It’s a good thing when schools and businesses or nonprofit organizations can collaborate for multiple beneficial purposes. So we were happy to learn that the Eastlake Port Authority is partnering with Northern Career Institute — Willoughby on a marketing project, intended to move the Port Author ity in a new direction. According to Faith Andrews, the Port Authority secretary, executive assistant and web master who wrote the marketing plan as part of the project, the work started with wanting to market the Port Authority’s kayak business at Erie Road Park and creating a new logo as the current one is dated, The News-Herald’s Marah Morrison reported. “We needed to come into the 21st century basically,” Andrews said. “We have zero social media or anything like that — no newsletter. I built the website. It can grow. We started talking about doing some marketing and creating a committee.” Andrews said the demographic of the Port Authority Board is fairly older and needed to have discussions about the marketing of the Port Authority. “We started looking at a logo and we started to toss around the idea,” she said. “(Eastlake City Councilwoman Chris Krajnyak) came up with the idea that we could collaborate with Willoughby-Eastlake Schools and I said let’s give it a shot. We weren’t sure whether it would be able to be integrated into the curriculum even if they’d be willing to do it.” After Krajnyak made the first contact, the project hit the ground running, Andrews said, noting that Northern Career Institute Business Academy teacher Brittany Beech had shown excitement. “We are jazzed about it,” Andrews said. “We formed the marketing committee and we’ve been meeting every couple weeks just because in the beginning, we have to. I think this is going to be a wonderful partnership for everybody concerned.” With the way the collaboration on the project is going so far, Andrews hopes it will be a long-term partnership for many years due to what is being planned. “We like thinking big,” she said. “It’s going to take us a little bit of time to get there and we’re hoping this collaboration will last many years.” Willoughby-Eastlake Schools Superintendent Patrick Ward said the district is committed to experiential, real learning. “The more kids do real things and apply the skills that we talk about when we talk about future readiness, the better it is for kids,” he said. “When we can do it in partnership with our community, what we see is that kids reinvest in the place they live. You see that partnership start to open up a lot of doors for kids.” Something as simple as a marketing plan has become a project with many tentacles, Ward said. “It’s economic development, it’s understanding the role of certain government agencies and it’s understanding finances,” he said. Northern Career Institute — Willoughby Principal Keith Murphy said this project was like fate. “When they approached the district, it was amazing,” he said. “I like to tell the story because when they reached out and I talked to (Beech) about it, her eyes lit up because her background is marketing. It just aligned. These kids are going to be doing great things.” When the project was first mentioned during a Port Authority meeting, Krajnyak reached out to Ward, who then responded immediately with interest in the collaboration. She then received an email from Beech before the project hit the ground running. “The whole purpose is to move the Port Authority into the 21st century and giving these kids in the community understanding, and hopefully knowledge and passion about what Eastlake has to offer,” Krajnyak said. “We want to get them active in the community and let them use their skills in a real-world situation.” “Your strengths could be another’s weakness, so when you surround yourself with people in a collaborative effort, it always works out better,” she said. As part of the project, the new marketing committee has been meeting and story boards have been completed with color palettes, as well as some logo designs. Additionally, implementing a QR code was a key factor in the project, Krajnyak said. “We tapped it right in with the website and it’s going to be really cool,” she said. “We’re developing a customer management system as part of this, which is going to help the Port Authority run more effectively. We’re moving the Port Authority from being a few men who meet just to make sure the river is dredged.” The News-Herald believes that this partnership is an excellent approach to performing the project. We look forward to hearing about everything that is accomplished.   ...read more read less