Virtual Fundraisers and Community Activism

Adapting to social distancing procedures has been challenging in many ways during the COVID-19 pandemic. A new wrinkle that I got to navigate while working this fall for Seattle Neighborhood Greenways: holding volunteer appreciation and year-end fundraisers online! Our “Streets for People” event used Remo, which simulates a conference space complete with table-hopping and small-group video chats between the main events.

Screenshot of Remo’s virtual table layouts, with attendees scattered across tables.

As Communications Coordinator, one of my roles was simply to bop around the tables and make sure everyone was having an okay time. Sort of a mix between greeting folks at a visitor center, and doing spontaneous IT interventions! I wore my lucky tie and my glowing headphones for extra confidence. But we all rose to the virtual occasion with remarkable ease.

(The power tie is by Trickster Company in Juneau, Alaska.)

“Streets for People” was also the debut of a series of videos we made to celebrate the amazing community activists that worked for safe streets in Seattle during 2020. I worked with some very talented video editors on these projects. My role was to sift through all the raw interview footage and b-roll and pull out the threads of short, compelling storylines. The storyboards that I created were the template from which the videographers worked their visual magic.

Snippet of the storyboard for Seattle Neighborhood Greenway’s “Streets for People” video.

I’m proud to share two of the videos that I worked on—“Cafe Streets” and “Fixing Rainier Avenue”—here!