John Damoulis
Michael Cavanagh
Bianca Bernard
St. John's University
Charles Wankel
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The Hudson Valley Chalk Festival is an biennial festival supported by Water Street Market, in New Paltz, New York. The festival expresses a unique form of "street art", in which many street artists come together and create amazing pieces of imagery on the floor with chalk. This unique combination of artistry and selflessness creates a historical and unique atmosphere to the community.
Chalk Festivals are innovative techniques used by many in order to initiate concern over certain topics, or to create art as a community. Chalk Festivals are a unique form of street art that originated in Italy, but spread world wide among many different communities. When street art met main stream attention, it was able to spread messages that were not only artistic, but on aspects of life, similar to that of musical creations.
Being innovative to create a good cause is a positive factor in life and everyone should attempt to be innovative and attempt things outside of the box, similar to that of Amanda and the Chalk Festival. Rite Aid raises money for the Maria Fareri Childrens Hospital annually, this year in particular giving managers the opportunity to raise money and bring attention to the subject the best way they could, which in result brings awareness to the Rite Aid business model. This is not a core business model, of all Rite Aid locations, but this Rite Aid in particular contributes donations to the hospital using the Chalk Festival.
Amanda was inspired to create this festival based on her prior experiences in dealing with such a cause. Because of this prior experience, Amanda was able to quickly put together a successful festival and did not have any major hardships to deal with. Being a manager at Rite Aid, Rite Aid has also shown its commitment to helping others by supplying customers with items that they may need, and Amanda is no different. She uses the Rite Aid way in order to help children from the Maria Fareri Children's Hospital with a beautiful expression of street art.
Amanda's example can be a beneficial charity model for other businesses to follow, being how successful the endeavor was. Amanda says the charitable efforts helps distinguish Rite Aid from any other local pharmacy. Amanda feels that customers would give Rite Aid a higher personal value than other local retailers due to their charitable efforts. Sales from Rite Aid relatively stayed the same throughout the Chalk Festival, but it did create more foot traffic which may lead to higher revenue in the future. Customers in need of supplies may turn to Rite Aid in the area now, compared to other local competitors. Other businesses may also use a Chalk Festival to stir up donations for their local cause. Costs for the festival were about 250 dollars Amanda stated in the interview. Along with doing great deeds for your community, you can also create attention for your store in the long term process.
Amanda is a store manager for Rite Aid. She started a Chalk Festival in Newburgh to establish a donation to the Maria Fareri Children's Hosptial. Amanda has been a part of an already established Chalk Festival, which sparked her idea to create a new one. She received donations from local gyms, restaurants, museums, and mechanics. Amanda received things such as "donations of free gym memberships" and also "donations of free oil changes". All the money raised went back to the hospital and helping in any form possible. The Chalk Festival raised 505.08 dollars before expenses, but Rite Aid as a store donated 1800 dollars in total. In essence, Rite Aid is a part of the business model, for the time being, as it was created by the local Rite Aid market. Also, Rite Aid has a program entitled "Kid Cents", where consumers have the option to round their price up in order to donate to children who are in need of better futures.
The environmental and societal benefits of this festival are massive. It assists children who are in desperate need, raises money, and also helps artists grow and work together for a good cause. Many children participated in the festival and children from the hospital got to experience artwork from a personal point of view. These types of festivals uplift communities and inspire others to come together and create good things of high impact. Society looks at these events, and inspiration flows into them and, as a result, more of these charitable events occur.
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Amanda Lynn, Interviewing Amanda, Rite Aid's Manager, concerning The Chalk Festival
