In Sight

Recently, I sent out a tweet asking for help:

I was thrilled with the response I received, including some insightful information. But one reply stood out. A friend asked if I had heard of #NoFizzCLT and that they might make for a good case study to show clients. I hadn't heard about it, so I asked for more information. That's when she connected me to Bobby DeMuro, Executive Director of NoFizz Charlotte (now a full non-profit organization).

Really, to give Bobby credit, she sent me to their website, and seeing our conversation through hashtags, he found me. From there, we talked a little on Twitter, and I asked if he could send me the story of how NoFizz Charlotte got started. He responded quickly and sent me his story. What struck me was the similarity between how one tweet got his movement started to how one tweet led to our being connected.

Words and connections are powerful things. But I'll let Bobby tell you about that in his own words.

The beginnings of NoFizz Charlotte

On the afternoon of April 21st, 2010, I was Tweeting with a friend of mine, @Cara. She is a personal trainer (like myself) and very into health and fitness. Her vice, though, is soda - she doesn't drink a ton, but she would have one every now and again, and wanted to stop the habit. 

For whatever reason (I forget now) we started challenging each other to give things up for 30 days. She and I eventually agreed that she would give up soda from April 22-May 22, and I, in return, would give up bread (since that would be a challenge for me; I don't drink soda anyways).

The next thing, I will never forget. I was at Jetton Park, which is a gorgeous park with running trails and a beachfront, on Lake Norman - about 15 minutes north of Charlotte. It was about 2 pm, and I was about to go running with my dog, Dakota. 

After I finalized the challenge via Twitter, which was only between Cara and I, I put my phone down and went for a jog. Dakota is a 2-year old pit bull/boxer - so she can flat out run! She did three miles in about 19 minutes - and by the time I got back to the phone, exhausted from the run, I was floored at what I saw.

In the span of 20 minutes or so, I had 100 responses from Charlotte area people saying "No soda? 30 days? I want in!" The first man to respond, @VincentAmmirato (who was also the first to take the challenge) really spear-headed spreading the word via Retweets and such. It absolutely caught on like wildfire.

Before I knew it, we had over 100 people going on the as-yet unnamed challenge. I knew right away we were on to something - I just had no idea WHAT... so I sent out a tweet saying that we should come up with a community hashtag to track the challenge with. 

@TheChicLife responded that it should be something like "No Fiz" or "No Fizz" - for some reason, I decided the one with two z's was perfect, and so we used it. @Gawdawg furthered the cause when he tweeted that it should be unique to Charlotte. A hashtag well used in Charlotte is #CLT - so, we decided to flip a #CLT on the end of it - and thus was born the movement #NoFizzCLT.

As an aside, we have partnered with @TheChicLife to do a 60-day hydration challenge that will debut September 1st-October 31st, 2010. You can click to find information about the 60 at 60 Hydration Challenge.

I called Cara immediately (remember, I'm still sweaty at the park, and the dog is panting and trying to chase squirrels). I remember telling her "hey, we have something here," and that I was going to run with it, distributing information and the like. She was pumped.

That night, I got home and started making the list. It felt like people were just pouring in - I believe in the first challenge as a whole, between Twitter and Facebook, we ended up with 150 Charlotte people on a 30-day no soda program!

For 30 days, I sent out tons and tons of information. I tweeted and Facebooked research studies, findings, articles, and more. I responded to every single person who tweeted us, whether it was positive or negative, about why it was important to give up soda and drink water for their health.

After the challenge ended, I didn't want to lose momentum. I sat down to coffee with two of my best buds, @ONM_Guy, and @yarby (Yarby is one of the coolest people you could possibly know, by the way - he's ridiculously authentic). They both got in my ear about starting NoFizzCLT as a non-profit. 

With my head spinning walking away from the meeting, I realized that they were exactly right. There was so much potential in what we could do, specifically with children at outreach programs in community centers and schools, that the moment was a bit of a "why not" realization for me. 

We started a second NoFizzCLT challenge that ended on August 5th, simply to re-energize the city, and we actually had more people take the pledge! It's gotten us on television a considerable amount, it's made us put Charlotte on the internet map for help (during the second challenge, we had people from all over the country take the pledge to give up soda for 30 days!), and it's gotten us a great local presence with the city. I can't wait to see what holds in the future!

We are now creating a lesson plan to teach children about healthy hydration, consuming water instead of dangerous beverages like soda, and being fit and active. We have permission to go to several school districts already in the surrounding Charlotte area, and our goal for the fall is to go to one classroom (or more) per week and run outreach programs!