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Alex & Rachel Are Engaged!(and they need your vote right this minute to win a free $30K wedding package from WATE TV-6)Written by Alex Lavidge

  Please, before reading

further, visit wate.com right

now (link below) and clickon the “Day of Your

Dreams” link and vote forthe video that Rachel & I

submitted to win a $30,000wedding package! Last day to vote is 1/31/11!

http://wate.net/wate/contest/day-of-your-dreams-vote

Only 11 videos were enteredin the competition, three of which

we think could be disqualified

since they didn’t follow the in-structions. This means that we

have a really good chance of winning this package that couldhost up to 150 guests at Dara’s

Garden on 4/22/11.

Of course, we also wish allthe couples the best of luck inwhat we expect to be a close

competition (especially our

friends Samantha & Mark). If we

don’t end up winning, we stillexpect to plan a wedding in the

future before Fall 2012.I proposed to Rachel on No-

vember 14, 2010 at Max Patch,

NC, where the picture above was

taken minutes afterwards. Ourdogs Noelle and Corki were also

with us to share our special mo-ment.

On behalf of the both of us,

we hope you’re entering 2011

with the same love and enthusi-asm we both have for life. En-closed in this newsletter is a brief 

overview of what 2010 looked

like for us as well as our goals for

2011.We remain forever grateful

for the support of family, friendsand colleagues who offer adviceand mentoring as we forge ahead

to create a life together. - A

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 Alex and Rachel atMax Patch, NC onNovember 14, 2010minutes after Alexproposed to Rachel.Only one picture wastaken and in manyways we felt capturedthe moment perfectly.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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2011 promises to be just as vibrantas last year for the both of us.Written by Alex Lavidge and Rachel Bodenbender

2010 was a year of victories, adversity, adven-tures and planting seeds in the hope that 2011can be a year of harvesting and moving forward

as we build a life together.It’s important to both of us to be on the side of creating

a new world rather than scrambling to find a place in the old onewe see crumbling before us. Such idealism comes with a price,however, in the short-term. But in the long-term, we never losefaith that answering the higher calling to stay true to our principlesand our commitment to triple-bottom line endeavors brings abun-dance to our own well-being, and that of others. Together, likemillions around the world in our generation, we all forge ahead toboth think about and build a sustainable way of life for future gen-erations. Thankfully, it looks like this year will provide numerousopportunities to do so.

Specifically, we’ve started off 2011 by renewing ourcommitment to health and fitness. We continue to visit a nearby24-hour gym and continually endeavor to have an organic, local,and mostly vegetarian diet. Additionally, Alex woke up one morn-ing with a renewed epiphany that the majority of our global social

problems stem from a lack of nutrients in the food people consume.Rachel told him of a job opening in management at Earth Fare (arapidly growing organic grocery store in the Southeast) in the fieldof Community Relations & Marketing. Alex quickly applied thenext day, and within the three hours after dropping off his resumé,the company contacted him asking him to come in to chat. He’snow in the final round of interviews, and remains committed tofinding a way a to develop a long-term commitment and careerwith the company headquartered out of Asheville, NC.

Upon Alex securing a f ull-time job (and long-term ca-reer) this year, we’re both excited about growing Lavidge Unlimited(http://www.lavidgeunlimited.com ) together, a full-service manage-ment consulting, marketing and creative agency serving sociallyresponsible Web-based and cleantech startups under $1M in grossrevenue. From helping grow spruz.com (a custom social networkprovider), and researching possible merger & acquisition deals forthe company, to helping the folks at Concord, Inc. launch

stemdiversity.com (an online career advancement network for Sci-ence, Technology, Engineering and Math, aka ‘STEM’ talent), and

several clients served in between, it was a busy year. There areseveral other contracts and opportunities ahead this year that wewill highlight later in this newsletter.

Currently we’re saving funds to purchase full array of video

 production equipment. Many of our clients have requested web-basedtutorial videos that help explain their website, as well as other video projects. With Rachel’s BS in Communications and almost nine years ofexperience in the cable television production industry, we’re confidentthat providing video production services to Lavidge Unlimited will prove to be a smart decision.

