The Obscure Company is a non-profit organization that funds the community and charity organizations through unconventional events and activities. The ongoing effort of The Obscure Company has grown from three young adults in 1999, to a well organized group of 8 professionals working as a self sustaining charity under the 501(c)3 federal tax code. All Obscure Company events and activities are open to the public, and are appropriate for supporters of all ages, so visit the website often for event listings and news.

History of The Obscure Company

Briefly:  The Obscure Company is a charitable organization whose main purpose is to support local cancer related causes in Rhode Island and the surrounding communities.  The Obscure Company was founded in 1999 by four teenagers and has progressed to an organization of hundreds of donors and volunteers who dedicate their time and money to support worthy organizations through unusual events and fun activities.
  The keystone event of The Obscure Company is the annual Sit A Thon.  At the event participants gather sponsorships in a manner similar to that of a walk-a-ton, skip-a-thon or any other a-thon.  The difference is the mode of activity, in which the participants sit for up to 12 hours in our event location, entertaining themselves with books, board games and companionship.  The donations are gathered together and presented to a worthy charity to support their cause.  The Sit A Thon has raised almost $20,000 since it's inception for Camp Hope and the American Cancer Society.  Other charities from other events include the Providence Journal Santa Fund, and the Urban Collaborative Accelerated Program.
  The Obscure Company's continuing mission is to interest generous people in charitable giving to mainly cancer related charities through unusual and entertaining events.  The Obscure Company welcomes all age groups to its events, and is an equal opportunity all volunteer employer.

In Depth:

1999-2002 The Obscure Company was founded one Sunday afternoon on November 11, 1999 in the basement of two of the executives, John and Mark Colwell due to excessive boredom.  The original executives were John Colwell, Mark Colwell, Matthew Marco, and David Whiteside going on the concept of self promotion with the idea that one day, members or the executives of The Obscure Company would walk down the street and be confronted by passerby's.  They hoped to  be engaged with the following question.   "Hey, you're those guys from The Obscure Company!  What the heck do you do?"  Which would be answered with a serious of evasive and illogical responses, brought to a finish by the suggestion that they should visit the web-site.

    Upon investigation of advertisement for self promotion, such as billboards on Route 10 and signs on buses it was quickly determined that the costs far outweighed the incomes of the four executives, and the concept of The Obscure Company was forced to reinvent itself, or at least proceed at a more modest and cost effective rate.  And so a web-site was born that was completely impossible to navigate and contained little to no relevant information. Over time, and after a series of server wars, this web-page progressed to the current version seen today, which is still regarded by many as impossible to navigate and containing little to no relevant information, although numerous techniques for maintaining interest were, and are being attempted; such as email service, polls, articles, personalities, and contests.

    When only the email service and occasional contests could be considered even limited successes, The Obscure Company decided to reinvent itself anew, by holding outside-the-information-superhighway based events.  The first of these was The Obscure Company Charity Sit-A-Thon in 2001, which was held at Roger Williams Park and Zoo in Providence RI in early September, and has progressed to become The Obscure Company's signature event. The Sit-A-Thon in 2001 raised over $800 for the American Cancer Society.

2003    Deciding as a group that this was not such a bad thing for an organization of kids acting out of a lack of anything better to do, it was decided that The Obscure Company would become an event based web company.  After a lackadaisical 2002, caused by absent Executives due to college in foreign locations, an ambitious schedule of events was planned for 2003, ranging from darts tournaments at The Cranston Office, to additional charity events.  The Sit-A-Thon was brought back in July of 2003, and through increased participation and interest, and despite poor site planning, raised over $1000 for the American Cancer Society.

    Trying to build on this theme of limited success, The Obscure Company held an additional yearly charity event, in the form of a Chestnut Roast in late December.  Unfortunately The Obscure Company planning crew consistently neglects to secure a site before the rest of the planning proceeds, perhaps because executives cannot understand the concept of not wanting to let The Obscure Company do whatever the heck it wants with as little notice as possible.  Finally a site was awarded at Edaville Railroad USA and $400 from the event was donated to charity.  Also in 2003 The Obscure Company introduced its first annual awards banquet to honor and recognize all those people who make The Obscure Company possible.  The keystone Award was given to Alan Campbell, in congratulations of becoming the new Obscure Company Executive, taking Matthew Marco's vacated seat, and maintaining a quartet of innovation and obscurity.

2004  This year was a tough year for the Obscure Company.  Having decided on actually doing stuff of charitable interest based on the successes of the previous years, The Obscure Company was forced to improve on that success or become a sham of a company.  A useless derelict of a web dinosaur.  The pressure was on!  The executives jumped into action, planning an ambitious events calendar featuring an event every month.  This of course, was largely a farce to impress non-materializing investors, however many of these events did in fact take place!  Starting off with a gaming theme of a billiards tournament, followed quickly by a pair of poker tournaments The Obscure Company attempted to establish interest.  We decided to register the company with the state of Rhode Island, so all you people using The Obscure Company as your business name... we have no money to sue, just please stop.  Then, the traditional events arrived.  That excitement fermented by the early events didn't appear for the annual kite fly, which had just two competitors, and the next event (The second annual sandcastle building non-contest which was canceled in '03)simply never happened.  But the next event!  Wow!  Our annual Sit-A-Thon was an unabashed success, and turned the year around.

