PITCH In to build presence on social media

A panel of volunteers is about to unleash the power of social media to heighten awareness about Perry Village’s new community assistance program.

An “official launch and blast” for the PITCH In Facebook page, as well as Twitter and Instagram accounts, is scheduled for Jan. 25.That announcement was made at the Jan. 14 Village Council meeting.

“The Facebook site, Twitter and Instagram (for PITCH In), those are going to be ready,” said Village Councilman Rick Walker, who’s also a member of the five-member administrative committee for the new program.

PITCH In will recruit and assign volunteers to help people with various work that needs to be done inside or outside their homes. Examples of tasks might include washing windows, lawn and yard care, and cleaning gutters.

The first word in the title of the program’s name stands for Perry Investing Toward Community Help. It was decided to add the word “In” to create a phrase that would attract attention and be easy to remember.

Walker said he’ll remind council and community members again, closer to Jan. 25, about PITCH In’s new social-media outlets. He hopes that people will go online and share that news with other fellow Facebook, Twitter and Instagram users.

“Because that’s how these (social-media sites) work,” he said.

Along with establishing a robust presence on social media, the committee also is working to provide more information about PITCH In on

perryvillageohio.com.

Currently, visitors to the site can find it listed in a pull-down menu under “Departments” on the navigation bar. But clicking on the program’s name yields little information.

“Right now all it says is ‘Coming soon,’” Walker said.

The committee intends to add links which lead to forms that can be filled out by prospective volunteers as well as residents seeking help with projects.

Walker said the group already has started to build a roster of volunteers, and he hopes that those helpers can take on assignments by springtime.

“We don’t think we’re going to be flooded with requests at first,” he said

“But come March, we’re probably going to get some requests for yard cleanups and so forth. So we’re pretty excited about that.”

In addition, he said the administrative committee has come up with good ideas on how to oversee and operate PITCH In.

“I think it’s going to be a smooth rollout,” Walker said.