The Newberg Graphic
| A road trip with a purpose | ||||
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| Newberg couple will cruise the country with a cause to feed impoverished children, in a free Ford | ||||
It might be more compact and fuel efficient than what the average American expects from Ford, but for Steve and Chelsea Ochs, it's big enough for a portable theater. "It's actually pretty comfortable," said Chelsea, a Newberg native, looking into the open door of her Ford Fiesta. And it had better be, since she and husband Steve will spend most of the next few months in the little car that he described as sporting a "man-genta" paint job. In preparation for the 2010 release of the 2011 Fiesta model in the U.S., Ford launched a social media campaign called the "Fiesta Movement," in which 100 "agents" are test-driving the car for six months. The drivers were selected from thousands of applicants based on media prominence. The agents have monthly missions to incorporate themes given by Ford into some interesting format and publish or post them to media such as YouTube.com, Twitter.com or even the Ford campaign's Web site. The current theme is style and design. "We looked for people who were interesting and had social media contacts, since it's a social media campaign," said Jenny Yim-Nordquist. "So (Steve Ochs) is a great candidate because he's big on YouTube and Twitter." Steve, whose resume includes United Nations Arabic translator, social media consultant and children's author and illustrator of his book "SteamPotVille," has nearly 25,000 followers on the micro-blog site Twitter.com. He goes by the pen name Steve Ouch, "like the sound you make when you hurt yourself," his book's Web site says. But the couple won't just be using their media prominence, complementary car, car insurance and gas for Ford publicity, although publicity will certainly be achieved. "We asked, what can we do that's really good for people?" Steve said. Their answer was to use media to provide food for those in need. The Ochs, who have been married for nearly a year, will take a road trip across the southern half of the country to show movies in parks for children and get canned food donated to food banks in their Food Bank Blitz. They will show family films, projected onto a homemade 8-foot by 11-foot screen. The projector will connect to their laptop computers, which will double as DVD players. The portable cinema, which will all be packed into the Fiesta, will be powered by the car battery. Admission to the movie is a can of food donated to food banks near the show. Ochs said they plan to do a test movie in New Mexico. They will then do six shows in cities in the Gulf states that they deemed high-need, beginning with Brownsville, Texas, and ending in Tampa, Fla. "In Brownsville 25 percent of children are food-insecure, meaning they don't get enough food" Chelsea said. "That was part of our reason for going." Steve said the canned food drive is especially necessary given the bad economy. "With the current economic situation there's more stress on food banks to keep food on the shelves," he said. They will also have periodic media blitz days, in which they will use their media prominence to get people to pledge to donate cans of food to their local foodbanks, which can be found on the Food Bank Blitz Web site. If the trip is a success, they may continue into August, since their current project fits the Ford campaign's upcoming philanthropy theme. In preparation for the trip, the duo, titled Agent 86 by Ford, left their residence in Portland and set up headquarters at Chelsea's parents' house in Newberg. They departed Thursday and will occasionally spend the night with hosts while on the road; however, the two will spend most of their nights in a tent, Steve said. To find out more about the Fiesta Movement visit FiestaMovement.com. Follow along with the Ochs at FoodBankBlitz.com and on Steve's Twitter.com page, under his pen name Steve Ouch at Twitter.com/steveouch. | ||||
