Award-Winning Artist joins Get Active Today
Milwaukee, WI – Greg Marshall, an award-winning musician, author and public speaker, joined Get Active Today this week as the newest collaborator on this community-based resource empowering people to connect and share ways for being active and healthy in their communities. When asked what art has to do with Get Active, Marshall responded, “Being healthy goes beyond what you eat and how many minutes you worked out in a day. It is tied with the little things that inspire you and create who you are. I wanted to bring this voice of, what I hope is, inspiration and invite people to engage in authentic dialogue about how they maintain a healthy life and what it means to them.” Aside from his contributions on the blog, Greg wrote and directed the commercials for Get Active Today, available for viewing on Fox 6, on Facebook or YouTube.
As part of the launch of his Get Active Today blog, Greg is appearing on Fox6 in Milwaukee on WakeUp, on Tuesday, December 7.
Get Active Today is an engaging, community-based, cross-platform program encouraging families to get active in their community through information and resource sharing.
Get Active Today is online at www.getactivetoday.com.
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About Active Across America
Active Across America is a multi-platform distribution company committed to engaging and empowering individuals in discussing, achieving, promoting and sustaining healthy, active lifestyles. Using multi-faceted distribution channels, including social and traditional media, research-based, credible resources and programs are made highly visible and viral, thereby encouraging action across a broad-based demographic. Active Across America developed and launched Get Active Today in 2010.
For more information, visit www.activeacrossamerica.com or call 414.292.3316
Ascedia and Active Across America partner to Kick It UpTM
Strategic partnership focuses on raising awareness of healthy lifestyle resources
Milwaukee, WI – Ascedia and Active Across America have teamed up to develop Get Active Today, a community-based, health promotion and awareness program focused on empowering adults and engaging children in healthy, active lifestyles by showcasing the resources within our community.
“Statistics about poor health related to poor diet and physical inactivity surround us.” noted Meg Miller, the content director and co-creator of Get Active Today. “Just as there are many causes for the current health crisis, there need to be many solutions. Get Active Today is an engaging community resource developed for mainstream to positively impact behavior.”
The creators of Get Active Today had the expertise to develop the content and framework for Get Active Today, but lacked the expertise in developing an online community, noted Deanne Monaghan, program co-creator. They approached Ascedia when they realized Dan Early and Mark Roller, principals of Ascedia, has the vision for aggregating content and making Get Active Today a living breathing, viral community.
Ascedia has been developing interactive solutions for a wide variety of businesses, including travel and hospitality, healthcare and medical services, manufacturing, non-profit, and retail businesses since September 2000. “Ascedia has joined with Active Across America to bring forward a much needed resource and interactive online community for families and those looking to live a more active and healthy lifestyle. Ascedia plans to grow Get Active Today’s digital offering with social, mobile and community engagement over the next months,” said Sara Santiago, President, Roll Mobile.
Get Active Today is accessible online at www.getactivetoday.com, www.facebook/getactivetoday or at www.twitter.com/getactivetoday.
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About Active Across America
Active Across America is a social marketing company committed to engaging youth and the adults who care for them in discussing, achieving, promoting and sustaining healthy, active lifestyles. Using multi-faceted distribution channels, including social and traditional media, research-based, credible resources and programs are made highly visible and viral, thereby encouraging action across a broad-based demographic. Active Across America developed and launched Get Active Today in 2010. For more information, visit www.activeacrossamerica.com or call 414.292.3316
About Ascedia
Ascedia is a web development company with expertise in website design, web programming, internet marketing, SEO, PPC, e-mail and hosting. With the right blend of web design, programming, and electronic marketing, Ascedia prides itself on turning your vision into a successful web experience. For more information, visit www.ascedia.com or call 414.292.3200
MATC students bring footwear alive in 3-D animation
By Stanley A. Miller II of the Journal Sentinel
Posted: May 11, 2010
Stinky Shoe and Coach LaRoo, Toe Jam and Hiker Hank are lacing up and stepping out Wednesday at Discovery World, where the 3-D characters will be center stage as part of MATC’s portfolio night.
