The LMTA Virtual Hike

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and all ensuing travel restrictions that affected most of 2020, the LMTA team was unable to organize their usual annual hiking events which also happen to be the major sources of fundraising for the association.

We had to do things differently and decided to adopt the global trend of remote, virtual events; a concept that is certainly not easy to fathom for a community of nature lovers and outdoor adventurers. We launched the LMTA Virtual Hike from November 5th to November 22nd, 2020, by bringing together our communities around the world and inviting them to join in, from wherever they are, while we hiked 8 sections of the Lebanon Mountain Trail over a total of 12 days. 
We ended up raising $60,000 out of our $75,000 goal.

A private Whatsapp group was created for this purpose, bringing together 63 hikers from around the world who joined the challenge. Hikers experienced the LMT through daily online stories, videos, scenic pictures, and the live feeds of our volunteer hikers on the trail and hiked alongside us virtually sharing their own stories and photos. 

I undertook all communications aspect of this fundraiser, both technical and strategic. I was in charge of content creation for the fundraising event page, as well as the social media campaign, and donors communication. 

I was also responsible for developing the daily hiking stories (messages, photos, and videos), which were sent to our participants via a private Whatsapp group, managed by me. I also had to coordinate with our team of volunteer hikers to ensure complete coverage of the hike virtually, in line with the daily stories I had developed. 

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I advertised the event via the LMTA’s social media platforms and email outreach, and produced all design and video materials. 

At the end of the event, I designed an ebook summarizing the entire 12-day hike, which you can view below.