Centennial Office wins award
Posted on March 17, 2008
Fred Hilton and the JMU Centennial Office were chosen as the winners of the Grand Award for Special Events from District III of the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, the national organization for college and university public relations, alumni and advancement professionals.
“I’m very pleased,” Hilton said. “This recognizes a lot of people for a lot of work.”
The CASE awards are an annual competition between colleges and universities in the southeastern United States. Schools submit applications for projects they have created. Hilton said there are more than 4,000 members at colleges and universities in the nine-state area covered by CASE District III.
There were more than 3,000 entries in this year’s competition and a high number of people who worked with the Centennial Office contributed to the celebration.
“There are a couple hundred people that have worked on this from parents of students, to students, and faculty and staff,” Hilton said. “Lots of people pitched in and the timing was perfect since this is the high point of Centennial.”
Hilton added that although he did not receive a phone call, he did check the Web site the day after the conference to announce the winners to see if JMU had won. He forwarded the results to those closely involved to spread the good news.
Runners-up to JMU in the Special Events category included projects at the University of Memphis, Virginia Commonwealth University, Kennesaw State University and the University of Central Florida. These institutions received Awards of Excellence in the Special Events category. Five other schools received special merit awards in the category.
The JMU Centennial office also won an Award of Excellence in the Total Institutional Relations category, along with VCU. The University of Tennessee won the Grand Award in that category.
Regardless, Hilton was very pleased.
“It is only more good stuff,” Hilton said. “It takes everything done on a college campus to decide the winner.”
JMU’s Centennial office also received a Special Merit Award in the Overall Web site Design and Implementation category.
Out of all the Centennial projects, the Web site’s recognition meant the most to Hilton.
“I am particularly proud of the Web site,” Hilton said. “It is a massive amount of information and it was nice to get an award.”
With this week being the biggest of Centennial Celebration, some thought the hard work was well worth it.
“We had a lot of help with different committees, so this is not just an award for our office, it’s an award for everyone,” said Debra Long, assistant Centennial director. “It all came into one great big celebration. We pulled it together and made it such a wonderful year.”
While Hilton and Long are vocal about the group effort, one of their co-workers credits them for the attention JMU has received.
“Fred’s understanding and knowledge of JMU translated into a strong vision of what the Centennial should be,” said Martha Graham, who was a primary writer for many of the Centennial projects. “Add in Debbie’s attention to detail and you truly had a winning team. As for me, it’s been the most interesting job I’ve ever had — and has reaffirmed why JMU is such a special school.”
