2008 will be remembered as the year that Larissa made a Difference
Here is a six-minute video that captures Larissa's 388,800 minutes on the job!
The spokesperson search
St. Albert, Alberta's Larissa Walkiw submitted her application on October 26, 2007. We were immediately struck by her imagination and creativity. It was clear from the beginning that this was a talented young woman that could represent Alberta's 25 and under crowd very well.
By the time the dust had settled, Larissa was the clear winner with 49% of the votes. On December 6, 2007, Common Wealth Credit Union's Kim Crockett drove to the Walkiw residence and surprised Larissa with the offer to become the Young & Free Spokesman. She was quick to accept and to correct Kim by accepting the job of Young & Free Spokesgirl!
Larissa's year (well nine months)
The hard work began on January 1, 2008 when Larissa officially started her job. Her Happy New Year video established a high benchmark.
Larissa's role as the Y&F Spokesperson consisted of writing five blog posts including one video blog every single week! Over the course of the next nine months, Larissa wrote more than 175 blog posts brimming with wit, creativity and thought-provoking content.
Every text blog post included one of her quirky original illustrations.
Larissa's more than 40 high-quality videos have attracted in excess of 80,000 views to date. An amazing fact is that every video was conceived, written, filmed and edited by Larissa with no outside assistance.
But of course the video that put Young & Free Alberta on the map was Larissa's early January release of The Difference Between Banks and Credit Unions Part 1. This video has been viewed more than 30,000 times by people from every corner of the globe. It has been embedded on more than 30 credit union industry blogs and was featured on the World Council of Credit Unions' homepage.
"How is it, that in the 100 or so years that credit unions have existed, no CU executive, no ad agency creative genius, no anybody for that matter, has been able to articulate the difference between credit unions and banks as well, as artistically and as entertainingly as the 19-year old Canadian that did this video?"
Larissa followed up her ground-breaking animated video with Part 2.
In the local market, we were able to parlay the world-wide notarity of these videos into an appearance by Larissa on a popular regional morning television program.
From green room and the Internet to the real world
Internet popularity aside, possibly the most impactful part of Larissa's term was when she was able to attend events with our Internal Spokester Jere. Visitors to the site are able to enter events on the calendar. The Y&F Team keeps an eye on these events and then selects a number to attend throughout the year.
Credit unions are presented with event sponsorship opportunities all of the time. These sponsorship packages typically include exposure through program advertisements, banners, logos on T-shirts and the ever-popular big cheque presentation. In the spirit of Young & Free, we were able do something far more fun and memorable. Larissa and Jere attended more than 10 events as roving reporters and documented their travels in video form.
Larissa packed a career of highlights into just nine months. Her impact has been felt throughout our credit union, our communities, our membership and the credit union industry. Not too bad for a young woman not yet 20 years old!
Larissa is now off to university to pursue a degree in film and we will certainly be keeping our eyes on her in the future. We were lucky to have had her as a team member for the first nine months of 2008.
In Larissa's second video she thanked Common Wealth Credit Union and her potential voters. If only we had a 10th of her talent, we would thank her in an equally creative way.
Good luck Larissa. Thank you for everything you accomplished for Young & Free Alberta and Common Wealth Credit Union. We will all miss you.
"Thank you for giving us the chance to have you speak for us! La la la..."
Your friends on the Common Wealth Credit Union Team
Vote for Larissa Posted 10/26/2007
Thank You Posted 11/21/2007
Breakfast TV#1 Posted 11/29/2007
Operation Surprise Posted 12/10/2007
Breakfast TV #2 Posted 12/13/2007
Newcap News at Six Posted 12/28/2007
Happy New Year Posted 01/01/2008
Opening an Account Posted 01/08/2008
The E-mail Song Posted 01/15/2008
Difference Part 1 Posted 01/23/2008
CU Difference Teaser Posted 01/30/2008
1-Month Anniversary Posted 01/31/2008
Breakfast TV #3 Posted 02/06/2008
Difference Part 2 Posted 02/14/2008
Y&F First Road Trip Posted 02/21/2008
Kalan Porter Tribute Posted 02/26/2008
Larissa Meets Kalan Posted 02/26/2008
CUCO Conference Posted 03/05/2008
Yahoo Live Demo Posted 03/20/2008
Think Free Chequing Posted 04/10/2008
Movie Week Update Posted 04/23/2008
Juno Contest Winner Posted 04/30/2008
Reel Shorts Fest Posted 05/08/2008
Speaker's Corner Posted 05/15/2008
Difference Part 3 Posted 05/22/2008
Skate Park Opening Posted 05/27/2008
Makes Cents Posted 06/04/2008
Barrhead Weekend Posted 06/10/2008
Slave Lake Opening Posted 06/24/2008
Summer Week Posted 06/30/2008
Shoebox Budget Posted 07/09/2008
Splash & Smash Posted 07/17/2008
Sand Sculture Posted 07/23/2008
CUMA Speech Posted 08/07/2008
Announcement Posted 08/11/2008
Live Show Coming Posted 08/13/2008
Larissa Live Posted 08/14/2008
Back to School Posted 08/18/2008
School Outtakes Posted 08/18/2008
Larissa Skydiving Posted 08/19/2008
Pocket Mod Posted 08/27/2008
Are You In? Posted 08/28/2008
The Search is On Posted 09/03/2008
Vlog Tech Tips Posted 09/08/2008
10 Reasons to Apply Posted 09/22/2008
App Extension Posted 10/01/2008
App Phase Closed Posted 10/18/2008
Spokesminstrel Posted 10/17/2008
Voting Closed Posted 10/28/2008
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