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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Gerard Durling has been embroiled in a battle his whole life. Durling, a Northeastern Pennsylvania native, said that he&#8217;s constantly fighting to help people realize what their area has to offer.</p><p>&#8220;When they say there&#8217;s nothing to do I kind of want to say, &#8216;what are you going to do in Philadelphia that&#8217;s different?,&#8217;&#8221; Durling said. &#8220;(There are) things that are cool in our area that they forget about, like the Garden Drive-In. You get to watch two movies for $8! Then we have all these new types of attractions that are popping up everywhere like the trampoline place in Pittston called Skyzone.&#8221;</p><p>Durling, who runs the Internet marketing company Coal Creative, wasn&#8217;t content with using Facebook advertising to reach a wider audience. He noticed the Northeastern Pennsylvania negativity that crowded his newsfeed, and he decided that his efforts would be better spent building a community to change that.</p><p>&#8220;They need reminders that there are good things in this area and they don&#8217;t get that in their newsfeed,&#8221; Durling said. &#8220;I came up with the idea to start a group of people that are like-minded (and) want to see some change.&#8221;</p><p>With the core mission in place, Durling started the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/1450631041907325/" target="_blank">NEPA Influencers Facebook group </a>and invited 20 people he thought could help get the idea off the ground. This wasn&#8217;t just about selling his marketing company anymore&#8212;it was about selling Northeastern Pennsylvania. Durling posted a challenge to the group in its first week&#8212;take a photo with the giant cow alongside Route 309&#8212;and the NEPA Influencers sprang into action.</p><p>&#8220;We had about 10 people who did it, which was cool,&#8221; Durling said. &#8220;The idea of it is they post their photo on their Facebook or their Instagram with the hashtag &#8216;#NEPAchallenge,&#8217; and people will see that and wonder what the NEPA challenge is. Hopefully they want to get involved with that.&#8221;</p><p>Apparently, people want to get involved with that.</p><p>The group picked up steam like an espresso machine at IBOP Coffee, and in just a month&#8217;s time it has grown from 20 people to 273 and counting. The prizes that Durling and Coal Creative offer may have something to do with the growth (the winner of the cow challenge received a free website), but even the rewards advance Durling&#8217;s ultimate goal of adding value to Northeastern Pennsylvania.</p><p>&#8220;The challenge was to do something with the cow, so I thought, &#8216;well, let&#8217;s see, I just wrapped my car with vinyl for my business (NEPA Tech Services), so maybe I should get my car in the picture,&#8221; Thomas Cardillo said. &#8220;I kind of threw my hands up at the cow and put something along the lines of, &#8216;whether you throw your phone in the lake or it gets run over by a cow, whatever the case we can fix it.&#8217;&#8221;</p><p>Cardillo was shocked he won the challenge, but the awe-inspiring part is the redesigned website. He said it should be live this weekend and he can&#8217;t wait to share it.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s absolutely unbelievable what (Durling) did with my website,&#8221; Cardillo said. &#8220;That&#8217;s what I won and it&#8217;s ridiculous. He definitely knows what he&#8217;s doing.&#8221;</p><p>Cardillo isn&#8217;t the only one excited about their partnership with Durling. Linda Rowe got to know him through Leadership Wilkes-Barre and was one of the NEPA Influencers chosen 20.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve often talked about being a positive influence in the area,&#8221; Rowe said. &#8220;I think we all need to be reminded about all the resources we have here. It&#8217;s a great way to share things that people might not know about that are right in their backyard. I think our biggest problem is being so hard on ourselves. It&#8217;s bringing a realization that it&#8217;s not only new people that know we have valuable resources here&#8212;there are plenty of us natives who have stayed here for a reason and enjoy all the things we have to offer.&#8221;</p><p>Rowe has done every one of the challenges&#8212;she visited the cow, she doodled a landmark (her favorite one), she shared a blog and she crafted NEPA song lyrics. Her completed challenges have earned her entry into the first NEPA Influencers meet-up, scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 15 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Franklin&#8217;s in downtown Wilkes-Barre. Durling hopes to hold one every six weeks as a way of getting the like-minded minds together.