Campaign aims to increase positivity, pride in Dayton
By: Madeline Doman – Staff Writer
Dayton is a city rich in history, talent and accomplishment. At least, that’s the message local campaign Dayton Inspires hopes to spread.
Dayton Inspires is a volunteer-run social media and physical grassroots campaign in coordination with the Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission. It was formed in August to bring greater pride and recognition to the city, according to the official website, daytoninspires.com.
“Our goal is to spread positive energy about doing things in the Miami Valley/Dayton Region. We do this by promoting our hashtag, related articles and media that make it easy to have and create positive experiences,” co-chair and graphic designer of UpDayton Aaron Glett said. UpDayton is a community organization with members focused on reflecting the diversity of Dayton and building a better Dayton.
Dayton Inspires was recently developed as an idea at the UpDayton Summit in April, and the website was then launched in August.
Glett said the idea is to rid the community of negativity in social media and encourage people to highlight positivity in Dayton instead. It also hopes to reflect growth, opportunity and positivity within the Dayton region.
“We aim to inspire community, recognize and share culture, and unite people across the city in proudly calling Dayton home,” Glett said.
“In the next year, we see ourselves being an organization of volunteer led positivity,” he said. Glett called it “An action-based conglomerate of individuals full of positive actions in both physical and social media.”
In the future, Dayton Inspires hopes to be present in many places simultaneously bringing Dayton an optimistic message. “In the next five years, we hope that our campaign has developed enough ubiquity with businesses, individuals, and organizations that it is easy to find positive social messages about the Dayton region and Miami Valley… so much so, that people are choosing to live here and base businesses here because of that trend.”
Volunteers come from various communities and backgrounds from artists to entrepreneurs, people want to help brand and move Dayton Inspires into their own marketing and engagement strategies. They currently are operating on about 10 volunteers, but are always seeking new people join the movement.
“We’re not just an organization, we’re a group of people tired of seeing Dayton and the Miami Valley being down on themselves,” Glett said. “We would love to build a larger and more capable team, so that we can see the Dayton region embrace its strengths and push towards a better tomorrow.”
Dayton Inspires also hopes to bring its message all throughout the city with posters, stickers, murals and other images in spaces downtown and in the suburbs to encourage and inspire people to participate in their project to bring opportunity to Dayton. It gets involved in the region’s top festivals such as the Dayton River Corridor Classic run and in community gatherings like the Historic South Park street party. They get involved all year to attract people to promote their campaign.
Dayton Inspires spreads the word through social media hashtags, its Facebook page, Twitter and Instagram. Anyone is free to use the #DaytonInspires hashtag, so take photos and share positive blog posts to get involved in sharing the positivity. Glett said those who are inspired by Dayton could inspire others to share their positivity, too.