WAHOO!!! We’re crossing that finish line!

Alright everyone, we have officially reached the end of our 24 hours.
WAHOO!!!
Sorry to leave you alone for the past couple of hours, but we had to wrap up all the awesomeness to get ready for our presentations. Watch our live stream! You’ve followed us this far, follow us across that finish line and see the final products of all our hard work. We’ll begin presenting at 10:30am, and really hope you will watch!

It’s been a really incredible journey for all of us. We can’t thank you enough, our loyal internet supporters. You have really kept the energy up for us. The fact that you’re watching, that you’re proud of us and that you can see what we’re doing for the good of the community has kept us going in times of sleepless delirium. You’ve given us over a thousand blog hits over the hours, and kept the Twitter hashtag #CreateAthonCHA as the number one most used hashtag in Chattanooga practically since we started. Thank you so much for everything!

It isn’t over yet!!

Stay tuned on our Blog, Twitter, and Facebook to keep up with the continuing work as we finish what we’ve started here in the past 24 hours. Thanks again, and we’ll see you at 10:30!

Interview: Helen Johnson (4am Hourly Update)

Helen Johnson is the co-founder of CreateHere, an innovative non-profit based in Chattanooga. She does amazing things through CreateHere and is here tonight as an incredible volunteer and partner. She is rocking it out with us and we are so happy to have her!

Interview: Leslie Jensen-Inman (2am Hourly Update)

Here’s an interview with UTC’s own Leslie Jensen-Inman. If you’re unaware, Leslie is the mastermind behind bringing CreateAthon to UTC.

Guest post: Victoria M. Bryan

Tonight I’ve found myself in a situation in which I never thought I would find myself as a graduate student in English: I’m in the UTC Fine Arts Center at 10:00 pm writing a guest blog post for CreateAthon onCampus Chattanooga. To make this experience seem even more surreal, I’m accompanied by design students performing the rap they just wrote about this fantastic project. We’re all full of caffeine, Red Bull, pizza, and beautifully decorated cupcakes, and despite the sugar overload, the impromptu dance parties, and the impending sense of delirium, I’m amazed by how much excellent work these students have been able to put together in such a short amount of time.

The work that is being done here is providing the design students with a lot of valuable experience and it will provide excellent learning opportunities and an improved sense of community for the students at Dalewood Middle School. This entire experience has been beautiful to witness. The videos of the pep rally this morning show students who genuinely want to improve their situation, a principal dedicated to making that happen, and college students invested in their community enough to come together to help. I’ll admit that they made me tear up a little.

While Dalewood Middle will surely be improved by the completion of this project, I think it’s important for these design students to realize just how much their student community is being strengthened by this experience. I was impressed when Leslie Jensen-Inman ended our first big meeting this afternoon by asking someone to say something positive about the experience at hand; I’m fairly certain this is something I want to implement in my classroom in the future.

The camaraderie within this department is something I hope these students appreciate and will continue to cherish as they move onward and upward in the design world.