Owls With Purpose makes huge impact on Philadelphia community

Strategic Communication seniors Marissa Reale, Mary Strehl, Jenny Lynch, Terra Kliwinski, and Kacie Ricciotti are bringing the community together through their Public Relations Case Study and Capstone class.

Under the supervision of David W. Brown in the Department of Advertising and Public Relations, Temple has entered a team into the Public Relations Student Society of America National Bateman Case Study Competition for the first time ever. The Bateman Competition is a prestigious event that allows for students in public relations to apply both their classroom education and internship experience to implement a full public relations campaign.

For each competition, Bateman assigns a client. This year, they chose With Purpose, a change agent in the first against pediatric cancer with the help of young advocates.

With Purpose was founded by Erin Lee and Mike Benson in honor of their son Sam who passed of Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma, a highly aggressive brain tumor that arises on the glial tissue of the brain.

Each team has until April 9th to submit their final documents for judging where the top three will be invited for further judging.

So far, Owls With Purpose has an impressive list of accomplishments to submit. The team put on a community day that helped Temple volunteers connect with families from the Philadelphia community at Smith Memorial Playground. The event called “Play With Purpose” featured the Philly Phanatic, community partners such as Sculpere Yoga Mind and Ballet Body, Purposeful Play LLC, GP Entertainment and included food donated from Lee’s Hoagie House, coffee from Saxby’s, and pretzels from Philly Soft Pretzel Factory.

In such a short amount of time, Owls With Purpose has been covered from major media outlets around the city including NBC10, 6ABC, iHeartRadio, as well as others.

Students looking to get involved can do so with the help of social media. Post what you do with a purpose in honor of the 43 children that are diagnosed with cancer every day. Students looking to make a donation can do so here by clicking the Owls With Purpose team.

“Joining this capstone class has made my senior year even more meaningful than I ever imagined. It’s not about the competition, for me, it’s about using my passion of public relations to help those who need it most. With Purpose is not your average advocacy group and I’m happy to help tell that story,” says team member Marissa Reale.

Owls With Purpose will be hosting an Open Town Hall meeting Tuesday March 13th at 3:30 in SAC 217D during the Public Relations Student Society of America meeting. This event is opened to everyone to learn and discuss issues with the team,

On Wednesday March 14th, the second Dine & Donate event will take place at Lee’s Hoagie House on Cecil B. Moore where all proceeds will be donated to the Owls With Purpose team.

Thursday March 15th, Owls With Purpose will have their message displayed on the PECO Crown Lights from 5 pm until 9 am.

Students interested in joining the yearlong Bateman Competition class should email Professor David Brown.