Respected Central Pennsylvania public/media relations veterans capture leading industry award
Red Land Little League, Lucy Gnazzo, president of LM Gnazzo Promotion Strategies, and Nell McCormack Abom, president of Nell McCormack Abom Communications, captured first place honors in the national 2016 PR Daily Awards for public relations surrounding the 2015 Red Land LLWS U.S. Championship team. The champions raised more than $31,000 for cancer-related charities and made approximately 100 public appearances to promote youth baseball, good sportsmanship, and philanthropy. The award competition is sponsored by Chicago-based Ragan Communications, a national leader in public relations.
“Not only is America proud of our Red Land champs’ baseball achievements, but also we commend them for their significant contributions to help conquer childhood cancer, and impact families’ lives throughout the Commonwealth,” said Gnazzo. “I’m honored to partner with such an extraordinary group of coaches, players and families who believed in using their platform to give back as youth ambassadors to touch as many lives as possible through their journey, their philanthropic work, and goodwill tour,” Gnazzo said.
“It’s thrilling for all of us in the Red Land family to celebrate the champs’ achievements on and off the field,” added McCormack Abom. “This national PR Daily Award represents the success of our collective efforts to shine a light on positive youth and philanthropy in Pennsylvania. We are proud to accept it on behalf of our champs, the League, and the many children and families they have helped.”
The Ragan Awards recognize those who pave the way in PR and communications, who create and innovate best practices, and who are best practitioners.
“These awards carry substantial weight as they are not only national in scope but they are judged by some of the brightest minds in the PR industry,” wrote Ragan Communications.
Gnazzo and Abom represent, individually and together, diverse corporate, educational, nonprofit, sporting/entertainment, and agricultural clients. They previously won a Public Relations Society of America-Central PA Keystone Award for Best Overall PR Campaign for their Red Land work. Their other clients have won industry awards for strategic branding, media, and messaging campaigns that they helped create and execute. They specialize in public and media relations, strategic communications, event planning, media training, television production, and social media messaging. Other awards for their work include Gnazzo’s Lifetime Achievement Award by the Conference for Women: Be Extraordinary!, and Abom’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Emmy Award, as well as membership in the 2016 National Security Seminar at the U.S. Army War College.
Gnazzo and Abom have collaborated on several PR campaigns, including an award-winning fresh milk program for the needy, “Fill A Glass With Hope™,” for the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank, Feeding Pennsylvania, and the PA Dairymen’s Association. Recently, they partnered on the PA Blue Ribbon Champion for Kids Campaign Awards and Rally for child abuse prevention. They served together as senior advisors to Pennsylvania Governor Tom and First Lady Michele Ridge, often partnering on state and national projects such as the Inaugurals; the National Governors’ Association (NGA) Conference; the Commonwealth’s first-ever Safe Schools Summit; crime prevention, literacy, and family health media campaigns; trade missions; state dignitary visits; and more.