Beyond this, we expect the year to be filled with friendsadventures, and time with family. We hope to spend several Sum-mer 2011 weekends at the Lavidge house in Cashiers, NC, wherewe can go camping and kayaking with dear friends. We also standready for weekend conferences that bring together social entrepre-neurs, advocates for public health and filmmakers at regional filmfestivals. We’re committed to studying French and permaculturetogether this year while we laying groundwork to announce anexciting documentary film project by this time in 2012. Look forwhat else we’re working on throughout the newsletter.

Thank you as always for your love and support. Pleaselet us know too at anytime how you’re doing. If you’re receivingthis from us it means that you’re always in our thoughts and prayers– your success is our success. - R&A

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Kicking January 

2011 off to a healthy 

and exciting start

 To the left, Alex wasasked to go on WBIR-

 TV 10 for the “Live at5 at 4” show both toshare and demon-strate the benefits of 

 juicing vegetables intribute to the life of Jack LaLanne.

 To the right, Alex & Rachel stand by theWashington monu-ment with the U.S.Capitol Building in thebackground. Theywere visiting on behalf of STEMdiversity.comin collaboration withthe National ScienceFoundation et alagencies as well as tonetwork with col-leagues visit family.

“It’s always been important to us to be

on the side of creating a new world

rather than scramble to find a place in

the old one. Such idealism comes with

a price, however, in the short-term. Butin the long-term, we never lose faith

that answering the higher calling to stay 

true to our principles and our commit-

ment to triple-bottom line endeavors

brings abundance to our own well-

being and of others.”

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Lavidge Unlimitedis on a mission to help thenext generation of sociallyresponsible startups thrive.Written by Alex Lavidge

For many entrepreneurs, trying tolaunch a company is like trying to

cook a meal in the kitchen with-out a recipe to follow.

I still remember at the age of 25trying to launch PayRent LLC out of theentrepreneurial incubator at The Univer-sity of Iowa while bushwhacking a pathforward. With Rentpal, I attempted tobuild an online platform to allow tenantsto pay their rent online while simultane-ously improving their credit score. Afterthis 10-month learning experience of 90+hour work weeks, I decided to take abreak afterwards and heed the advice of several mentors; to delve into the world of free-lance work for different startups.“Get paid to learn from other people’smistakes and successes that are smarterthan you,” I was told. So I’ve stuck withthis advice for the past five years. It’s start-ing to pay off.

My own research has led me toconclude that close to 97% of all Web-based startups outside of a business incu-bation program fail after the first year.Overall, it’s suggested that 70% of allstartups in general dissolve after the firstyear as well. These companies need high-level help with the business plan writing,financing strategies, branding, design,website development, video production,

market research, public relations, out-sourcing, business development, salesstrategy and, inevitably, their exit strategyas they seek out merger and acquisitionopportunities. Streamlining this processproves to provide more value at less costto the client. And providing data-drivenadvice keeps them from making predict-able mistakes.

On behalf of Lavidge Unlimited,over the past year I’ve also been involvedextensively in the Knoxville & Oak Ridgecommunity advocating the vital role thatexport-focused, high-impact entrepreneur-ship brings to the regional economy. Re-cently, I was asked to help judge a pleth-ora of patents at Oak Ridge National Labo-ratory (ORNL) available for commerciali-zation in preparation for the upcomingSPARK conference. I’ve also had the privi-lege of serving as a chairperson of one of the subcommittees for the Entrepreneurial

Growth Group (EGG), a think tank foster-ing collaboration from institutions, agen-cies, and local entrepreneurs. Spurred byThe Cornerstone Foundation we set out tomake recommendations on ways to en-hance the entrepreneurial ecosystem inInnovation Valley. Also in the spirit of community service I continued academicresearch, from the office of Lavidge Unlim-

ited at Technology 2020 (a facility in OakRidge for law firms, venture capital andconsultants serving the high-tech and en-trepreneurial community). There have alsobeen numerous trips studying “entrepre-neurial ecosystems” throughout the Southas well as studies, articles and seminarswith which I’ve been able to help. Seeingthe energy and enthusiasm, as well as therankings for TN for entrepreneurship,makes my hometown of Knoxville feeleven more like home with each passingday.