    The Sit-A-Thon 2004 was a statistical monster.  Participation up 160%!  Money donated to the American Cancer Society up 130%!  Visitors up 80%!  Individual donors up 75%!  Time of event... down 0.14% but that's an anomaly as our parking was challenged.  2004 saw an oversized check delivered to an actual living American Cancer Society representative (props to Mr. Holt for his hanging out ability, general cool-ness, and pretending to like The Obscure Company) at the annual awards banquet, which also saw an increase in participation.  Calculating those impressive numbers so exhausted the executives that they were unable to plan a chestnut roast, but substituted an even more difficult charity event in the Charlie's Thanksgiving food drive.  Alan and John organized volunteers, delivery routes and took phone calls for people unable to get thanksgiving dinner on their own and 1300 meals were given out by Charlies in North Attleboro.  The year ended with 41 people gathering at Luigi's in Johnston RI for the Awards banquet, and a night of reflection on Obscure Company-ness/ism/tion... and a chance to look ahead to 2005.

2005 Proved to be a bit of a double edged year, two edges, not like those fancy razors.  The Company had succeeded in running six events in 2004. This was a monumental achievement, no matter how small three of them were.  It was however running the executives ragged, particularly since people had the pesky habit of graduating college and/or getting "real" jobs.  It was bound to come to a head regarding how much time each person could put in, and where the Sit A Thon was to go in the future.

  Fortunately, The Obscure Company already had a great tradition of charity work and two events that it could run in its sleep (literally for the Sit A Thon)!  The Sit A Thon and Banquet were once again run and again both events improved significantly in scope, participation and donations to charity.  For the Sit  A Thon, this meant 16 sitters, and $3650 donated to the American Cancer Society.  The Obscure Company was approaching a lifetime mark of $10000 given in charitable donations!  Impressive considering its humble beginnings (go back and read 1999-2002 if you doubt this).  The banquet once again switched locations and gained diners, and entertainment (props to Mr. Tom D for the Ipod hookup and Andrew for his raffle donation!). 

  What truly set 2005 apart though was the planning meeting held in Ayer MA late in the year.  This was a novel approach for the Obscure Company and hopefully in will be adopted by other non-profits and Fortune 500 companies in the future!  The Obscure Company actually gathered like minded individuals in one location for a weekend and planned.  Yes that's right... planned.  For 2006.  The Obscure Company changed its operating structure to get more people involved and working on events, missions, and goals for the upcoming year!  A separate board and officer core was instituted and a certain level of dedication and work was expected from every person, depending on the position they would be adopting within the organization.  A few ambitious goals were decided upon for '06: Becoming an official 501(c)3 charitable organization, once again improving Sit A Thon participation and donating monies, and increasing participation and awareness in general.  Scroll down to see how 2006 went!

2006 once again showed the variety of success and missed success that is becoming a hallmark for interesting year summaries on this gowingly over-long about-us section of the Obscure Company.  Some original goals have been met and exceeded.  Firstly, before even truly off the ground, the additional employee count and dedication paid off.  An opportunity to volunteer by judging a High School Science Fair was identified and acted upon.  Also, The Obscure Company actually achieved charity status in its first try.  No questions from the IRS, no subsequent submissions of the 30 something page application full of legal jargon.  Now donations could be made directly to the Obscure Company for tax deductions, a fact that greatly improved moral and hope for larger and more successful events.  The company also held regular board meetings to keep itself on the right track.  A mission statement (seen at the top of this page) and official logo were officially adopted.  It was decided to get ambitious with the Sit A Thon and look for a larger location, more sitters, more publicity, and a more local and responsive charity.  Camp Hope was chosen as the charity for 2006, a camp for kids who had or have cancer and their siblings in Rhode Island.

  The Sit A Thon 2006 (head coordinator Tom Douglass) boasted over 30 sitters, two separate entertainment donations (music and magic) and new records in donations and publicity.  The event and The Obscure Company were featured in an article by Bob Kerr in the Providence Journal and the event raised $5000 to donate to Camp Hope.  This achievement, along with an improved donor and member tracking database bodes well for the 2007 Sit A Thon.  Lessons were learned, concepts verified and others discarded.  Officer habits of having a life outside of The Obscure Company continued to limit the limitless possibilities of The Obscure Company, but the company continues to climb ever upward and onward to the future of charitable obscure giving.  When 2006 ended the Obscure Company had collected almost $14k since its inception in 1999, all for charitable organizations, quite an accomplishment for a company founded on boredom and inscrutability.

2007 - So in 2007 The Obscure Company decided that the tradition founded in 2006 of actually planning early on was a decent idea, and one that should be continued. Early on we saw the resignation of one officer, to dedicate himself full time to the goal of raising a child to become a future Obscure Company initiate... long range planning for The Obscure Company means 16-20 years!  For 2007 Doug Stevenson and Carla Doughty joined the operating staff, with Bob Holt and Tom Douglass (the child raiser) stepping down.  At our second board meeting a firm events calendar was established, with the goal of doubling The Obscure Company Sit A Thon, having a pre-emptive moral and support boosting field day, continuing the new tradition of a Golf Tournament day, and renewing the support for the end of the year banquet.  Also new for 2007 was the concept of trying to secure sites for events as early as March!  Imagine! It's early, the updater of this is amazed if someone is reading about 2007 in 2007.  If so though, check out the events calendar or contact us to find out how to help out in our progressively biggest year yet!