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What You’ll Learn
What’s the only thing some children like more than candy? Big trucks! At Ravalli Electric Co-op, Melissa Greenwood combined both to bring out families in her Montana community to engage with their utility and other local business at Truck or Treat.
Guest Speaker
Melissa Greenwood
Show Notes
Transcripts have been lightly edited for clarity and readability.
Intro: A production of Pioneer Utility Resources. StoryConnect, helping communicators discover ideas to shape their stories and connect with their customers.
Andy Johns: What is truck-or-treat, and how can you use it to engage members? That’s what we’re going to be talking about on this episode of “StoryConnect: The podcast.” My name is Andy Johns, your host with Pioneer, and I’m joined on this episode by Melissa Greenwood, who is the manager of communications at Ravalli Electric Co-op. Melissa, thanks for joining me.
Melissa Greenwood: Yes, thank you, Andy. Appreciate being here.
Andy Johns: We are here at the epicenter of utility communications in the Northwest this week at the NWPPA NIC conference. And I always forget, saying “NIC conference” is that like “ATM machine” where the “C.” Does the C stand for?
Melissa Greenwood: Stands for both, yes.
Andy Johns: Okay. All right. So we’re here at the NIC put on by NWPPA and excited for Melissa to take a couple of minutes to talk because you guys have a really cool idea that you guys do in the fall called truck-or-treat. Not trunk-or-treat. Not trick-or-treat, but trunk-or-treat. Tell us a little bit about that.
Melissa Greenwood: You got it. So, yes, last year I kind of came up with this idea. For those of you that work in the co-op world, October is national co-op month. And so part of the ideas I wanted to try and do for that to get more community engagement was coming up with something, not just to inform our members about what we do or the services we provide, but just something that would be fun for the community to participate in and also to benefit our local businesses in the area. So I took the trunk-or-treat idea, where people use their car trunks to hand out candy as kids go by. And I turned it into truck-or-treat, where I reached out to local businesses in the area and offered for them to come to our facility. And they could decorate their truck, and then hand out candy to kids as they trick-or-treated from truck to truck. And I was shooting for kind of the bigger commercial sized vehicles like our bucket trucks, just because little kids love to see big cool trucks.
Andy Johns: Oh, yeah.
Melissa Greenwood: And –
Andy Johns: I mean, some of us grownups do too, by the way.
Melissa Greenwood: Well, yes, that’s true also. So I started reaching out to businesses in the area, pitched them my idea. I ended up getting 24 local businesses to participate.
Andy Johns: Nice.
Melissa Greenwood: It was a good turnout on the truck end. We had everything from propane trucks to school busses. It was really neat. We got local law enforcement, some emergency service trucks, some fire engines and ambulances. Our local county sheriff was there handing out candy. So that was great. And I felt good about that. And then I just hoped that kids would show up. And they showed up. We went for two hours and had just a line of kids in the whole parking lot. We estimated probably over 500 kids showed up that night to trick-or-treat. So all in all, it was an amazing event. Lots of great feedback. We had a great time putting it on for the community, and I think all of the kids enjoyed themselves as well.
Andy Johns: For sure, and plenty of candy going around sounds like. So you guys had it at your office right at the plant office or a building?
Melissa Greenwood: Yep. We had at our building. Luckily, we just built a new facility about three years ago.
Andy Johns: Okay.
Melissa Greenwood: So we have near our garage bays for our trucks a rather large, open asphalt area, so we had enough room to line all the trucks. We kind of circled them up like covered wagons. And so it was an easy path for the kids to follow. Which was nice and convenient for us as far as not having to find a place to host the event. It was nice to be able to do it right there on co-op grounds, and we just circled them all in, and the kids came and went around. And yeah, it was a great time.
Andy Johns: Now, did you guys in terms of messaging or safety or any other topics like that, were there, I guess was there educational piece to it? Or was it just fun handing out candy, or a little bit of both? What all went into it in terms of what you guys were putting out there for folks?
Melissa Greenwood: Sure. It really was just about fun and letting the kids trick-or-treat and get the candy.
Andy Johns: And that’s okay too sometimes.
Melissa Greenwood: That’s okay, too. That was kind of what I wanted to do. You know, a lot of times we do these regular events, you know, member appreciation days or our annual meetings where we are educating our members or, you know, talking to the public about what we do and the service we provide. But I wanted this to be something just completely different, something that our employees could volunteer at and do something fun and nice for the community that didn’t have any type of education to it. It was just, “Wow, look at Ravalli Electric. They’re doing a fun thing for the community, and we appreciate it.” I also wanted it to be a way for our local businesses to have a chance to promote their business.
