PassTheBaton & C-PAO

For the C-PAO activity, my group created a list of tasks to promote giving back to the community though the purchasing of Hydro Flasks. Here are our list of tasks:

1. Use the hashtag #HydroFlaskGivesBack on social media to raise awareness.
2. If you own a Hydro Flask, register it on their website and choose on of the 12 charities to donate to.
3. Give a gift that keeps on giving by giving a Hydro Flask to a friend or family, and encourge them to #GiveBack.
4. Post a picture with your Hydro Flask and caption it #HydroFlaskGivesBack. Write about why you donated to the charity that you did and include a link to HydroFlask for easier accessibility.
5. Encourage a conversation on social media to help raise awareness for the cause and the charity you're passionate about.

When creating these tasks, we were focusing on making them actionable and effective. With these type of donation-based charities where participation is so easy, social networks can play a big part in spreading it. Facebook, Twitter, and even our class' new social platform are used by individuals looking for quick information, quick in-and-out interaction, easy scrolling, etc. Our tasks focused on that, easy tasks that involved interacting with others and posting like they usually would. It wasn't too hard to settle on tasks, since Hydro Flasks are something people are buying either way and something that benefits those consumers. We felt that they were important tasks in that people already have or are willing to buy these bottles, it's just a matter of learning about what they can do with them, which is greatly aided by social media and hashtags. 

Some of the tasks that were given to my group by the #HopePhone team seemed more challenging than others in the sense that they required more of an ownership, a level of it which I did not personally feel comfortable with. For instance, one of the tasks was to create an email to the University of Arizona for them to allow a Hope Phone Drive on campus. Although I think this is a great idea and has a very effective potential, I did not feel that sense of ownership and entitlement myself. In other words, I am not knowledgeable enough about this material and organization to make such an official request from our school. Some of the other tasks such as creating a mass text as well as a social platform post in which you explain the foundation, the steps one has to take, the hashtags incorporated with it for spreadability, etc. These tasks I think are most effective because they are visible by many people; they involve membership, but not a vast amount of ownership, since it's available on one's personal profile to their chosen audience.

Overall, I really enjoyed this activity and the space that was created for our class. I learned that many charities and giving back to the community can come very easily and have a create impact if a lot of people just contribute what they can. One single post can inform somebody something that ends up being life-changing. Many people have HydroFlasks and old phones they will never look back on, and social media can be remarkably effective in communicating with the public the easy things they can do to make a difference.