The toons, which are based on different types of footwear, are brought to life through the efforts of animation students such as Alex Printz of Menomonee Falls. Over about five weeks and hundreds of hours, Printz and other students took concept sketches and rendered them into bright, sharp, colorful creatures and crafted the rules making them move on screen.
“All my spare computer time has been spent on this,” Printz said as he worked on Stinky Shoe. “This is going to be the crowning jewel of my work at MATC.”
Stinky and his crew are the stars of a pilot for a series of video vignettes called “Shoe Horn Shout Outs.” The 90-second-or-so spots were commissioned by Active Across America, a social marketing company in Milwaukee that teaches the benefits of healthy living, including proper diet and exercise.
Printz began by bringing actual shoes into the animation lab – a canvass shoe for Stinky and a combat boot for Sarge, a less prominent character he also designed for the project.
“I had to figure out the underlying structure,” Printz said.
Printz said the assignment started as a polishing of his established set of skills but soon evolved into a challenge raising his abilities “to the next level.”
“It’s a big project, and it’s been a lot of fun,” said Brian Mennenoh, chair of the animation department at MATC. “Alex’s work on Stinky Shoe has been way more than a cartoon shoe needs to be. I’ve been absolutely impressed with the work. I am also impressed with how they’ve all handled the deadlines we’ve given them.”
These “Shoe Horn Shout Outs” are the next generation of Stinky Shoe series, which began in 2003 as instructional sports videos combining live-action scenes and animated characters for children 3 to 8. The partnership with MATC adds several new personalities as well as touching Stinky and LaRoo, the founding characters.
“Stinky Shoe has grown up a bit,” said Deanne Monaghan, a partner at Active Across America and creative director. “The original version of Stinky Shoe was very workable, but several years have passed. We are thrilled with the evolution.”
In addition to meeting tight deadlines, Monaghan said MATC’s team took feedback well and “impressed us with their imagination when allowed to take creative liberties” with the new characters.
“It’s been exciting to develop them with the students,” Monaghan said. “They’ve really treated us like we are a client.”
The Stinky Shoe series taps the talents of several departments at MATC – including television production, animation and music – and that’s the type of cross-disciplinary collaboration important to James MacDonald, associate dean of business, graphic arts, television and video production.
“They are building things in teams, and that’s how real work gets done,” MacDonald said. “Experience like this is very important because it makes them valuable to industry.”
MATC students bring footwear alive in 3-D animation – JSOnline
Tune In and Tone Up – Nick Jr. Family Magazine
Animated characters Stinky Shoe and Coach LaRoo are on a quest for excitement at Camp Imagination.
The Year’s Best Toys! Parenting Magazine
An animated sneaker and his trainer host this tutorial about soccer and sportsmanship. Energized music will inspire viewers to join the fun – just make sure they do it outside!
Soccer Has Never Been So Much Fun
“When signing my daughter up for soccer for the first time, I quickly realized this wasn’t going to be an adventure just for her,” admits Chris Armstrong, a new soccer mom in Wisconsin. “ I was required to sign up for a volunteer position, and the trouble was, I knew nothing about soccer!”
Thanks in part to the video The Fundamentals of Soccer with Stinky Shoe & Coach LaRoo, Ms. Armstrong (and her daughter) now have the basics of the game down and can say with confidence, “Having made it through our first season of U6 soccer, we are heading into the spring soccer season quite prepared.”
Happily The Fundamentals of Soccer with Stinky Shoe & Coach LaRoo can help other new soccer Moms, Dads, and players too. This 30- minute video incorporates live action – real kids and their coach – and animation with off-beat characters, Stinky Shoe and Coach LaRoo. Music and humor is woven throughout to add to the fun and entertainment.
Created by Moms and coaches, this video addresses what kids need to know about soccer, from passing and juggling to scoring and teamwork. It’s fun and engaging for children 4-10.
For those who are signing their kids up for baseball (instead of or in addition to soccer) there is The Fundamentals of Baseball with Stinky Shoe & Coach LaRoo. Both are produced by A.L.L. For Kids, who plan to cover many more sports as the company expands this unique instructional video series. The creators recognize that given the proper tolls to learn the game, a child (and parent( will feel much more confident participating in the sport.