Andy Johns: Sure.
Melissa Greenwood: And they were grateful to me for that. So I said, “You know, if you have any coupons or discounts or anything like that, feel free to hand out that to the parents as they walked by.” And then, of course, the candy for the kids. So I kind of wanted to make a good partnership with those local businesses. Just showing our support for them. So it really was just about supporting local businesses and having a fun event for the kids.
Andy Johns: Yeah. And now we’re working for this podcast to come out right at the end of September, maybe beginning of October. So Halloween’s coming quick.
Melissa Greenwood: Yes.
Andy Johns: But I know last year you said this wasn’t something you started planning months and months ahead of time. It was a pretty quick timeline for you, yeah?
Melissa Greenwood: Right. Yeah, it was actually just about this time last year that I had had this thought and idea, and I went to my boss and said, “I kind of want to do this. What do you think?” He was a little skeptical, but he said, “Go for it. If you make it happen, awesome. If not, we’ll deal with it.” So I went to work quickly and swiftly. I used a lot of connections that I had already to get word out to the kids. So we do a lot of work with the local schools as far as electrical safety demonstrations and telling them about what we do. So I reached out to those connections and gave fliers to teachers in the schools. I went to a lot of the child care centers that we have around and gave them fliers. And then, of course, our usual social media posts and some ads in the paper last minute. And then just really utilized my fellow employees to help me get everything put together. The nice thing about it was I didn’t really have a lot of setup on my end because the trucks and the businesses that came could decorate their own trucks. So I did a little bit of decorating around the entrance of where people would come in. But otherwise, you know, our biggest investment when it comes to budget – which this was nice too, if you have a small budget. We’re a very small co-op, and I don’t have a huge budget. So really my main investment was the candy, which we all ran out of the candy. So I have a note this year to buy more candy. But, you know, we didn’t really have too much work other than trying to recruit those businesses to participate and get the word out to the kids. But in the end, it all came together and worked out great. I’m working on it again right now. We had people a couple days after the event last year, you know, you’re going to do this again next year, right?
Andy Johns: It’s become a tradition now.
Melissa Greenwood: Yeah. So I went to my board and my boss and said, “I’m sorry, you know, the people are calling for this.” So, and I’ve already had businesses calling me and reaching out already. I haven’t even really started to promote it or recruit yet, and they’re wanting to do it again. So I think they really appreciated and enjoyed that opportunity as well. And so yeah, it was fun.
Andy Johns: And that’s where I was headed next, is this will be year two this year. So what’s different in year two? You making any significant changes, or is it bigger, more people? Obviously you said more candy.
Melissa Greenwood: Right, more candy is the biggest one. The other little thing we didn’t think about was little kids have to go to the bathroom a lot. And so, you know, we had one bathroom patrol person, but now we’re going to have to have a couple to escort them in to use the bathroom because we did hold the event outside.
Andy Johns: Okay. So you’re into the building. Into the co-op building, okay.
Melissa Greenwood: Luckily where we’re at on our grounds, there’s a bathroom right nearby. But you have to get into the building, which is a secure area. So we’ll have more bathroom attendants this year.
Andy Johns: It’s important stuff to think about.
Melissa Greenwood: That’s right. That’s right. I am hoping for more businesses. I’ve already had two new businesses that said they heard about it last year, and they want to sign-up for it this year.
Andy Johns: Nice.
Melissa Greenwood: So that’ll be good. I’m hoping for a few more businesses. And then just again, good participation from the community. So one of the things that came up last year that I didn’t even know about that our sheriff that was there told us about, you know, we have a little bit of a drug problem in our area, and they worry about the kids at schools because it looks like candy. And so a lot of parents came to us afterwards and said, “Thank you for providing a safe environment for my kids to trick-or-treat in. We trust these local businesses. We trust you,” which is great. And so I think that will help bring kids back also because as they’re getting a little leery of letting them go house to house on their own, this provides them another opportunity to enjoy the holiday. So I think it’ll be a good turnout again this year.
Andy Johns: Yeah, I know. That’s why a lot of places have gone to more of a trunk-or-treat style or something like that to get together. So just in terms of nuts and bolts, the businesses who were there, did they have to pay to be there? Do they have rules that it couldn’t be too scary or anything like that? Or are you just kind of cut them loose and said, “Come on. Let’s make it happen,” and just see what worked?
Melissa Greenwood: I really kind of left it open. I encouraged them to decorate their trucks. I didn’t put any limitations on it. We did have a Michael Myers that was handing out candy.
Andy Johns: Oh, okay.