I hope you get a chance to visitour website at lavidgeunlimited.com.From there you can join our fan page onfacebook and stay up to date with ourprogress until we officially launch the newsite for 2011! - A

Organizing & promotingfilm festivals

Written by Rachel Bodenbender

In 2010 my friend Michael Samstag of KnoxvilleFilms.com and I launched theKnoxville 24 Hour Film Festival (K24HFF).The event lured 26 teams from across thestate to conceive, write, produce, and edita 4-minute film in less than 24 hours - thefinal product to be judged, screened, andeligible for awards and prizes. It garnereda huge turnout at Knoxville’s Historic Bi- jou Theatre, and soon we’ll be gearing upfor the next one in June 2011!

In fact, K24HFF was such a success thatthe director for the Secret City 7 DayShootout invited me to coordinate that oneas well in October 2010.

It was great to see what everyonecreated - including Alex’s team MKUltrathat submitted entries for both competi-tions; both films can be seen on our web-site loveisnotadisorder.com.

These film fests bring all of us inthe film and tv community together tonetwork, share tips and have fun.

Knoxville remains one of the toptv production hubs in the country, and weare continually awed by the creations fromboth our seasoned talents as well as thosenew on the local radar! - R

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 Alex pictured with Knox White, Mayor of

Greenville, SC. Between August 18-20, 2010

 Alex joined colleagues from the Knoxville/ Oak-Ridge based Entrepreneurial GrowthGroup Mike Cuddy and Michael Carroll.  John

Warner provided a tour of the emerging “en-trepreneurial ecosystem” in Greenville, SC, atown well-positioned to emerge as a leader ingreen automobile design and manufacturingin the 21st century.

Knoxville 24 Hour Film Festival

Rachel this year joined her friend MichaelSamstag of KnoxvilleFilms.com and helpedfacilitate, launch and promote an event thatchallenged teams to create films in less than24 hours.

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Stay in touch with Alex & Rachelthrough their Websites.

Can you believe that there are mental health professionalssuggesting that eating healthy foods could be considered adisorder? We heard this and couldn’t help laughing, won-dering, “What’s next? Will being happy and in love be

called a disorder?” From there we set out to create a blogcalled loveisnotadisorder.com in defense of those couples,like ourselves, in love everywhere whom are not crazy!It’s also a fun way of sharing photos, videos, podcasts, andwritings from our life together with those we love.

AlexLavidge.com is Alex’s site-in-progress that,over time, he hopes to build into a site that shares many of his viewpoints on healthy living, human potential andtriple-bottom line entrepreneurship.

KnoxvilleOverground.org will relaunch this yearas an application that will help validate new community-

driven social endeavors as well as seminars, classes andworkshops that will help populate InnovateKnoxville.com (currently an online calendar that aggregates events of in-terest to entrepreneurs and small business owners). But,

from there we also hope to develop the site into an onlineresource that can continue to launch applications andtools that benefit entrepreneurship at all levels across In-novation Valley.

LavidgeUnlimited.com of course will be launch-ing soon and blogging its case studies from the work we’redoing for our socially-responsible clients, andEntrepreneurForThePeople.com will publish viewpointsand research about what particular initiatives and incen-tives communities can provide that encourage high-impactentrepreneurs to be successful. - R&A

4

We have numerous websites we’re working on or have

launched already for 2011:

• LoveIsNotADisorder.com - a blog about the life, work and adventures of Rachel &  Alex

•  AlexLavidge.com - a site about Alex and his interests that will also be launching ablog soon.

• KnoxvilleOverground.org - watch it evolve into an online application this year thatwill help launch numerous social endeavors and networking opportunities thatbenefit arts, culture and entrepreneurship in Knoxville.

• EntrepreneurForThePeople.com - thoughts on economic development andsupporting triple-bottom line entrepreneurship in Knoxville & Oak Ridge, TN.

• LavidgeUnlimited.com - a management consulting, marketing and creative firmlaunching in March 2011 that will help socially-responsible startups thrive.

• InnovateKnoxville.com - an online calendar that aggregates events from up to 60organizations in the Knoxville region of interest to entrepreneurs -- and more appli-cations are coming in 2011.

