Category: News

Girls at Work, Inc is a local nonprofit teaching girls that they CAN do it. Girls at Work, Inc. empowers girls with the tools to overcome adversity and build confidence to face current and future life challenges. They support and encourage their builders to not feel powerless but to feel powerful, strong and capable. 

Over the summer Girls at Work host camps where girls can come in and learn how to use power tools, learn to build things, and make friends. ‘Build Me Up Girls Summer Camp’ has been working on building picnic tables during their time at the camp.

Girls building the picnic tables like a pro.

As a thank you to First Responders for what they do for our community, Girls at Work summer campers along with the Girls’ Leadership Camp at Kimball Union Academy, decided to donate the picnic tables that they’ve built. Mayor Joyce Craig joined them alongside first responders from Manchester Police Department, Manchester Fire Department, American Medical Response, CarePlus Ambulance, Catholic Medical Center, Elliot Hospital, and Manchester Animal Shelter. In total, Girls at Work donated 10 picnic tables! Along with their picnic tables these hard working first responders also got to take home and wooden plank signed by the girls who made the tables.

Donating their picnic tables with the signed wooden planks.

Girls at Work found it extremely important to give back to our first responders for all the hard work they do day in and day out. “Sometimes you feel overwhelmed by the need. We want to take a moment and thank those who dedicate their time so passionately to our community” explains Elaine Hamel, the founder and program director for Girls at Work. It is important for us as citizens of the United States to understand the importance of first responders and Girls at Work was able to do that.

This summer, Schall Creative hired me, Erin Loughran, as an inbound marketing intern. My responsibilities here include posting blogs and taking care of social media for Schall. I thought it would be a good idea to introduce myself and I’m excited to let everyone know a little more about me. I am a senior at Southern New Hampshire University where I major in Business Studies with a double focus in Organizational Leadership and Marketing. I have prior experience from previous internships in sales, hiring, quality control management, retail and more (I like to keep myself busy). Without further ado, here are seven things you don’t know about me!

          1. I coach Varsity Cheerleading.

My whole life I have been very involved in sports and have loved being part of a team. I’ve been involved in gymnastics since I could walk. During my freshman year I was the first one at the cheerleading tryouts and from there I cheered for 8 seasons on varsity through high school. I continued on to do cheer in college and even got to go to the NCA Nationals in Daytona, FL. Recently, I got the opportunity to go back and coach my high school team. So when this opportunity came knocking I couldn’t help but to accept. I’m excited for the future ahead with my team.

          2. I am an adventure enthusiast.

I love to travel and experience new things I’ve never done before. I almost always say yes to an adventure or to travel somewhere. I have the worst case of FOMO (fear of missing out) and I love to live life to the fullest. If it’s going to a concert, traveling, hiking, or anything else you can find my name on the list.

          3. I consider myself a Disney Junkie.

In May, I came home from the Disney College Program where I had been since January *sob*. If that doesn’t already scream she loves Disney then I don’t know what will. My whole family finds so much happiness when we get to go to Disney that when I got that opportunity everyone was thrilled for me . I thought I already knew the ins and outs of Disney but boy was I wrong. I now know everything that needs to be known about Disney and I couldn’t love the company more. I’m already having withdrawals from being there. If you ask me what it was like living in Disney, I would say it’s a whole new world (pun intended). But honestly, if your looking to plan a vacation there and you need some input, you know where to find me.

          4. I’m a people person.

I can talk to anyone about anything! I LOVE TO TALK (Sometimes a little too much)! I find myself to be very outgoing and I think that is why I believe that I belong in business. Now, at this point  I am still unsure of just what type of business I would want to go into, but I’m sure all the pieces will fall into place. So what if my people are kids and characters?

          5. I Love to learn.

I LOVE TO LEARN ABOUT NEW THINGS. I love to learn about history, people, I love to learn about anything…anything I’m interested that is and right now, it’s inbound marketing. Here at Schall Creative, I have been taking part of HubSpot Academy and I absolutely love it! Again, I’m learning about things I am interested in! Fun fact; when I was in second grade I could tell you everything you needed to know about the Titanic.

          6. I am DECA.

That was our motto my senior year of high school. I loved every single part about DECA and I owe it to this club for my love of business. I joined DECA my sophomore year of high school and from there I was loving it till the end of my senior year. I qualified for nationals my junior and senior year. Also my senior year I was the DECA Chapter President for my high school. Without DECA I am unsure if I would be studying business today. How cute are those blazers?