Melissa Greenwood: And, you know, he was sitting there in his chair handing the candy out. And I could watch and see the kids a little hesitant. But then I also saw him giving high fives to kids as they walked by. We didn’t have anything super scary. We decorated our line truck, our bucket truck like a dragon with fire coming out of his mouth, which was really fun. So no limitations. There were some that they didn’t want to decorate or didn’t think of anything. But we also, in coordination with the truck-or-treating event, had a contest. So we gave each child a ticket as they came in. And then each truck had a little bucket, and they could drop their ticket in to vote for who they thought had the coolest truck or the best decorated truck.
Andy Johns: Yeah.
Melissa Greenwood: And then in the end, we counted those up, and gave I gave some prizes to that company so they could take their employees out to lunch or dinner or something like that to celebrate. So yeah, there were no rules. There were no fees. It was just come and participate.
Andy Johns: And who won? I mean, did the dragon truck win or? Inquiring minds want to know.
Melissa Greenwood: It did, Andy. Ours did have the most tickets, but of course, you know, we can’t win. So I ended up giving that first place prize to the second place winner. He was an iron welder, and he was a former vet, actually. And so he had kind of an Army skeleton theme going on. And you had to crawl into his old Humvee army truck to get the candy. It was kind of an interactive truck, which was really neat. So the kids really liked that one, and I thought he would be a good winner.
Andy Johns: Oh, yeah. Definitely deserving winner. Well, so last question I have for you. Just in terms of advice, if there’s somebody else who’s thinking about it, whether or not they have time to do it this year or whether they’re going to do it next year, I mean, this sounds like something that would be pretty easy for other folks around around the country to admire and acquire, as they say, and do it. So any advice that you would have for somebody who’s thinking about doing it, or any lessons learned that first year that, you know, that you’d pass on in terms of advice?
Melissa Greenwood: I would just say go for it. I was a little bit hesitant, and I just pushed myself. I did visits in person, which I think really helped. Sometimes it’s a concept that people weren’t quite understanding when I visited over the phone or in email that I would send out to a business.
Andy Johns: To businesses like recruiting?
Melissa Greenwood: Exactly. So I really did a lot of footwork to go out to the businesses, explain the concept of what I wanted to do and personally invite them. And then I think that personal touch also made them feel good.
Andy Johns: Oh, yeah.
Melissa Greenwood: So I would encourage that. I would also encourage you to do it because like I said, I did mine on a fairly small budget. So it’s just a great way to make a big impact with a small budget. So definitely go for it. It’s a really fun event too. I think all of our employees that volunteered had a great time. We also had a lot of our employees bring their families and their kids –.
Andy Johns: Of course.
Melissa Greenwood: To trick-or-treat. So it was neat seeing your fellow coworkers all dressed up like a Scooby-Doo family or something going around with their kids. And it kind of bonded us. So I think it’s great for employee morale and just an all around fun thing you can do to just be a good citizen in your community.
Andy Johns: Yeah, one thing when you mentioned that, I didn’t ask this, was the time frame. This was an evening, a couple hours in the evening? And was it on Halloween or a couple of days before or after?
Melissa Greenwood: Great question.
Andy Johns: I should have covered that earlier.
Melissa Greenwood: Yeah, I did. I didn’t mention that. So I did it on the last Friday of October. So it was not on Halloween. I found that when I was trying to figure out when to do it, a lot of other groups do things on Halloween.
Andy Johns: Sure.
Melissa Greenwood: So I wanted to try and have like less competition when we put ours on or try and get the most people to show up that I could. So we did it on the last Friday of the month, and that’s when I’m doing it again this year. And our office hours, we end at 4:30. So we started at 5:00 and went for two hours from 5:00 to 7:00, basically until it gets dark. So for safety reasons, you know, out there not having too much going on in the dark, but also it was an easy way to try and get employees to stay in volunteer because we end the workday at 4:30. Just stick around after work, help us out for a couple hours, and then my boss took us all out to pizza afterwards as a thank you to celebrate. So again, it was a good bonding experience with all of our employees.
Andy Johns: Yeah. And builds relationships with the communities, with the business owners and with your staff. That’s tough to beat, especially something that can be done on a low budget pretty quick. So yeah. Well, Melissa, thanks so much for sharing the story with us.
Melissa Greenwood: You’re welcome. Thanks for having me.
Andy Johns: She is Melissa Greenwood. She is the manager of communications with Ravalli Electric Co-op. I’m your host, Andy Johns. And until we talk again, keep telling your story.
Outro: StoryConnect is produced by Pioneer Utility Resources, a communications cooperative that is built to share your story. StoryConnect is engineered by Lucas Smith of Lucky Sound Studio.