 And more sites are coming soon! Check in often! 

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A recap of 2010: a year filled with adventuresand progress.Written by Rachel Bodenbender & Alex Lavidge

T rying to summarize a year is a

difficult task; we’re sure to leave out a lot 

 – but if you’re interested in what makesup a typical year for Rachel & Alex,

 please read on!The month of January 2010 kicked off 

somewhat uneventfully for both Alex & Rachel.While Alex was writing/interviewing for his bookproject Entrepreneur For The People, hiking andliving in the snow-covered house in Cashiers,NC, Rachel was in Knoxville working post-production for a few different tv shows. Both

Alex & Rachel (whom at that point were friendlyacquaintances but hadn’t become a couple yet -that didn’t happen until April) also spent timecatching up with friends and miscellaneous cli-ent work, working on books and planning for2010. During this time, Alex was awarded bythe Greater Knoxville Business Journal as a “40Under 40” for his community involvement andleadership with Knoxville Overground, agrassroots-powered nonprofit that launched over144 different seminars, events, classes, work-

shops, new professional clubs and organizations.Alex also attended the Tennessee TechnologyDevelopment Corporation (TTDC) InnovationConference in Nashville again where he familiar-ized himself with the most promising patentsavailable for commercialization across Tennesseewhile also collaborating with several angel inves-tors from the Nashville Capital Network and thestartups they were funding.

During February, Rachel had the eye-opening pleasure of working with Knoxville’s

own Ayanna on Bridezillas (a reality TV showabout crazy brides) - tracking her and her familythrough the seven life-threatening crucial daysleading up to her Valentine’s Day dream wed-ding - all documented for WEtv. Talk about runand gun; she says it was the hardest she has everworked on a shoot, but she learned a ton! It’sstill airing so check it out!http://tinyurl.com/2bddw7y 

Rachel bumped into Alex in MarketSquare downtown (Knoxville) during one of those hectic shoot days, her hustle and bustleappearance apparently igniting the fires of futurelove within him. That meeting started a dialoguebetween them that was about - humorouslyenough - marriage. (If you want to rib Alex - andmake Rachel giggle - ask Alex to compare hisfeelings about sacred matrimony today versuswhen he and Rachel chatted about it elevenmonths ago. Let’s just say he never would haveexpected himself to be engaged today. But to befair, neither would Rachel!)

On February 17th

, Rachel turned 32 yearsyoung, and she commemorated the day as anyself-respecting word maven would do! Shegathered an entourage of supporters and stoodon stage at a bar in downtown Knoxville and de-fended her [self-dubbed] title of “Spelling BeeQueen.” Yes, it was a spelling bee at a bar. Sheheld her own against the other 40+ contestantsup until there were only 7 left! It’s going to behard to top that birthday in terms of unique ap-peal, but she’s sure that her darling fiancé will be

up for the challenge!Not long after, she was invited to work ona popular network show as Knoxville’s ownmother / daughter duo, Sherry and Ashley John-ston, were competing for the title of NBC’s Big-

 gest Loser , Season 9. http://tinyurl.com/23xgoaoDuring this month Alex had a chance to

participate in CityShare, a collaborative summithosted in Chattanooga, TN by his friends at Cre-ateHere (a cross-disciplinary nonprofit funded bythe Lyndhurst Foundation that promotes eco-

nomic, community, arts, cultural and entrepre-neurial development). The event brought thoughtleaders from across the US and Canada to dis-cuss what initiatives they’re engaged in to pro-mote vitality, creativity and innovation at all lev-els in their native communities.

Starting in March, Rachel worked propson some recreations for How Stuff Works for TheDiscovery Channel. Among other things, thisincluded transforming a dirty mechanic’s garage

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into a set, and building props out of uncooked(but dead) chickens and searing the raw fleshwith crème brûlée torches in order to demon-strate things like how the sun rotates around theearth. Got that? No? She didn’t either, but it surewas fun! (Actually she said it wasn’t fun, it wasquite disgusting, and it gave her nightmaresabout salmonella, but in the end she’s fine!)

