FPRA honors four Volusia County PR pros

Four Volusia County residents were honored during the Florida Public Relations Association's (FPRA) statewide Golden Images Award competition. Winners were announced at the association’s state conference in Naples Aug. 10.

Mary Dorn, APR, president of the Volusia/Flagler Chapter of the FPRA, was named member of the year for “outstanding leadership, demonstrated enthusiasm, extraordinary involvement and loyal support. “ Dorn is a public relations consultant based in Ormond Beach.

Jo Lynn Deal, chief communications officer for Community Partnership for Children, received an award of distinction for a community relations campaign supporting the agency's mentor program. The campaign recruited 20 volunteer mentors to establish long-term relationships with children in foster care who are between the ages of 14 and 17.

Volusia County Government employees Pat Kuehn and Betty Holness received an award of distinction for “Volusia Counts,” the census awareness campaign they spearheaded earlier this year. Their campaign used local residents as models and spokespersons encouraging others to return their census questionnaires by April 1. The county’s mail-back response rate increased from 67 percent in 2000 to 73 percent by April 27, 2010. The final rate is expected to increase by at least 5 more percentile points when the results of the U.S. Census Bureau’s door-to-door enumeration campaign are announced in December.

Holness is the county’s community outreach manager, and Kuehn is a marketing specialist.

According to the Florida Public Relations Association's website: "The Golden Image Awards have become a standard of public relations excellence in the state of Florida. Winners demonstrate the very best examples of innovation, planning and design. Entries also must meet the highest standards of production, execution, and evaluation of results and budget."