Making a difference before we begin
Before asking for people to tweet their feats on Thursday, I didn’t really know what to expect or if anybody would care enough to get involved. In the end, our first round of Thursday Feats attracted plenty of interest, and on Monday you’ll vote for the feat you want to help make happen in the coming 30 days. I’ll write more about this process tomorrow.
Back to Thursday for now. As #feats began appearing I decided to retweet them so followers could see what sort of requests people were making. I didn’t expect anything to come of this, and a few people stopped following as a result. Thankfully, others were paying close attention.
One of the first #feats came from Phillip Newman in New Zealand:
I’ll be honest, I didn’t think much of this – I thought it was some chancer after free video equipment. So I was both ecstatically delighted and desperately guilty for being so cynical when Phillip emailed me yesterday:
“A local company who was watching the twitter feed came forward and has expressed interest in donating their time and expertise to my cause.
“Through this contact I’ve managed to get a couple other contacts who’ve said they would like to chip in something towards getting the video gear needed for me to complete this newly renamed #feat.
“If you remember I’m the guy who wanted to get the pro video gear to be able to go to charity events in my area and provide them a free video for their promotional purposes. My company has all ready been involved in this and it’s been welcomed but there as you can imagine limitations with a small handy cam.
“I’m really happy you’ve started this – that tweet could have been the best thing I’ve done to get me on the right track.”
With the support of just a few hundred people, we’re already bringing about positive change. That’s not a bad start. The more people who follow and don’t mind retweeting one or two tweets a week, the greater the chance of making a difference.
Best of luck to Phillip, and if you’re the tweep who saw his #feat and decided to get involved, thank you for acting.
The support of Photographers for Charity here in New Zealand is right behind Philip on this one.
We’re building something to help other charities with free photographic services, and hoped to partner with Philip so that we could offer mixed media (especially for the larger events).
We can’t afford to purchase the equipment ourselves, we are struggling to support our own needs as it is, so I do hope that Philip gains some support from some of you out there.
Thanks!
James Hancox, Trustee
Photographers for Charity
Twitter: @PhotoCharity
I run a small company in Christchurch, NZ and i’d definitely like to donate my time to help Philip and his charities if he got the equipment he needs!
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Lauree McArdle, Philip Newman, Tane Bufton, Kev Pick and others. Kev Pick said: RT @paul_a_smith RT @featsoftweet » Great news! "Making a difference before we begin" http://bit.ly/LT2aK [...]
I saw Philip’s tweet about this site and wanted to support Philip all the way though. I believe if there is someone out there that can make a difference it would defiantly be him.
I’ve seen some of Phil’s content and wish him best of luck. I’d want to see some kind of plan in writing before I handed any money out.
[...] trying to make it happen through our collective efforts; if others receive help through exposure (which is already happening), that’s no bad thing at [...]
Hey Michael, Is that an offer to get the gear to help our cause? Flick me an @reply on twitter @philipnewmannz and lets talk more. Lets make this the first #feat to be followed though on!
now this is something i would love to help Philip with, i love film making and would greatly help with with camera work, interviewer etc etc to get the good word of charities out there! just need one generous soul to take the first step to give him some gear then Philip can take the next and make great works for great causes.
best of luck Phillip, I think what you are wanting to do is great!
publicity for charities is an awesome endeavor. I believe there is a lot of charity work out there that we never hear about unless it touches us directly. with the cutbacks in government spendings on underpriveleged and disabled people the charities have more work to do to keep up with the need. more power to this project.
Good luck Dude
Moreover, I think this would be a splendid idea. It is totally plausible, unique and actually for a good cause. Let us help Philip as we foster this into reality.
Free promotion would be awesome for people who need it. I’m on the wrong side of the world to benefit from this but will watch the progress. Seems like there is lots of people who “want to help” but don’t know how they can help because of the expense behind it.
The fact that he has Photographers for Charity behind him all ready is a good sign that hes looking to help the community even if its not on my side of the world.