Alex spent February 2010 in San Diego,CA; two weeks of which were spent at the Opti-mum Health Institute (OHI) where he finishedhis certificate and continued to learn about thebenefits of raw veganism, wheatgrass, and or-ganic foods. The friends he discovered continueto be lifelong kindred spirits. After this, Alex vis-ited his friends in Ventura, CA, whom are stayingin one of the country’s first sustainable work/ living cooperative communities for writers, artistsand visionaries by the ocean known at the WAV

project. He also had an opportunity to visitfriends and colleagues in Los Angeles, CA as hecontinued to make new contacts and friends inthe film industry there.

In April after Alex and Rachel had beenchatting a little more, Rachel took a leap and in-vited him to join her and some friends for a cas-ual friendly gathering at a cabin in Kentucky.Alex couldn’t go, but Rachel’s good friend Mi-chael went and they had a great time with goodfood and stories around a bonfire. On the rideback to civilization, Michael and Rachel had lotsof time to chat – during which time they realizedthe long-standing annual film shootout competi-tion usually held in Knoxville wasn’t slated tohappen in 2010 due to a fallout that the past or-ganizers had. Michael and Rachel - being avidsupporters of the local tv and film industry fromboth professional and personal standpoints - feltthis was unacceptable and decided on that dayto do something about it in August.

Since Alex couldn’t go with Rachel on theKentucky trip, he agreed to join her at an upcom-ing film festival. They didn’t act like it was a date- mostly because neither knew whether or not itwas! Alex picked up Rachel, and they had a ro-mantic lunch at Subway before spending thenext few hours in a dark theater watching locallyproduced films...and so it began! From April 24th onward, Alex & Rachel have been officially to-gether, and inseparable since.

That month also brought the opportunityfor Rachel to work with Leigh Seaman and Elas-tic Pictures on a project to post-produce web vi-gnettes for Ty Pennington Style website. Fromthe footage shot by their folks on location for Ex-treme Makeover Home Edition, they cut togetherclips to create web shorts detailing Ty’s designtips and also showing a glimpse of what the

behind-the-scenes at EMHE is like. Some of thefinished products can be seen here.

Alex, who was still spending a lot of timedoing research for his book, was invited to jointhe Entrepreneurial Growth Group (EGG). EGGis a collaborative thinktank of representativesfrom The University of Tennessee, Oak Ridge Na-tional Laboratory, Y-12 National Security Com-plex, Knoxville Chamber, and several otherprominent entrepreneurs, investors, and com-munity stewards all coming together for the to

discuss “what is an entrepreneurial ecosystem?”Most would agree that healthy communitieswhich foster entrepreneurship provide access tocapital, training and networking opportunities –but how is this measured? The sessions that fol-lowed proved to be vital for Alex as he contin-ued collecting studies, articles and reports for hisbook research.

In May, Rachel continued with the TyPennington project, as well as helped field pro-duce a project for Bush Beans; the finished videodetailed the history of the Bush Beans companyand the family that started it here in east Tennes-see and it’s shown to the guests at the Visitor’sCenter.

She also had the pleasure of visiting theLavidge summer home in Cashiers, NC, for thefirst time. Friends from coast-to-coast joined Ra-chel and Alex for a wonderful time hiking andenjoying the lush, quaint area. It has since be-come the Rachel / Alex goal to run away toCashiers as often as possible - and they’ll con-tinue to do so as long as they are blessed withthe opportunity.

That same month, Alex - through hisfriend Page in Los Angeles - connected Rachelwith a really cool opportunity to travel to DC onbehalf of CARE - a humanitarian organizationthat fights global poverty. For three jam-packeddays in May, Rachel met smart, passionate peo-ple. It was an incredible learning experience for

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tor, she had many details to iron out alongsideseveral radio & tv appearances to promote thefestival. The festival kicked off on August 20th -with friends and colleagues participating (includ-ing Alex and his team MKUltra). All that hardwork culminated in a totally fun and excitingscreening and awards at the Bijou Theatre on the26th. By all accounts it was a massive success,

and we know K24HFF 2011 will prove to beeven bigger!http://www.knoxvillefilms.com/p/24-hour-film-fest.html

Rachel and Michael were so acclaimedfor coordinating the Knoxville 24 Hour Film Fes-tival that Keith McDaniels, Festival Director of the Secret City Film Festival, hired Rachel to as-sist him on his upcoming film shootout competi-

tion; so almost immediately after K24HFF, Ra-chel began working with him on that competi-tion (see October).

