Special Olympics West Virginia

Organization Bio
Founded as a day camp in 1968 in Parkersburg, Special Olympics West Virginia now holds four multi-day competitions throughout the state for more than 5,000 athletes, both children and adults, who are mentally challenged.

Company Story
With a staff of four, Special Olympics West Virginia (SOWV) provides training and competition in Olympics-type sports and supports volunteer directors in 40 counties.

In 2005, Jamie Summers-Brown extended website and marketing material development to SOWV, initially serving through a Verizon grant to upgrade the organization's information systems. Following the grant’s completion, Summers-Brown continued offering pro bono services.

Website
Prior to working with Summers-Brown and Bricks Without Straw, SOWV’s website was stagnant, updated only about once a year, relates CEO John Corbett.

Virtually all of the organization’s support emanates from the private sector--it receives no federal funding--so having a robust platform to thank sponsors is a valuable feature, he says.

With the website upgrade and continued technical support provided by Bricks Without Straw, SOWV is able to offer sponsors the additional benefit of being featured on the website, and allow coaches and athletes to see and share event results updated regularly.

“Now we’re regularly posting event results, corporate sponsorships, and upcoming community activities, it’s more relevant and up-to-date,” Corbett says. “For folks involved in program every day, whether coach, parent, athlete, or county director, they can go to website and download forms and information, or they can show their friends or grandpa and grandma the results. It makes them proud.”

The Bricks Without Straw team also provides regular updates to the organization's social media, including Facebook.

“The response time is excellent,” Corbett says. “We get web updates within a day. Being pro-bono, it allows us to direct funds to Special Olympics athletes. This is a very valuable service to our organization.”

Polar Plunge Brochure

One of the organization’s cornerstone fundraising events is its annual Polar Plunge, now held on different weekends in Charleston, Morgantown and Beckley. In 2010, Polar Plunge events across the state raised in excess of $100,000.

Polar Plunge participants secure pledges from friends and family and take a plunge into an icy pool or lake mid-winter, usually February or March.

“It’s a great event,” Corbett relates. “It’s truly entertaining, and lends itself to visual excitement--just to see them come out of that water.”

Corbett notes that the prior Polar Plunge brochure, done in-house, didn’t do justice to the event’s color and excitement.

“When we first did (the brochure), it was cut-and-paste, one color, and didn’t have much flair,” he says. “Jamie suggested he could do better, and he did do better. It was attractive, functional. It was hip. It grabs your attention.”

Summers-Brown credits the brochure’s visual appeal to Bricks Without Straw lead designer Erica Fisher. “I did the entire layout of the brochure, but when Erica puts her ideas and finishing touch to it, it’s what I would call magical,” he says.

Available in print and online during event promotion, the brochure helps recruit participants. In 2010, more than 400 people took the plunge.

“That became a useful tool for us to put in the hands of those who were considering plunging,” Corbett adds. “Jamie even took the plunge one year.”