Exploring the many facets of public relations

Summer 2016

Honors and Awards

AKCG Wins Pyramid Award

Why It's Good to be

Bored
by Christopher J. Lukach, APR
President

Its summer. And we long for

the days of our childhood when
we sat around and whined to our
parents, Im bored. And our
parents would make suggestions
to help us alleviate the boredom.
Every once in a while, Id like to
go back to those days. Heres
why.
One of my favorite authors, Neil
Gaiman, said, Boredom is the
place you create from in
self-defense. And I believe this
principle applies not just to the
greatest living fantasy writer.
Entrepreneurs and those in
professional services also should
take a breath, if they can.
Boredom is a part of the recipe for
invention and innovation.
While boredom isnt a luxury we
are all allowed, those of us who
are, generally, fight it rather than
embrace it. Too many people in
our fields PR practitioners,
advertisers, marketers treat
workaholism as a virtue.
(Continued on last page.)

AKCG and Wesley Enhanced

Living earned a Pyramid Award in
the Multicultural/Diversity
Communications category for their
work together. Wesley, an operator
of continuing care retirement
communities, partnered with AKCG
to successfully integrate a newly
acquired senior living facility with
strong Jewish traditions into Wesleys
historically Methodist culture.

Driven by qualitative research, the

team retained the facilitys legacy
residents while attracting new and
diverse prospects.
AKCG and Wesley received the
first-place recognition during the
annual awards program, hosted by the
Public Relations Society of
Americas New Jersey Chapter, in
June.

Darrah Foster Wins Fast-Track Award

Senior Associate Darrah Foster
received the Fast-Track Award from
the Philadelphia Public Relations
Association (PPRA) at its Annual
Meeting in June. The Fast-Track
Award honors a
PPRA member
who has made
great contributions to the
organization, the
profession and
the community,
and who exemplifies PPRAs
vision for the
future.
Darrah also was
elected to a
three-year term
on the PPRA
Board of
Directors.

At the same meeting, PPRA

honored AKCG founder Anne Klein
with its Sylvia Kauders 50-Year Club
citation (see story next page).

Darrah Foster (center) receives the Fast-Track Award from

PPRA Vice President of Programs Nina Scimines and President
Meredith Avakian-Hardaway.

Staff News

Anne Recognized AS PPRA Honors Sylvia Kauders

The Philadelphia Public Relations
Association (PPRA) honored AKCG
founder Anne Klein with its Sylvia
Kauders 50-Year Club citation at its
annual meeting in June. Anne is one
of the first members to receive this
recognition for service to the
Association. Through the years,
Anne has participated on various
committees and panels, and was
inducted into the PPRA Hall of Fame
in 2004. The honor is named for
AKCG Senior Counselor Sylvia
Kauders, who passed away in May at
the age of 94 (see story at right).
Active in PPRA for more than 50
years, Sylvia was a past president,
Hall of Famer, board member and
influential leader in the public
relations industry and beyond.
Brian completes PR
Institute

In April, Senior Associate Brian

Price enrolled in the Public Relations
Society of Americas 2016 Nancy
Bacher Long PR Institute. The
program requires teams of communication professionals to work together
to build public relations plans and
present them to a non-profit client.
Brian and his team spent eight weeks
attending presentations and lectures
before they created their plan and
presentation for this years client,
Girls on the Run Philadelphia.

In Memoriam: We Remember Sylvia Kauders

Sylvia Kauders, a long-time
mentor of Anne Kleins and an
AKCG Senior Counselor, passed
away in May.
Anne first met Sylvia in the
1970s when Sylvia was the
Special Events Director for the
City of Philadelphia. Anne and
Sylvia worked together on a
creative idea of Sylvias ask
President Gerald Ford to return
the Declaration of Independence
to Philadelphia during the
Bicentennial. Five organizations
collected petitions with a million
signatures which Anne and Sylvia
presented to President Ford at the
White House. The result: First
Lady Betty Ford delivered the
Stone Plate (the original engraving
of the Declaration) to Philadelphia
to be displayed during the
Bicentennial summer.

