RIESTER

Archive for July, 2010

Jim Dissett

Rocky Mountain Power moves toward a smarter power grid.

Rocky Mountain Power’s Utah customers have a new tool available to them:

Cool Keeper is an example of a tool Rocky Mountain Power is deploying to be wattsmart.

Jeff Hymas of Rocky Mountain Power is making the media rounds in Utah to spread the wattsmart message. This week Jeff appeared on Salt Lake’s NBC affiliate to discuss energy saving tips.

This post from STAND FOR LESS gives an overview of the power grid and discusses issues affecting the grid as we look forward to a future with cleaner energy. Thank you Rocky Mountain Power for implementing Cool Keeper in Utah! It’s an important innovation as we move to smarten our power grid.

Jim Breitinger

Bill Levitt: The man who was Alta.

The long time mayor of Alta photographed in front of his humble Alta Lodge.

Bill Levitt, the long time mayor of Alta, photographed in front of Alta Lodge.

I met a man recently.

He’s no longer with us but he lives on—through the legacy of community.

His is a community in an exalted place. A place that exists high in the mountains.

This man gave refuge to the famous and the destitute. He ran an inn–a simple place, a place where family is paramount. When you visit his mountain lodge you feel like you’re home, surrounded by strangers and friends who it seems you have known your entire life.

This man brought other men together and showed them a path beyond discord.

His adopted home was a place called Alta, in the heart of Utah’s Wasatch Mountains.

At Alta you’re free, you’re elevated, you’re enveloped by a beauty that is of this world, but which gives you a sense of another world—a better world.

For half a century, a blink in time, he put his mark on this place.

His name was Bill Levitt. It is an honor to know him through his legacy.

Alta Ski Area is a client of ours. RIESTER Senior Partner Skip Branch is a long time member of the Alta Planning Commission and he was a close friend of Bill Levitt’s. When Skip told me about Bill I did some research and became captivated by this man who had such an impact on a place that I love. In addition to owning and running Alta Lodge, Bill was the mayor of Alta for 34 years. Learn more about Bill at the Alta Lodge website.

Jeff Bagley

Eye Care for Kids helps children see the world, literally.

Eye Care for Kids is a non-profit organization that provides eye glasses for children from low-income families. Amazingly, for a donation of 25 dollars they can provide an eye exam and prescription lenses along with cool-looking frames to a needy child.

RIESTER and Cosmic Pictures of Salt Lake City donated all of the services to create this commercial. The new spot is based on a true story of a child who received a pair of glasses. She then went outside and for the first time in her life saw that trees have leaves.

We hope the telling of this story will generate additional donations so more kids can see to read, learn and enjoy their world.

Learn more about Eye Care for Kids.

Jeff Bagley

Jeff Bagley’s cousin hits an advertising and social media home run with the Old Spice Guy.

Who says nepotism doesn’t work? After hiring my cousin Jason Bagley as a young copywriter years ago at EuroRSCG in Salt Lake City, and yes, teaching him everything he knows, he’s gone on to an incredible career. He is the Creative Director on the wildly successful Old Spice campaign. Yes, he’s on a horse. And it’s running fast for Jason. He and his team just launched a social media campaign featuring the Old Spice stud played by actor Isaiah Mustafa. Over a three day period they created more than 150 personalized video responses to tweets, texts, and Facebook messages. Their efforts paid off big time with plenty of national news coverage. Way to go, cuz.

Gary Kaasa

The RIESTER Foundation reports: Good conservation news.

I am happy to report some good conservation news at a time when steady reports from the Gulf of Mexico have begun to numb many of us concerned with preserving and restoring natural ecosystems.

In our last update, this past December, Tim Riester and Jeff Kutz discussed the ongoing work of the RIESTER Foundation in Costa Rica to protect sea turtles from poachers.

In some regards the situation remains the same. Already endangered as a result of overfishing, the black market trade in turtle eggs could easily further endanger this sea life in Central America where poaching rates on unprotected beaches are very harmful.   The Olive Ridley turtle is the most prevalent species of turtle where we are working.

The Olive Ridley turtle has an average life span of 50 years and will grow to 100 pounds.  These turtles have lived on Earth for millions of years and are well worth protecting.

Like the canary in the coal mine, the turtles represent the overall health of the ecosystems in which we all live.

What is most exciting this year is the conservation outreach to children in the nearby town of Corozolito–where I saw turtle eggs for sale in a local bar–changing attitudes for future generations.

Conservation work takes commitment and optimism.  It’s rewarding to see progress, especially now.

Gary Kaasa
President
RIESTER Foundation

Troy Pottgen

Help us send 1,000 siblings in foster care to Camp to Belong in 2011!

They say “we get by with a little help from our friends.” And right now, Camp to Belong needs our help. This non-profit–dedicated to reuniting siblings separated by foster and adoptive care for a week of fun and memories at summer camp–has been selected to participate in the PEPSI REFRESH PROJECT. This project awards grants each month to worthy organizations, and they’ve selected Camp to Belong for consideration for their $250,000 award in July! Should CTB be fortunate enough to win, this grant would send 1,000 separated siblings to reunite at camp next summer!

So we need you to vote. We need your friends and families to vote. We need your work colleagues to vote.

WE NEED EVERYONE TO VOTE, VOTE, VOTE!

Each person may vote once per day for the entire month. Vote here for Camp To Belong’s Pepsi Refresh Challenge idea:

Lynn Price, Founder and President Emeritus–and a former youth in care who was once separated from her sister, Andi–started Camp To Belong with the belief in the “Power of the Ripple”–the idea that once small action can turn into a powerful force. We need you now to help us help them. 1000 siblings. 10,000 memories. 1,000,000 smiles. That’s the Power of the Ripple. That’s Camp To Belong.

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