On Thursday April 27, ad agencies, pr firms and organizations gathered at the Kellogg Center on the campus of Michigan State University awaiting the outcome of the 2006 PRSA (Public Relations Society of America) Public Relations Awards. Starr Commonwealth, a leading child service organization and Midwest Children’s charity was the big winner of 5 First Place Pinnacle Awards from 5 different entrant categories.

Bill Traver, President of BluFish Brand Consulting, represented Starr as it’s public relations and marketing consulting firm stated, “It has been an honor to be so closely associated with Starr and this has been our best showing ever. Two years ago we came home with two first place awards; last year three and this year five!  We clearly were the top winner in the first place category thanks to the great team of professionals that devote their professions and skills by spreading the incredible news of how Starr serves troubled children and families from across the United States.”

Martin Mitchell, President and CEO of Starr Commonwealth, Albion, Michigan stated that, “One of our strategic initiatives is truly being realized. We are seeing the fruits of all our efforts by seeing and viewing published news daily about what we do here at Starr.  More importantly we are seeing the good works of how our staff dedicates their lives to serving children, families and professionals. Last year was our best year ever with positive news coverage and feature articles being seen in over 30 states across the U.S.”

PRSA each year reviews and judges the creative work within the PR field. A critical area of judging is statistical proof of positive results. This year, with nearly 100 total entries Starr enjoyed top recognition in five different categories;
Organization Consumer Magazines; Television Public Service Announcements; Special Media Event; Organization Internal Newsletters and National Feature Consumer Articles published.

Traver commented that “it was especially fun being seated with several of the key staff and administrators from the PR department at MSU. I think if anything we gained some new ‘friends of Starr’ along with nearly two hundred other people attending the event. We all made it a mission to deliver the message to our audience of what an excellent job Starr does serving over 5,000 children families and professionals this last year. It was great having a captive audience and urging everyone to look closer at Starr and to make them their children’s charity of choice,” Traver concluded.

Founded in 1913, Starr Commonwealth is a nationally and internationally recognized private, non-profit organization.  Last year the organization served more than 5,000 children, families and professionals across the United States.  Services range from foster care to residential treatment and from in-home counseling to programs that help young adults learn to live independently.  For more information about Starr Commonwealth please call (800) 837-5591 or visit www.starr.org.

Details of the Five First Place Categories and Entries were:

The Starr News has been a long-standing tradition at Starr Commonwealth that has come to serve a variety of audiences associated with the organization.  It began as a student-run newspaper and has evolved into a 4-color professionally developed magazine that informs staff, donors, alumni, students and many others involved with Starr Commonwealth, of the organization’s news and events.

The primary objective of the “Without Your Help” television public service announcement series developed by Starr Commonwealth was to increase private financial support for the not-for-profit organization.  The targeted public service announcement campaign focused on the need for financial support in the coming years.  The “Without Your Help” public service announcement campaign was designed to pique the emotions of anyone who has a place in their heart for helping troubled children.

The objectives of the Maya Angelou Montcalm School for Girls 1st Anniversary Event Media Kit were to attract reporters to cover the event, while providing tools to make coverage of the event successful.  Key reporters within a 60-mile radius were targeted for coverage.  Of the 28 reporters invited, 12 covered the event in person and several more covered the story in a promotional capacity prior to the event.  A total of 18 full-length articles resulted.

In November 2005, Starr Commonwealth introduced a new and improved internal newsletter with the objective of increasing/improving communication between the organization’s administration and employees.  The development of Starr’s internal newsletter — The Galaxy: News of the Starr’s, has allowed the organization to introduce a concise and informative internal newsletter to its staff.  The Galaxy is a monthly publication distributed on the first pay period of each month and is attached to all employee paychecks.

The story “Back to School for You and Your Kids…No Stress, Just Success!” was written to increase awareness of Starr Commonwealth’s training program for educators, residential treatment facilities, and community-based programs that serve children.  The feature had two goals; to educate parents about the stress children often experience when going back to school each year, and secondly, to spark interest in finding out more about Starr’s No Disposable Kids training program.