Rachel also continued doing research forThe Judge Alex Show on Twentieth Century Foxand also secured a contract with the KnoxvilleNews Sentinel to do Social Media Managementfor five regional businesses. Learning about so-cial media marketing and analysis proved to be aworthwhile and interesting field that both Alex &Rachel look forward to integrating into the array

of services to be provided by their firm, LavidgeUnlimited, in the future.

Alex also took the time out that month toresearch his favorite stocks that he announced,for the only time that year, on twitter.com andfacebook. As of the time this newsletter waspublished, TDCP, SOHU, SINA and BIDU com-bined have all gone up anywhere from 533% to37%, for an average return of 64.55% for theyear. It’s his goal to get more into investing as

he’s able to continue to save to do so and con-tinues to suggest that everyone read The LittleBook That Beats The Market or check out thewebsite http://magicformulainvesting.com.

During the month of September, in addi-tion to keeping up with her work for Judge Alex& the Knoxville News Sentinel, Rachel took aweeklong job on the Nashville leg of HGTV’s

Celebrity Holiday Homes 2010 - which had thecrew decorating one of Trisha Yearwood’s Nash-ville area homes. It was a fun, hurried leg of Christmas decor in the heat, but the end resultwas lovely! http://tinyurl.com/28zmtzz

Rachel was also thankful for this time inNashville as she was able to spend some timewith her new friend and soul sister, Nashvillesinger / songwriter Morgan Bracy.

Alex spent a lot of the month also net-working and collaborating with prospective cli-

ents for Lavidge Unlimited, ascertaining theirbudgets and needs in the upcoming months. Healso sent out numerous proposals and bids for aplethora of website development contracts thatwill be announced in 2011.

In October, while keeping on top of KNSsocial media clients, Rachel coordinated theSecret City 7 Day Shootout, another film compe-tition where Alex’s team competed with the film“The Trade,” a story about a yuppie who loses aflask given to him by his father and discoveredby a clairvoyant homeless man with ill health.(All of Alex’s films can be seen at our websiteloveisnotadisorder.com).

It was also an exciting month for Alex ashe was able to see the Entrepreneurial Imperativeconference come together on October 26th-27th at the Crowne Plaza in Knoxville. The eventbrought together over 350 people from acrossthe region in venture capital, startups, economicdevelopment and the Press to share ideas, net-work, and collaborate. Alex helped organize theevent and presented a seminar called “Boot-strapping Secrets Revealed” (available online)that received a lot of acclaim, and also debutedinnovateknoxville.com, a new website that forthe moment aggregates events of interest for theentrepreneurial community from up to 60 or-ganizations. However, in the future, the aim isto continue to launch new web applications thatare of interest to the development of the entre-

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preneurial community – from listing micro-financing opportunities to providing links to on-line training resources.

In November, Rachel finally got to workon a true documentary (which is something she’salways wanted to do) for the History Channel.She spent a week in a “van fulla tv guys andgear”, going from Knoxville to Nashville to

Memphis to Jackson to Louisiana and back, in-terviewing intriguing people like soul music leg-end Al Bell and the charismatic Rabbi MarshallKlaven (Shalom Y’All!), and even spending a dayin the Bayou on a shrimp boat with a real shrim-per! To Rachel, documentary is true, un-sensationalized storytelling, and she feels it’s aninsanely fun privilege to be able to experience aday (or more) in people’s lives that she’d other-wise likely never even meet...strangers who trustyou and open up to you. For her that solidified it;

that’s the genre that interests her the most, andshe always feels lucky to have a life partner whonot only gets that but who also shares that love.

Rachel was also excited that her best girlfriend Lauren Kokenes came to back to Knoxvillefrom LA to visit and they had a wonderful (but

never long enough) time guffawing over old jokes, catching up on new stuff, and doing whatis one of their favorite things ever - spending anafternoon horseback riding at Twin Valley Ranch.

