.324 And they're always to assist and always answer my crazy calls

01:28 - 21.894 with all kinds of crazy ideas and they never say no.

01:28 - 23.695 So Brian's here from Discover NEPA.

01:28 - 30.803 So thank you, Lancaster Trophy House for always providing us

01:28 - 36.508 with such wonderful medals and our trophies for today's winner.

01:28 - 37.342 Lots of clapping.

01:28 - 39.645 We're doing lots of clapping today

01:28 - 42.514 to the Pennsylvania Commission for Community Colleges

01:28 - 43.382 and the Pennsylvania

01:28 - 47.152 State System of Higher Education, their partnership in awareness efforts.

01:28 - 51.590 So thank you.

01:28 - 55.260 The United States Postal Service for their initial partnership

01:28 - 59.798 to pilot this amazing program in 2019 and allowing us to continue it

01:28 - 04.970 here in the Commonwealth through the anniversary in 2026.

01:29 - 08.273 Since I'm getting to the end, I promise your hands are getting tired.

01:29 - 12.077 I know two clear point communications for sponsoring our wonderful

01:29 - 14.346 and delicious lunch today, so thank you

01:29 - 17.616 to you GI

01:29 - 22.054 Utilities for their ongoing support each and every year.

01:29 - 26.458 And lastly, to the Pennsylvania Turnpike for their presenting partnership

01:29 - 30.062 to support and ensure that this program continues through 2026.

01:29 - 33.665 So to you, GI and the Turnpike Commission, thank you.

01:29 - 39.304 So I would like to ask State Representative Val Gates and Michael

01:29 - 43.342 Coren, who are America 250 commissioners to please join me on stage

01:29 - 47.412 to help announce the third, second and first place winners.

01:29 - 52.951 And if Don and Kellie would also join for the photo

01:29 - 56.922 three great.

01:29 - 59.858 Okay, so are we ready for third place?

01:30 - 02.561 So our third place

01:30 - 05.764 winners for the Direct Effect Innovation Challenge.

01:30 - 11.436 Our fifth annual is Rosemont Up.

01:30 - 14.573 Once we announce if you could please come forward,

01:30 - 18.577 collect your certificates, we'll do a photo and then we'll move on to

01:30 - 24.917 first place, third place.

01:30 - 26.118 So here you

01:30 - 29.688 can take

01:30 - 30.155 this.

01:30 - 30.822 Awesome.

01:30 - 35.494 Congratulations, you.

01:30 - 37.563 And we're just going to head back here for a photo, okay?

01:30 - 40.199 Congratulations

01:30 - 42.568 And congrats.

01:30 - 43.435 Thank you.

01:30 - 44.603 I think I'm going to jump you.

01:30 - 46.672 Of course I'm here for a photo.

01:30 - 48.273 Was also

01:30 - 52.110 at the podium.

01:30 - 56.982 And as you can see, hand over say, let me go over here.

01:30 - 59.785 Yeah, jump in over here.

01:30 - 01.954 We should. Yeah, we're here. Shifting.

01:31 - 03.455 How about have you guys maybe come in front.

01:31 - 04.022 How about we do that?

01:31 - 07.426 Let's in your tall let's hear you right here that.

01:31 - 08.794 There we go.

01:31 - 10.996 Let's right here we go very good.

01:31 - 18.170 All right, perfect.

01:31 - 18.437 Thank you.

01:31 - 27.713 Thank you.

01:31 - 28.780 Okay.

01:31 - 31.750 When I grab our second place certificates,

01:31 - 33.585 we've got those.

01:31 - 34.319 Michael

01:31 - 40.892 So our second place team is the Pennsylvania College of

01:31 - 59.244 Art and Design. Here

01:32 - 00.812 you are.

01:32 - 02.914 Congratulations.

01:32 - 04.783 Congratulations.

01:32 - 07.386 Congratulations.

01:32 - 08.453 Congratulations.

01:32 - 09.621 So we're going to do the same thing here.

01:32 - 10.989 We're going to put some folks in front row.

01:32 - 13.492 Did you two rows and you move forward a little bit for me.

01:32 - 14.493 Okay.

01:32 - 17.296 And then maybe can share something that I don't want to jump in here.

01:32 - 18.630 Get in there.

01:32 - 21.033 You're right there. Right there. Perfect. Okay, good.

01:32 - 23.602 Okay. I'm going to say it.

01:32 - 32.611 Yes, yeah, yeah.

01:32 - 34.112 Okay. Thank you.

01:32 - 45.724 Congratulations again.

01:32 - 48.293 Will you go grab the medal

01:32 - 56.368 carefully?

01:32 - 10.549 Yes. Oh, okay.

01:33 - 11.717 Well, okay.

01:33 - 12.984 Okay.

01:33 - 14.553 So the moment we've all been waiting for.

01:33 - 16.655 So we do like a little drumroll.

01:33 - 18.924 Okay. All right.

01:33 - 23.362 So the winner of the fifth annual American EPA Direct Effect

01:33 - 32.003 Innovation Challenge is your sinus.

01:33 - 35.674 Oh, which one of you can put the Medal of Honor?

01:33 - 36.842 Perfect.

01:33 - 42.714 Okay, tag team, are you up?

01:33 - 45.317 Congratulations. Congratulations.

01:33 - 48.787 And we're going to ask you to step one.

01:33 - 50.989 Oh, yeah, you're right behind us.

01:33 - 52.491 Yeah. Okay.

01:33 - 54.693 Do we get anything done?

01:33 - 56.194 We go. Thank you.

01:33 - 56.561 Thank you.

01:33 - 57.462 Congratulations.

01:33 - 59.765 Your team leader is the fall guy.

01:33 - 01.099 All right, now,

01:34 - 03.735 I thank you for

01:34 - 05.337 that.

01:34 - 08.373 Congratulations.

01:34 - 09.908 Thank you for asking.

01:34 - 13.979 So I think that congratulations.

01:34 - 14.546 You said

01:34 - 15.947 to reach

01:34 - 17.482 challenge.

01:34 - 21.920 Step back here for a photo that

01:34 - 24.656 we're going to do two rose again.

01:34 - 28.727 So here we go.

01:34 - 30.262 Okay, good.

01:34 - 31.963 Right down here.

01:34 - 33.999 Let's hold this right here.

01:34 - 35.534 Let me speak in the middle here with this trophy.

01:34 - 36.001 There we go.

01:34 - 37.936 Okay.

01:34 - 39.271 I'm so

01:34 - 45.510 sorry.

01:34 - 47.913 All right, just a couple more.

01:34 - 49.381 All right, good.

01:34 - 52.918 One, two, three, four. One, two, three.

01:34 - 55.153 Thank you. Hey, where you going?

01:34 - 57.155 We're going to ask you to hold right here.

01:34 - 58.056 Give me 1/2.

01:34 - 03.128 I. So congratulations again to our winning team

01:35 - 10.669 and thank you all again for being here with us

01:35 - 14.306 and for all of your work this year on the Direct Effect Innovation Challenge.

01:35 - 15.941 And thank you again to our judges

01:35 - 18.944 and we hope that all of the schools will participate again next year.

01:35 - 20.345 So this concludes our program.

01:35 - 52.377 Thank you so much.