How to Help Fairdale, Illinois, Tornado Victims

Crews are on the ground working to provide relief to victims of at least one deadly tornado that swept through the midwest Thursday night. The hardest hit by the massive tornado was the town of Fairdale, Illinois.

At CBH Video Production, we're sending our thoughts and prayers to those in Fairdale. We're also encouraging our followers to donate to the Kirkland Lions Club here and/or donate to the American Red Cross.

Those first moments after disaster strikes are the most critical. It's important to know that the money you donate will go directly to the people who need it. 

Sadly, we've covered our fair share of disasters for clients over the years. We know first hand how hard organizations like Lions Clubs International Foundation (LCIF) and the Red Cross work to ensure your money gets to the people who need it the most.

CBH Documentary Tells Story Behind Award Winning Rose Parade Float

Congratulations to our client Lions Club International for a rosey start to 2014! They participated in the 125th Annual Tournament of Roses Parade and their float "Matteo's Dream" took home the Tournament Special Trophy (Our interpretation of this trophy is that it qualified for multiple awards but the judges wanted to fair to the other floats, but you can read the official meaning of the trophy here).

While Lions enter a float in the Rose Parade every year, this year's entry was particularly special for CBH Video. The float design was inspired by an all-inclusive playground in Concord, Calif., built in 2007 for a little boy who had cerebral palsy named Matteo. The playground made headlines in the Bay area for being one of the first inclusive parks in the region and also because the community built it in eight days. Sadly, Matteo passed away in 2011. CBH Video was there when the park opened to capture the celebration.

Our team was heavily involved in promoting Matteo's Dream by collaborating with our client on a social media campaign and filming the float decorating process. It was quite the experience with the aroma and bold colors of various flowers and plants filling your senses. Most of the "live decorations" (Rose Parade lingo for florals) go on the day before, so it's a mad rush to decorate everything. You can see the pictures from the shoot in the gallery below.

Overall we are very proud to be a part of projects like this Matteo's Dream. It's not often we get to revisit projects like these which have a lasting impact on our hearts. But we're very thankful for the times we do get to go back.

A Jam-Packed & Productive January

CBH Video really hit the ground running in 2013. By the end of January our company produced three videos, launched a Facebook page and began planning for a couple of major projects.

Two of the three videos premiered at the United Nations in New York City on Friday, February 1. One of the videos celebrated Lions Clubs International 25th year of their Peace Poster Contest. You can read more about this year's winner here. Traditionally, the winner is always revealed during the Lions' gathering at the U.N. You can watch the video produced by Noeleen McGrath and edited by Tom Tomchak below:

The second video to premier celebrated LCI's commitment to the U.N. Millennium Development Goals.  Lions pledged to work with the U.N. to achieve there goals addressing global issues in 2008. Our team worked to produce a video that showed what Lions are doing around the world to help the U.N. meet their goals by the 2015 deadline. You can read more the MDG's here. Watch the video produced by Ally Clark and edited by Tom Tomchak and Scott Roberts below:

The third video will premier this summer in Hamberg, Germany for the Lions Clubs International Convention. We can't tell you much, except that we went down under to produce it.

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CBH Video had close to 80 "Likes" after the first day the page was made public

CBH Video also launched their own Facebook page. Our team was especially excited about this because we gained over 80 "Likes" in the first week. We're really enjoying the interactions on the page while keeping everyone in the loop about our upcoming projects and sharing behind the scenes photos from our shoots. If you haven't checked it out, you can do so here.

January has been a very productive month for our team and we're excited, because it's only the beginning. We're brainstorming on ideas for a number projects, which we're looking forward to sharing with you.