With Paul Giamatti in American

Splendor

IPREX Meeting

In May, AKCGs IPREX agency

partners from across the globe came
together for the networks Annual
Meeting in San Francisco. AKCG
President Chris Lukach teamed up
with Spokane partner Andrei Mylroie
to present a session on Agency
Transformation, leading attendees
from more than 45 agencies in a
discussion about ways to reinvent
their firms offerings.
Jerry and Anne Go Red

Jerry and Anne Klein continued

their active involvement in the
American Heart Associations Go
Red for Women campaign in the
Southern New Jersey region. Jerry

Sylvia always described her

creativity as being able to turn
straw into gold threads. She won
numerous awards for her PR
programs including the coveted
PRSA Silver Anvil. She was most
proud of her induction as the first

co-chaired the Red Tie Brigade, a

group of men who made a personal
contribution to Go Red, and Anne
chaired the Red Dress Circle, a group
of women who also made a personal
contribution. The two groups raised
more than $30,000 for AHA to
continue research and education
regarding women's heart health.

With James Gandolfini in

The Sopranos

woman in the Philadelphia Public

Relations Association Hall of
Fame.
While her creative spirit
pervaded all her special events,
Sylvias first love was acting. Her
first Broadway performance was
in Crossing Delancy. She also
appeared in Torch Song Trilogy on
Broadway and in the West Coast
road show. Her movie credits
(Witness and Analyze That, among
others), television appearances
(The Sopranos, Law & Order SVU
and Spin City, among others) and
commercials (for Toyota with Eli
Manning and a series of VISA
Super Bowl spots, among others)
are memories of our lifetime.
Her most recent performances
were just two weeks before her
passing a reading of Lost in
Yonkers and a TV appearance in
Ciao Bella Living Italian Style.
Shortly after her death, she was
named Best Supporting Actress in
a short film called The Mother,
which recently won Best Drama
honors at the New York City Short
Films Festival.

Jerry Gives Scholarship

Jerry, a graduate of the Temple

University School of Media and
Communication and now a member
of its Board of Visitors, established a
Professional Promise Scholarship
Award at the School. The Award is
based on academic achievement,
PRSSA involvement and internships.

Spotlight on a Client

St. Mary Medical Center Ramps Up Education Program

We at AKCG have known for a
long time that client St. Mary
Medical Centers commitment to
education is fundamental. The Lower
Bucks County (Pa.) hospitals robust
dedication to educating the
community has enabled AKCG to
place in-depth stories and informative
articles throughout the Bucks County,
New Jersey and Philadelphia regions.

The Philadelphia Inquirer featured

trauma prevention program
coordinator Kim Everett on the
Healthy Kids Blog.
Recently, AKCG placed a guest
editorial in the Bucks County Courier
Times on behalf of Dr. George
Heyrich, director of Interventional
Cardiology and Structural Heart
Disease at St. Mary. The editorial
was about Operation: Arrive Alive,

the hospitals initiative urging

community members to dial 9-1-1 if
they or a loved one is experiencing
symptoms of a heart attack. AKCG
will actively promote Operation:
Arrive Alive with future news items
and article placements.
AKCG also helped to place an
article in the Phildelphia Inquirers
Healthy Kids Blog on behalf of St.
Mary Trauma Prevention Program
Coordinator Kim Everett. The article
discusses the dangers of open bodies
of water such as lakes, pools and the
ocean. Specifically, Everetts blog
article gives tips to adults and parents
about how they can keep children
safe by building fences, setting
watches and more. The article also
discusses the warning signs that
someone might be drowning.
It is not just children the trauma
prevention program is trying to help.
St. Mary just launched a new
program called CarFit, which offers
older adults the opportunity to check
how well their vehicles fit them (e.g.,
are their seats properly adjusted?).
In promoting the first CarFit event,
AKCG secured coverage on KYW
Newsradio and in The Bucks County
Courier Times with Kim Everett
again as the spokesperson.

