Why Winning is Only Part of the (Video) Story

June 1 is a date that rarely registers on most people’s calendars and this year it is probably regarded as just another Saturday.  But for Heart to Home Meals, it is becoming one of the most significant days of the year.

Intergenerational Day has a focus on connecting generations through awareness and activities, but for us, it is the day when the winner of our Show a Little Heart video competition is announced.

This is the second year for the competition but its genesis goes back a number of years.  For sometime, Heart to Home Meals had been looking for an opportunity to put the spotlight on something that is very important to the company beyond developing and delivering great frozen meals for seniors.  We wanted to stimulate discussions about the impact seniors can have on younger people during their formative years.  This is a life-changing event that for too long had been overlooked rather than celebrated.  This was something we felt needed to be addressed.

A number of suggestions were considered as we sought to find the right vehicle for our goal. It soon became clear, in a world where youth are much more conversant using social media than the written word, we should hear and see their stories through video. We believed this would be the best way for students to make their messages personal and impactful.

We hoped to inspire young people to challenge themselves and reveal insights into their world.

It was an audacious task we set them and yet we were surprised at the variety of outstanding entries we received.  Stop-motion videos to intimate and personal stories made their way to our inbox (as the entrants were students, most of the videos were submitted after we’d extended the initial deadline!)

The students displayed a determination to offer stories that were heartwarming, inspiring and very proudly Canadian.  There was a perfect mix of entries that we knew would make the job of the judges extremely difficult.  And so it proved.  The only item they could agree on, was the difficulty in selecting the top three!

After a lot of coffee and debate the judges selected the following as the top three for the inaugural Show a Little Heart video competition:

1. Cassidy McAuliffe (Sudbury) “Call of the Lake”
2. Catherine Kelly (Ottawa) “The Little Joys”                            
3. David Garzon (Toronto) “Helena & Laura”

To see all the winning videos and a selection of some of the other entries from 2018, click here.

Viewing all the entries, it was refreshing to see the honesty and acknowledgements of gratitude on display.  At lot of time, effort and thought had gone into developing these stories that offer enduring messages that are likely to remain relevant when these students become seniors themselves.  To carefully craft very personal stories that run for less than 5 minutes reflects well on this generation.

This year, we expect the competition to be just as challenging for the judges as the students seek to tell their original stories.  Over the coming months, we will highlight some of the videos and offer some insights.  Most of all, we hope it will increase awareness and conversations between generations allowing for greater understanding.

For information on the 2019 video competition, click here.

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