Purpose:

To engage K-12 students, teachers and parents in the rebranding of our community.

Background: 

EDAWN (Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada) and the EDAWN Foundation initiated the Diversified Business Marketing Campaign (DBMC) to find ways to educate our 4 million annual visitors on the actual business make-up of the region.  The campaign has moved forward with the effort to change out all of the taxi-tops with a business/family friendly message and has developed several community messages that blend quality of life with regional business strengths.  These messages are now displayed on many of the taxi tops.

Discussion: 

The EDAWN Foundation has decided to continue the ongoing efforts of rebranding the community as a business destination, but want to continue expanding the program by engaging the K-12 students, teachers and parents in the effort.  To do this the “design a taxi top” campaign was initiated in 2014.

This campaign involves elementary, middle and high school students of Washoe County by running a competition that would encourage each school to submit a student-created taxi-top design. This project can be individual or group developed and will eventually compete with other schools in that category.  This competition would add more awareness to our current campaign and allow school children the opportunity to portray to our visitors what they envision as our real community brand.

The Program: 

  1. Each school will determine their entries and submit the creative taxi top design electronically to EDAWN at mcelroy@edawn.org no later than March 31st, 2019.
  2. The submission will include the following:
    1. Name of the school
    2. The category (elementary, middle or high school)
    3. The Principal’s/Teacher’s
    4. The Student’s Name
  3. Foundation Board members and leaders from our local arts community will determine the winners for each category, elementary, middle school and high school.
  4. A Press Release will detail the program and a Press Conference will be held to recognize the winners and to provide a $1,000 check to the principal of the 1st place winning schools, to be used for teacher supplies.
  5. Additionally, the top winning designs will be added to taxi-tops and will include the name of the winning school. The taxis will be on display at the Press Conference and the student’s, their families, teacher and principle, will be encouraged to attend.

Judging Criteria:

  • A simple and distinctive message that shows our visitors what the students believe to be the real image of our region, with an emphasis on what we want others to know about our region.
  • It will contain a minimum number of words so it is easily visible and easy to read on a taxi-top.
  • The more creative and eye-catching the better.
  • The dimensions of the entry should be 10.5 inches wide by 3 inches high which is scalable to 28 inches wide by 8 inches high for poster board and scalable to the size of a taxi top.
  • A vision of what we can become is an option.
  • Quality of life or business message is encouraged.
  • The judging committee will be made up primarily of members from the art community.
     

Message to Teachers:

The EDAWN Foundation and Washoe County School District have agreed that engaging our students in this campaign would provide a perspective from our young adults and encourage them to engage in improving the image of our community.

Teacher Involvement:

Teachers are encouraged to discuss with their students some of the attributes of the region they personally enjoy/appreciate and then turn the conversation over to engage the students and what they like about our where they live, giving them a few ideas to encourage their creativity. The hope is that the students will begin to think more about the positive attributes of the Reno-Sparks region and to put them in to picture form for entry into the contest.

Contact:

For more information on the EDAWN Foundation, contact Rae McElroy, Director of Human Resources, mcelroy@edawn.org, 775-829-3727.

For more information on the Washoe County School District, contact Victoria Campbell, Public Information Officer, vcampbelll@washoeschools.net, 775-333-3789.