Fire-Wired Blog

What you see above is the finished product of four months of work, a dozen interviews, a bunch of b-roll shots, and meetings upon meetings. A seriously large project and done for an audience of... two people. Hey that's what happens here in the world of higher education fundraising and stewardship. This project was almost like producing a documentary into the way private giving has impacted over 100 students at ISU and thousands of people around the world. Quite a cool project for my first big assignment. I worked with a team of 10 people building everything we wanted to touch on and figuring out who we needed to feature. I really wish I could share it with you but thems the breaks. I'm really proud of the finished product and I hope the donors enjoy it.

One of the few topics that comes naturally to me is history. My Dad is a bit of a history nerd and after childhood full of museums and presidential trivia I passively became infected with the passion for yesteryear. Seems fitting that I've worked on a handful of historical documentaries.  Recently, the Foundation made a decision to hold a major banquet at Iowa State's newly renovated State Gym, and as part of the program for the evening, I was tasked to dig up some history on the facility. I got really excited and contacted the ISU Special Collections Department  to see what they have on the old gym. Turns out quite a bit. Above is a picture of the Iowa State COLLEGE State Gym circa 1918. Built in 1913 and opened in 1914, the State Gym was at one point considered "one of the finest gyms west of the Mississippi." The State Gymnasium was the first multi-purpose gym on campus. It housed two basketball courts, a suspended track, a swimming pool, a basement lev...