It was really great that Lauren was able tomeet Alex as well, especially because soon afteron November 13th Alex proposed to Rachel - ona colorful autumn dusk at Max Patch, NC with apalladium and diamond engagement ring he had

inherited from his Grandmother. (Rachel: “UMit’s sparkly gorgeous and vintage COOL!!”) It wasfor both of them very magical andnatural...neither Alex nor Rachel have ever been

engaged before and they couldn’t be happier!During this month, Alex continued to get

more involved with one of his clients funded byConcord, Inc., STEMdiversity.com, a web-basedstartup that is aiming to create an online careeradvancement social network for science, tech-nology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)talent across the world and helped the team pre-sent at a conference to a variety of business de-velopment tasks in the effort to secure funding sothat the project can continue to venture forward.

Finally, when December approached,Rachel helped with one more show for The Dis-covery Channel. This one was an archaeologicalshow that profiled a local elderly Southern gent -somewhat well-known in certain circles for hisstorytelling and whittling.

Also in December, Rachel and Alex en- joyed getting to finally meet more (though notall!) extended and out-of-town family from eachside for Christmas gatherings, both treasuringand savoring the knowledge that it was their firstof many Christmases together.

The year ended with Alex and Rachelvolunteering for First Night Knoxville wherethereafter they shared more than one kiss undera rain-soaked umbrella in Market Square as fire-works brought in the New Year! - R&A

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GOALS FOR 2011Knoxville Overground (KO)and its future

The first year of Knoxville Overground wasa huge success. What we, as a commu-nity, set out to do was demonstrate -through actions not words - what the fu-ture landscape of Knoxville could look likefor our constituency of the self-employed,social entrepreneurs, startups and the crea-tive class. We launched the first ever en-trepreneurial community center and co-working workspace with membership ratesstarting at just $49 a year while also help-ing to launch over 144 different classes,events, seminars, workshops and newprofessional organizations. We’re proud of the fact that we were able to accomplishall of this for less than $14,000, a figurethat is minuscule in comparison to otherefforts across the country and demon-strates not only that we’re “the volunteerstate” but that effectiveness is more of a

result of vision, leadership and an openculture – not a big budget. What the fu-ture holds for KO is the relaunch of the siteknoxvilleoverground.org into a onlineplatform that keeps this spirit alive andmoving forward. Essentially, similar tomeetup.com, it’ll aggregate all of the so-cial endeavors and similar events in theregion starting up and take those ideasthrough a due diligence process. By thelast phase, KO will be able to provide fis-cal sponsorship for selected projects thatpass the screening so that the hectic proc-ess of launching a new nonprofit doesn’thave to be duplicated. Providing such

backend support for community endeavorsall of us at KO feel adds a new level of innovation and collaboration to the com-munity that can help Knoxville reach itspotential that, in turn, can compliment theefforts of innovateknoxville.com.

Alex & Rachel are studyingFrench this year

Rachel studied French in high school andcollege, and all Alex has needed to com-plete his undergraduate education re-quirements for the past few years has been

to complete a test demonstrating that hehas 4th semester level equivalency for aforeign language. The two are spendingtime each evening for the remainder of 2011 reviewing French vocabulary andgrammar.

Saving & investing like neverbefore for the future

Rachel and Alex spend time each week toreview our expenses for the week and

upcoming projected expenses and expen-ditures for the future. We remain hugefans of Dave Ramsey, Suze Orman andRobert T. Kiyosaki along with many others.Both of them have ambitious financialgoals they want to reach before consider-ing starting a family.

Preparing for graduateschool by 2012-13

Alex has visited over a dozen MBA pro-grams across the country and is ready tostart sending in his applications! After hecompletes (and rocks!) the GMAT, he’llexplore programs from Babson to the Ac-ton MBA in Entrepreneurship. Addition-ally, he’s equally interested in Green MBAprograms at schools like Yale to Bain-bridge. His decision will be contingent onscholarship assistance and whatever dealhe can work out with his employer. Hisfocus is likely to be in the area of sustain-able agriculture and food distribution.Rachel is also still exploring the possibilityof applying for a graduate program in thefuture.

