MY STORY:

• Beehive Sport and Social Club coming up on 10-year anniversary 

MY BLOG:

While choosing a topic for my enterprise story, I wanted to pick a topic that I would be really interested in so that it would be more fun to write. My first thought went directly to music because it’s something that I’m passionate about and love to talk about. I searched for upcoming musical events in the Salt Lake City area and found nothing. I then proceeded to search for any music-related topics in the area, but I feel like because of the pandemic there wasn’t anything available. 

I accepted that I would have to do my story on another topic. So for the next few days I researched any upcoming events in Salt Lake City to write about. Everything that I viewed just didn’t feel right — I needed the perfect topic. Then I started to think about another one of my passions that I could write about and the idea of doing a sport-related topic came to me.

I was worried that I would run into the same trouble I had with my music idea and at first I did. The pandemic had closed down all sporting events and leagues. I was ready to give up, but decided to try one more thing. I typed in the search bar, “adult sports leagues in Salt Lake City,” and only one came up, Beehive Sports and Social Club.

I went to the website and clicked on the “about us” page. As I was reading about the club and its founder, Dave Marquardt, I knew I had found my topic. Even though Beehive was shut down, I felt like I could write about the club and how it has handled the pandemic.

I wanted to write a story that people would find not just interesting, but also useful. Beehive was both because it offers a way to meet new people, have fun, and stay active. I felt like a lot of students at the University of Utah could find it helpful, especially during the pandemic when new students weren’t able to go out and have a great college experience.

I also really related to Dave Marquardt’s story and how he felt when he started Beehive, but I wanted to know more. He had an email address listed on the website and I sent him a message requesting an interview. Thankfully, Marquardt agreed and gave me a great interview full of very useful information on how Beehive got started and dealt with the pandemic. However, because of the pandemic, I couldn’t do any in-person interviews so I was forced to call him.

Marquardt also led me to my next interview with the cofounder of Beehive, Jimmy Accettura. I obtained his email from Marquardt and repeated the process. For this interview, I asked Accettura if he would rather do it over the phone or via email. He said that email would be easier for him and so I sent him my questions and had him send me back his responses. Even though it was through email, I was still able to get a lot of great and useful information from him.

I still needed one last interview and it took me a while before I figured out where to get it from. At this point, I knew that I had information from the creators of Beehive so I wanted to get information from someone who participated in the leagues. I didn’t feel comfortable asking Marquardt or Accettura for just one random person in their leagues to interview so I tried finding someone on my own. I went to Beehive’s Instagram page and messaged four people who were tagged in posts. 

It took a while, which made me nervous, but finally Ryan Chisolm messaged me back. It was pretty late and my due date was coming up, so I quickly put together some questions for Chisolm to polish the information for my story. His interview gave me good insight on what it’s like participating in one of Beehive’s leagues.

Once I had all my interviews done, I had a pretty strong idea of how I wanted to structure and organize my story. Both Marquardt and Accettura gave me so much good information that it was hard deciding what to put in and what to leave out. However, the information they gave me was really similar which made it easier to include as much as I could.

My plan was to start off writing about how Marquardt and Accettura first got Beehive started and then flow into what makes it such a great organization. Then I planned to go into how the men first dealt with the pandemic and how they are currently handling it. Finally, I wanted to end my story by focusing on Beehive’s upcoming 10-year anniversary and how Marquardt and Accettura have kept their club going all that time.

I was pretty confident when I submitted my rough draft and felt like I had a solid story. After receiving feedback from Professor Mangun I found out even though I had a good rough draft, that I could still polish my story to make it better. I had some organizational issues and things that weren’t in AP style that I had to fix.

Overall, I feel like writing this story improved me as a writer and made me learn a new form and way to write for an audience. This was the first news story I ever had to write, so it was difficult to adapt to AP style. I also wasn’t used to writing interview questions or conducting interviews. I’m grateful that I got to learn all these new writing tools to add to my arsenal and that I got to do it on an organization that is run by great people who are extremely friendly and welcoming. 

ABOUT ME:

I grew up in Moab, Utah, and even though the red rocks hold a special place in my heart, I’ve always looked for something bigger. This desire led me to start my college career at Colorado Mesa University in 2017. After my freshman year at CMU, I still felt like I could grow and expand more. I talked to my family and friends and ultimately came to the decision to transfer to the University of Utah and move to Salt Lake City.

Now, after two years at the U, I am working toward my degree and a job in either public relations or marketing. My whole life, I’ve always been drawn to use my creative abilities to write and create documents. My time at the U has strengthened my ability to write, expanded my knowledge of different styles of writing, and taught me different ways to reach an audience. My journey is far from finished, but I’m excited to continue my education and improve my writing ability.

Outside of school, I like to use my free time being around friends, watching movies, listening to music, and watching sports. I’m a die-hard fan of the Golden State Warriors and the Denver Broncos. My favorite genre of music to listen to is rap, with Drake being my favorite artist. 

Overall, I’m grateful for how my life has turned out so far and I’m excited to see what it still has in store for me. I appreciate everyone who has helped me throughout my life including family, friends, teachers, and my peers.