CHAGRIN FALLS, Ohio — Like many students, Chagrin Falls High School seniors Andrew Neimeier and John Ranieri have had an unusual school year.
“COVID was definitely tough (with) people locked up, people wanting to get out and go do something, and people looking for any sort of inspiration that they can find,” Ranieri said.
The two friends are a part of the Beachwood High School Marketing Junior Achievement Program, a collective of Northeast Ohio students, who for their senior year were tasked with developing a creative marketing campaign. They came up with Hope Blooms, an inspirational, traveling campaign that you don’t have to look far to find.
“Just on the surface it kind of just looks like a cool art installation,” Neimeier said.
But these flowers, which are currently scattered through downtown Chagrin Falls, represent much more.
“People come over and they wonder what the flower is and they look at it, and then they see one of our yard signs explaining kind of what our project is for. There’s a QR code on the signs to give more information and take you to the website. So that’s a really easy way for people to, you know, link with our cause and learn everything about it,” Neimeier said.
Their cause is fighting the spike in food insecurity brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. Everyone who stops at one of these huge flowers or the field of flower signs will have the opportunity to take a picture, take a sign home and donate to the Greater Cleveland Food Bank.
“One dollar donated equals four meals so we knew that our money was really being put to good use,” Neimeier said.
Ranieri, who is preparing to major in marketing when he goes to college, said the project included coming up with branding such as a logo, a website, connecting with a philanthropy partner and launching and sustaining a social media campaign.
“Getting to do these projects and not just sitting down at a desk and learning definitely going to help me,” Neimeier said.
He said this marketing experience is even more meaningful because it’s something he and his classmates could do to help their communities in such a difficult time.
“Once you put down the seed of hope, then the whole thing starts to bloom. People come together as a community through hope,” he said.
Hope Blooms will have made a stop in six different Greater Cleveland area communities by the end of May. To see if the installation will be in your community, click here.
