2013 at Papercut: A Year of Community Involvement

Tomorrow, we’ll be saying goodbye to 2013 and welcoming the new year. It’s hard to believe that this year is already over, and when I looked back on the last 12 months at Papercut, I realized that it was a period of extraordinary community involvement for our company.

When we moved Papercut to its current location on Frazier Avenue in July 2012, we did so with the intention of making the company more involved in our local community. This year, it’s been rewarding to see that move pay off. Here are just a few of the things we were proud to be involved with throughout 2013:

• Joining the Northshore Merchants Collective. We became part of the Northshore Merchants Collective to stay up-to-date on and participate in the various events and changes in Chattanooga’s Northshore area.
• Hosting the first-ever Papercut Games. It was just like the Olympics, but not. And yes, it’s happening again in 2014. If you want to win a majestic trophy and some sweet medals, you better start training now.
• Supporting our fellow web professionals. We began a collective outcry from the creative community when businesses closed over the summer and hundreds of web and design professionals lost their jobs. This spurred a massive meet-and-greet networking session sponsored by the Social Media Alliance of Chattanooga.
• Supporting Metropolitan Ministries. Metropolitan Ministries is an organization that fights homelessness in Chattanooga, and we partnered with them to complete work for their #31 Matters campaign and launch their Peggy’s Purse fund.
• Organizing and participating in North Pole on the Northshore. In November, we organized the North Pole on the Northshore holiday window decorating contest on behalf of the Northshore Merchants Collective. Participating businesses decked their windows with festive décor and competed to see which was our judges’ and Chattanooga’s favorite. The registration fee was a donation to the Northside Neighborhood House, and we were able to raise $750 to support their mission of helping underprivileged Chattanoogans.
• Participating in Salvation Army Angel Tree registration. Papercut employees are given hours to use for community service and volunteer work each year. This year, one of our team members went to the Salvation Army warehouse to help the organization register families in need for its holiday Angel Tree program.
• Attending design and development events. Throughout the year, Papercut team members attended various events for web professionals in Chattanooga, including Code & Creativity presentations and the Top Con design conference.
• Donating to good causes. We made charitable donations to two causes near to our hearts, Let Beauty Awaken and Local Fare’s Gift a Bike program.

Happy New Year!

This year was busy and exciting, and we can’t wait to see what the new year has in store for us. In 2014, we’re looking forward to expanding our community involvement even further by working with additional charitable organizations and participating in events that teach kids how to code, so we know there’s a future generation of designers and developers who will be proud to live and work in Chattanooga.