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CONNECT BERTIE
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About Connect Bertie
As part of our partnership with the Bertie County School District in rural Eastern North Carolina, we developed a graphic campaign for Superintendent Dr. Chip Zullinger to promote his efforts to provide free broadband internet connection to every household in the school district. The county currently has limited infrastructure to support broadband connections, and only about ten percent of all households have an in-home internet connection. In a rural school district with poverty rates in the 80% range, access to free internet could provide increased resources and engagement with the school district and the greater community. The Connect Bertie project will provide both the connection and computer for families in the school district, to create a more networked community and broader educational opportunities at home, rather than only within the schools. Increased teacher-parent communication, videocasts of lesson plans, and more networked instruction will be available through the provision of free internet.
For the graphic campaign, we set out to create an icon that would be recognizable at multiple scales, and that would pique interest around the county. The blue dot design which reads "Connect Bertie" was produced as stickers, T-shirts, posters, and postcards. This winter and in the spring of 2010, we will paint the sides of about ten barns around the county with ten-foot-diameter Connect Bertie dots. The Connect Bertie blue dots have been spotted all over the schools, on vehicles, in local businesses, and on front doors. The campaign was also featured on the local news station in November 2009.
We hope that by making the Connect Bertie dot a ubiquitous symbol within the community (it was also recently featured on a holiday parade float), the idea of connectivity between families, homes, the school, and other institutions will become more natural and integrated by the time the broadband is put in place.
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Project Location: Bertie County, North Carolina
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Project Team
Location: Bertie County, North Carolina
Project Leaders: Emily Pilloton and Matthew Miller
Contact: info@projecthdesign.org
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