A Lower Bucks County first

responder runs down the checklist
for a local resident during the
first CarFit event sponsored by
St. Mary.

As an acute care hospital, St. Mary

offers more than just trauma
prevention and treatment. AKCG
submitted an article to the
Philadelphia Inquirers Diagnosis:
Cancer blog on behalf of Chaplain
Angelo DeLorenzo about the
program he helps to oversee, called
No One Dies Alone. The program
offers comfort and compassion to
patients nearing the final stages of
their lives. The article was published
in mid-June.

Client News
The AKCG team knows that fresh
research can attract audience
attention. Thats why AKCG and
The Family Hope Center worked
with the Harris Poll to develop a
survey specific to parents of children
with special needs, to find out key
information about parents
involvement and knowledge of their
childrens development. The survey
confirmed the Centers initial beliefs,
and now the organization has strong
data to back its positions.
AKCG worked with the
Mid-Atlantic Dairy Association and
Philabundance to spread the word
about Fill a Glass with Hope. The
program will bring 80,000 servings of
fresh milk to families in need

throughout the Philadelphia area in

the first eight weeks of the program.
AKCG provided media outlets with
milk mustaches, milk and cookies to
tease the new initiative.

Anchors Tracy Davidson and Vai

Sikahema at TV station NBC 10 snapped
a photo of themselves with milk and
wearing milk mustaches, to share with
their social media followers.

In the spring, AKCG conducted

several spokesperson training
sessions for a variety of organizations. Chris Lukach and Mike Gross
provided a half-day seminar on
spokesperson techniques for
New Jersey Realtors aimed at
helping the associations board and
regional members make the most of
media opportunities. In addition,
Chris and Mike worked with global
student exchange organization and
long-time client, AFS Intercultural
Programs, to hone its teams
traditional media and social media
crisis response capabilities. Both
sessions offered opportunities for
spokespersons to work through
message delivery and to avoid
potential pitfalls.

Summer 2016

1000 Atr i u m W a y
S u i te 102
M o u n t L a u r e l , N J 08054

FIRST CLASS MAIL

More Client News

Why It's Good to be Bored

(Continued from front page.)

AKCG values work-life balance,

but Im not talking about forced
recreation. Im talking about the
few moments you might be able to
sit-on-the-couch, twiddle your
thumbs and stare into nothing
BOREDOM.
With two little children at home, I
wonder if its even possible for me
to get bored anymore. In addition
to our jobs and families, we have
endless stimulation at our

fingertips; we cant make it

through dinner without reaching
for our phones to socially
engage.
Well, Im going to try. I may
not be successful, but if I can
squeeze in a few minutes, Im
going to be deliberate in putting
myself into the frame of mind to
create. Im going to relish the
benefits of boredom.
C.J.L.

AKCG President Chris Lukach

recently held a webinar for The
National Catholic Risk Retention
Group shareholders about Crisis
Communications Basics. Chris
explained how no two crises are ever
quite the same, but when communicating through the crisis, there are
general rules you can follow that will
help you mitigate the worst of it.
In May, AKCG worked with
St. James Mercy Hospital to help
produce the hospitals Annual Report,
which was given to the hospitals
various boards and to Hornell, N.Y.
city officials to reiterate the hospitals
commitment to the community.
.

Anne Klein Communications Group is

a public relations consulting firm based
in the Philadelphia region, with clients
throughout the United States.
The firm is certified as a Small Business
Enterprise (SBE) by the State of New
Jersey.

KALEIDOSCOPE is published by

Anne Klein Communications Group, LLC

1000 Atrium Way, Suite 102
Mount Laurel, NJ 08054-3903
856-866-0411
e-mail: newsletter@annekleincg.com
WWW: http://www.annekleincg.com
Editor Jerry Klein

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AKCG is a member of IPREX (the

International Public Relations
Exchange), one of the worlds largest
public relations networks.