GALVESTON HISTORICAL FOUNDATION
October 2, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Molly Dannenmaier
Director of Marketing and Public Relations
409-765-7834

Galveston Historical Foundation Wins 11 Pinnacle Awards From International Festivals and Events Association

An international spotlight has been focused on this island city as the Galveston Historical Foundation won 11 top honors for its annual Dickens on the Strand and Historic Homes Tour promotional campaigns in the 2009 International Festivals and Events Association’s Pinnacle Awards.

GHF carried out the promotional campaigns and successfully conducted the events within months after Hurricane Ike inundated most of this historic city with a huge storm surge on Sept. 13, 2008. The storm left thousands of homes, businesses and other structures—including GHF’s own headquarters--heavily damaged or destroyed.

The color catalog the foundation produced for its 2009 Historic Homes Tour won a Gold Pinnacle Award in its budget class in the worldwide competition. The foundation’s Homes Tour publicity campaign also garnered Gold Pinnacle awards for best single magazine display ad and for best merchandise, a memorial bronze Hurricane Ike High Water Line Plaque.

"These awards are most deserved by Galveston Historical Foundation," said Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas. "The foundation's decision to forge ahead with the Dickens festival less than three months after Hurricane Ike provided Galvestonians with a burst of joy in one of the city's darkest hours ever. The successful promotion by the GHF staff was a major coup. And just months later, GHF helped bring another welcome measure of normalcy to the city by organizing a wonderfully successful homes tour."

Other GHF honors from this year’s worldwide competition include two silver and three bronze awards for broadcast, newspaper and magazine advertisements related to Dickens on the Strand, long recognized as one of the nation’s premiere Christmas festivals. In addition, the foundation won a silver award in the category of Best Event/Organization E-Newsletter and a bronze award in the category of Best Press/Media Kit for a post-Hurricane Ike information kit.

“Our staff did amazing work under amazingly difficult circumstances on both events,” said Dwayne Jones, GHF Executive Director. “The fact that we won more honors in the Pinnacle Awards this year than in any prior year speaks for itself.”

In 2007, GHF’s Homes Tour program also won a gold award in the Pinnacle Awards. That same year, GHF won silver and bronze awards for advertising components of the Dickens on the Strand promotional campaign.

Unlike previous years, the 2009 winning publicity materials and retail items were all designed by in-house, by GHF’s staff designer, David Canright, rather than by a hired graphic artist, said Molly Dannenmaier, GHF director of marketing. Research and writing in 2009 were all done in-house as well, by GHF’s events coordinator, Jami Durham. The award winning-enewsletter was produced by Kent Muller of Galveston.com, the company that administers GHF’s website and online ticketing systems.

This year’s awards were announced Sept. 23, at the International Festivals and Events Association’s 53rd Annual Convention & Expo in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Sponsored by Haas & Wilkerson Insurance, the IFEA professional competition drew thousands of entries this year from among the world’s top festivals and events.

“We would like to congratulate all of our Pinnacle winners for their outstanding entries into this year’s competition,” said IFEA President & CEO, Steven Wood Schmader, CFEE. “The IFEA/Haas & Wilkerson Pinnacle Awards represents the hallmark of excellence in the festivals and events industry. Entries in every budget category, from every corner of the globe, allow us to recognize the best in our business while raising the standards and quality of media promotions and events across the board.”

Headquartered in Boise, Idaho, The International Festivals and Events Association (IFEA) is a non-profit membership organization with members spanning 40 countries and five continents, and offers the most complete source of ideas, resources, information, education and networking for festival and event professionals worldwide. Visit the IFEA website at www.ifea.com for additional details.