          7. My family is my everything.

Family is the most important part of my life. I have a very close family and I am extremely lucky for that! My parents are the most supportive, caring, loving parents I could ask for. My sister is the most giving, intelligent and perfect role model she could be to me. I would not be where I am today without every lesson, encouragement, insightful piece of information they each have given me and I owe everything to them and I will always love them more. 

There is a lot of things that make me, me but these are the seven things that if I didn’t have I wouldn’t be the same person I am today. I can share the passion and love of almost every one of these things with my family so that’s a pretty cool thing too. Now that you all know a little more about me, I hope that you have a better picture of the face behind the screen.

On a chilly day in February, 7 young girls showed up at our agency with lumber and power tools. They were there to build us a room divider. When someone comes over to build you something, you expect them to be 1. male 2. an adult 3. maybe kinda stinky (in a good, hard working kinda way). These girls were 1. female 2. not adults and 3. totally adorable. They had participated in a Girls at Work after school program with the Manchester School District. After their 8 week session ended, they wanted to keep building, so Elaine Hamel, the E.D. of Girls at Work, had an idea for them build an awesome project for our office.

These girls are total pros with a power drill.

Once they arrived, it didn’t take long for them to get to work. Using nail guns (nail guns!), they had pre-built the panels at the Girls at Work headquarters down the road, and when they got to our office they laid them out of the floor. We watched in awe as these powerful little girls started powering up their tools. They used clamps to hold the panels in place and used power drills to screw them together. I was absolutely blown away by how skilled these girls were with the power tools. I have built with Elaine once, and let me tell you, it’s not easy to drill a screw into a board. These young girls have already broken through whatever barriers they had to in order to become comfortable with woodworking, and it’s a beautiful thing to see.
 
By teaching girls to build, Girls at Work is doing more than just telling them that they are capable of anything, but showing them too. In the United States, 58% of college graduates are women, yet women make up only 4.6% of S&P 500 CEOs, and 24% of workers in STEM fields. Men still hold the majority of high paying jobs, and there is still a 23% gender pay gap.

Celebrating their awesome work with a powerful pose.

Girls at Work, Inc. isn’t trying to turn all these girls into carpenters and woodworkers (although it would be cool if a few of them turned out to be), but they are using woodworking as a vehicle to show these girls that just because they haven’t seen many women in these professions, that doesn’t mean they are not capable pursuing them. At the same time, they are also showing the world around us what these girls are capable of. A parent might get a little scared to see their daughter operating machinery simply because they have never seen a girl with a power tool. Showing these images to people can help to start changing minds on gender stereotypes, and open up opportunities for girls and women to pursue careers that aren’t traditionally seen as female.

At Schall Creative, we now have this incredible piece of furniture to show off to our friends and clients. It is probably the coolest thing in our office, and it is already inviting people to ask about it. When we tell the inquisitor that it was built by girls, their amazement increases ten-fold. So, a heartfelt THANK YOU to Elaine Hamel, Girls at Work, and the incredible girls who built it. You guys rock!

To learn more about Girls at Work, visit their website.

Early this year, we got word from HubSpot that we are the new Manchester HUG Leaders. While we are not against actual hugs (we really do love them), this kind of HUG stands for HubSpot User Group.

A HUG is exactly as it sounds, it’s a group of HubSpot users who get together once a quarter and talk shop. The Manchester HUG will be held at our location in the Manchester millyard, and there will be a whole lot of inbound marketing up in here.

What’s a meetup like?

A HUG meetup is about 2 hours long and ours will be held in the evening once a quarter. We’ll have some time for networking and then we’ll have a presentation for our attendees. Presenters will range from marketers, creatives, business owners and even speakers they send us from HubSpot HQ.

Oh, and we’ll also have snacks.. and drinks.. both very important.

What if I don’t use HubSpot?

We won’t shun you if you aren’t an actual HubSpot user. HubSpot’s philosophy is about teaching everyone about inbound marketing, and we want to do the same thing.

Are you going to try to sell me?

Absolutely no selling. Only teaching, talking, laughing, eating and drinking.

What if I’m your competitor?

Please come so we can learn all your secrets! Just kidding. But seriously, we want to use this HUG to bring all of the Manchester area inbound/digital marketing agencies together. We will all benefit from mingling and learning from one another.

We’ll see you in the millyard!