Rolling the Marathon

The Problem

Mike Hudson is a personal friend and founder of a non-profit organization I’ve worked with in the past. In June, he announced that he and an ultra-runner friend would be tackling the Marine Corps Marathon together at the end of October. This friend would be pushing him in a specially designed wheelchair to help fulfill a goal on Mike’s bucket list from before his paralyzing accident nearly 30 years ago.

This website would be separate from the non-profit’s and be focused specifically on the message and experience of “Rolling the Marathon.”

The Process

I worked with Mike and his team to determine their top three goals for this website:

1. Fundraising – Give donors and potential sponsors a centralized location for all the information about the planning and work towards this goal
2. Blog – Beyond sharing who the guys are, there needed to be a place to collect any updates from either of them
3. Newsletter – Collect email addresses and set up an email system to allow Mike and his non-profit to communicate with supporters

The Solution

I designed a homepage that combined the primary brand colors of Mike’s ROAR branding and Cameron’s The Suitcase of Courage website. The main page introduces Mike, Cameron, and their shared goal, with a particular focus on the time and expense left.

The blog page allows for a quick conversion from Facebook (Mike’s favorite platform). On the sidebar, there is a countdown showing the time left until the Marathon. My favorite detail is that the “get in contact” section switches depending on who is the author of the post.

Finally, I did some research and signed them up for an email system that meets their needs and customized the initial emails.