USACE Galveston Recognized with 6 Kassner Awards (USA)

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Galveston District Public Affairs Office was recognized with six awards from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Herbert A. Kassner Public Affairs Competition.

The district won three first place awards and three second place awards in the following categories:

* Category A: Community Relations Individual Achievement – First Place — Isidro Reyna, APR: Reyna joined the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Galveston District as a civilian public affairs officer in 2009. As the deputy public affairs officer, he maintains internal and external communications and effectively conveys the district’s engineering mission to a complex military, civil service and contract workforce as well as key audiences ranging from congressional representatives to the public. During his tenure, Reyna has been instrumental in increasing awareness of the value the Corps brings to the local community, state and nation.

* Category B: Community Relations Program – First Place — Corps Cares: Connecting the Community with the Corps: A comprehensive community relations program to increase understanding of the Corps’ mission of providing vital public engineering services in peace and war to strengthen the nation’s security, energize the economy and reduce risks from disasters.

* Category C: Community Relations Special Event – Second Place — April Pools Day: A one-day media event to educate the public about water safety and partner with community leaders, volunteers and citizens to help reduce public fatalities and improve public safety.

* Category H: Television Information Program – Second Place — Dig This: Dredging Along the Texas Coast: In an effort to educate the public about the importance of keeping waterways open for navigation, staff created a four-minute video infographic about dredging along the Texas coast, the economic impact shipping has on the nation and the potential consequences of failing to conduct advanced waterway maintenance.

* Category K: Human Interest Features – First Place — Stephen Sheedy: A feature story on Rashid Sheikh-ali, who set out on a life-changing journey in 1980 that would take him from Africa to America -where he would become a structural engineer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Galveston District.

* Category P: Command Information Campaign – Second Place — Corps Cares: Communicating Cutbacks: Staff developed an aggressive command information campaign to educate district employees about the organization’s current fiscal climate and inform staff of necessary agency-wide budget cutbacks to avoid district-wide layoffs.

“These awards are a great reflection of the district’s efforts to increase the publics’ understanding of the Corps’ various missions,” said Col. Christopher Sallese, USACE Galveston District commander. “Staff’s continued efforts to connect the community with the Corps throughout 2012 has enabled us to build relationships and encourage community participation as well as bring about awareness of the district’s programs.”

More than 319 total entries for the journalism contest from 58 USACE districts were submitted in the annual competition.

The Kassner Awards recognize military and civilian employee print and broadcast practitioners for journalistic excellence in furthering the objectives of the Corps’ communication program. All first place winners will advance to compete in the Keith L. Ware Public Affairs Competition (an Army-wide journalism competition program). First place winners of the Keith L. Ware competition compete in the Thomas Jefferson Journalism competition, which is the Department of Defense’s highest accolade for military journalists and broadcasters.

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Press Release, February 8, 2013