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a fun social event to get all these people in the same room that want to see some change in the area and see if we can brainstorm bigger things,&#8221; Durling said. &#8220;One of the things we want to accomplish with the meet-ups is making people aware of the different things that other influencers are involved with. They might able to collaborate on stuff or just meet new people.&#8221;</p><p>Durling said to expect live challenges at the meet-up, along with a part-did-you-know, part-I-spy icebreaker to help fellow influencers get to know each other. NEPA Influencers members who have acquired six or more points from challenges are invited to the event, where Coal Creative will use 5 percent of the month&#8217;s revenue to reward challenge stalwarts with free food or drinks. Northeastern Pennsylvania residents who aren&#8217;t members of the NEPA Influencers can gain an invite to the event by bringing in this article. Free food or drink will not be provided to non-challengers, but the opportunity to make allies in Northeastern Pennsylvania&#8217;s ongoing battle doesn&#8217;t come with a price tag.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">This perogi, knitted by NEPA Influencer Elizabeth Bohan, was submitted as part of a #NEPAChallenge event. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_NEPAC1.jpg</photo0><caption0>This perogi, knitted by NEPA Influencer Elizabeth Bohan, was submitted as part of a #NEPAChallenge event. </caption0><photoCredit0>Photos courtesy of NEPA Influencers </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_NEPAC2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">This drawing of Scranton&#8217;s &#8216;Electric City&#8217; sign was submitted to the &#8220;Draw What Reminds You of NEPA&#8221; challenge by NEPA Influencer Amanda Montigeny. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_NEPAC2.jpg</photo1><caption1>This drawing of Scranton&#8217;s &#8216;Electric City&#8217; sign was submitted to the &#8220;Draw What Reminds You of NEPA&#8221; challenge by NEPA Influencer Amanda Montigeny. </caption1><photoCredit1>Photos courtesy of NEPA Influencers </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_TTLXXWebsite.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Gerard Durling runs the Internet marketing website, Coal Creative, and has formed a group of NEPA Influencers, people who promote the positive aspects the area has to offer. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_TTLXXWebsite.jpg</photo2><caption2>Gerard Durling runs the Internet marketing website, Coal Creative, and has formed a group of NEPA Influencers, people who promote the positive aspects the area has to offer. </caption2><photoCredit2>Clark Van Orden | Times Leader </photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_tomcom.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Tom Cardillo was the first #NEPAChallenge winner. Influencers were asked to post pictures of themselves next to the Wilkes-Barre cow. Cardillo was recognized for his creative cross-promotional photo and received a new website from Coal Creative. NEPA Influencers will meet Saturday, Aug. 15 at Franklin&#8217;s in Wilkes-Barre. Although it&#8217;s a members only event, this article is your non-member ticket to the event. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_tomcom.jpg</photo3><caption3>Tom Cardillo was the first #NEPAChallenge winner. Influencers were asked to post pictures of themselves next to the Wilkes-Barre cow. Cardillo was recognized for his creative cross-promotional photo and received a new website from Coal Creative. NEPA Influencers will meet Saturday, Aug. 15 at Franklin&#8217;s in Wilkes-Barre. Although it&#8217;s a members only event, this article is your non-member ticket to the event. </caption3><photoCredit3>Photos courtesy of NEPA Influencers </photoCredit3></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Gene Axton</p><p>gaxton@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>IF YOU GO:</strong></p><p>Where: Franklin&#8217;s in Public Square</p><p>When: Saturday, Aug. 15 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.</p><p>How much: Free!</p><p>How to join: Search &#8216;NEPA Influencers&#8217; on Facebook and click &#8216;join!&#8217;</p><p>Bring or mention this article for access to the NEPA Influencers meet-up. You will not receive the perks that come with an invite through NEPAChallenge, but you will get to meet the NEPA Influencers community and learn more about NEPAChallenge.</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Gene Axton at 570-704-3943 or on Twitter @TLArts</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Rebranding NEPA: Local proponents NEPA Influencers meet on Saturday