Alex & Rachel are bothblogging and writing

Alex continuously regrets that over thepast few years, his life has been so busythat he hasn’t done a good job, at all, of documenting on the Web his work andexperiences. This has led way too manypeople to ask, “what do you do exactly?”Both Alex and Rachel are making a firmcommitment to sharing their experiences,proposals and plans online this year

through their joint websites so that friendsand family can check-in as they are inter-ested and have time to do so!

TEDx Knoxville 2011is going to happen this year

Alex has been compared by many to Rich-ard Saul Wurman often with his mass in-terests in information architecture and theimportance of promoting contemporary,progressive ideas in the public sphere.Alex remains committed to making a TEDxhappen in 2011 at The Square Room in

downtown Knoxville this year to show theworld that Knoxville has a communitypassionate about ideas, technology, inno-vation and collaboration. To learn moreabout TED, visit TED.com.

Filmmaking & trainingand preparing to launch filmprojects

Rachel is spending a lot of time in 2011developing her skill set with editing, ani-

mation and shooting as she and Alex savemoney to purchase film equipment andadditional hardware. She’s also putting ina lot of time lay the groundwork to an-nounce a documentary project of her ownby 2012 that will address many issues inthe realm of obesity and public health inthe US. Also, Alex considers himself luckyto be part of a great film team, MKUltra.Sam Comer (Tombras Group) and KevinAntoine (Scripps) are two really smart guys

with a ton of passion and talent. Togetherwith them, Alex looks forward to develop-ing his hobby into a committed effort andto further his ability to write simple and

profound screenplays. 

Planning to spend a weekin both Estes Park, CO, andIowa City, IA

Alex and Rachel are stopping at nothing tomake a trip to both Estes Park, CO, andIowa City, IA, happen this year in earlyAugust 2011. Every year, Chip and Anita

Osborn bring together close family andfriends from across the US together tospend 3-4 days together. Both are de-lighted to be invited to join this specialevent and are looking forward to drivingaround Iowa as well.

Camping & kayaking aroundJackson County, NC, on theweekends this sumer

Both Alex and Rachel have been saving upmoney for kayaks and camping gear sothat this summer they can continue to hostfriends at the house Cashiers, NC, as wellas organizing camping trips in the moun-tains. The two can never get enough of enjoying nature in all of its glory amongstdear friends.

Lavidge Unlimited willlaunch and continue to offernew services for its clients

Rachel and Alex are both launching theirfirm together with hopes of moving theoffice in Oak Ridge to downtown Knox-ville, TN. Additionally, they’re going to bewriting a business plan and create a com-

munity that has interest in bringing “TheHub” to the region, a franchised cowork-ing model for social entrepreneurs.

And we’re always stayingflexible for the unknown

And, of course, as busy as they stay, bothRachel & Alex try to keep their weekendsand evenings open for adventures, newopportunities and work projects! Varietyand spontaneity is the nectar of life!

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8/7/2019 Happy New Year! 2010 in review for Rachel & Alex.

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We are always thinking about our friends and family acrossthe country and the world and sending you our love.Written by Alex Lavidge & Rachel Bodenbender

Based here in Knoxville, TN, we are blessed to be living close to Rachel’s mother Sherry,

and her nephew Tim. Additionally, Alex’s mother, Townes, and his healthy 90-year oldGrandfather, Art, live nearby as well and stay active. Rachel also has three brothers;

Matt and Robert live in Chattanooga, and Chris lives in Virginia. Alex’s brother Sherman

and his wife Pati (whom we both visited recently) are enjoying their retirement in Wash-ington, D.C.. His father Nicholas and brother Greg, sister Julie, along with many nieces,nephews, great nieces and great nephews all live in Des Moines, IA, and Iowa City, IA.

Alex also has many dear family members, cousins, and friends whom he considers fam-ily living in Portland, OR, New York City, Kansas City, Los Angeles, the San FranciscoBay Area and across the US, all of whom he is always proud of and sending good vibes.

Here’s to a happy and successful 2011 everyone!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Lavidge & Bodenbender a la cottage

802 Freels Lane

Knoxville, TN 37922

Please, stay in

touch! We’re easy tofind on facebook.comand twitter! Let usknow how you’redoing if we haven’theard from you inawhile and know thatour guest room isalways available if you’re passing

through!

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