Broadcast Release

March 9, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Students in a local science program watched their banner take off with space shuttle Endeavor. On March 9, 2009 middle and high school students from SCUBAnauts program watched astronaut Dom Gorie unfurl a banner from the space shuttle. The students had previously taken the banner to the bottom of the sea and to the top of the world’s tallest mountain, Mauna Kea.

Jennifer Dupont a U-S-F grad student who is working with the SCUBAnauts tells of her experience.

(SOUND BITE… 10 SECONDS)

The best part of being involved in this program is the opportunity to see the students grow and develop a deeper understanding and appreciation of science.

SCUBAnauts is a local program sponsored by University of South Florida’s College of Marine Science, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Fish and Wildlife Research Institute. This program helps to get students excited and involved in science.

Pitch Release

February 8, 2009

John Cavados

WTVT Fox 13

P.O. Box 31113

Tampa, Florida, 33631

Dear Mr. Cavados,

Throughout history chocolate has been believed to bring smiles to the broken-hearted and to prompt amorous feelings in both men and women.

Choxotica is a new chocolate drinking bar specializing in over 200 different premium chocolate bars that suit any taste. This unique destination is not just a candy store but a luxury showroom. Each chocolate, labeled with a map showing distant origins, is from the cacao beans of Venezuela, Mexico, Grenada, Tanzania, Indonesia and around the equator. What makes this store unique and special is the personal attention and touch the owner, Eric Green, adds to every chocolate experience. Not only is the chocolate stored in a tasting room of 63 to 65 degrees but also is available with pure-filtered water for tasting.

Eric Green would make an interesting guest on your show the week before Valentine’s Day. Eric’s knowledge about chocolate and creative demonstrations would attract your viewers. He could even present a tasting of the world’s finest chocolates to your hosts, having each host sample specialty treats. With Eric’s appearance on the show he will take you through a tour of chocolate history and demonstrate the chocolate making process.

I believe that your viewers will benefit from Eric Green’s personal chocolate presentation. It will provide them with interesting facts and other information that will assist with their holiday shopping. Eric can show your audience members the perfect gift ideas for the absolute chocolate connoisseur, or the addicted chocoholic! I’ll give you a call in a few days to discuss your interest.

Sincerely,

Dana Blickensderfer

Community Relations Manager

Nashville Zoo media alert

Garth Brooks, Zookeepers and Science Lovers Play a Part in Nashville Zoo Grand Opening Bug Exhibit

The Nashville Zoo is hosting the grand opening bug for its new exhibit March 6, 2009. The exhibit will feature colorful North American butterflies and moths. These insects from the North American continent are described to be a working colony of leaf-cutter ants, giant millipedes, centipedes, land crabs, tarantulas, scorpions and zebra cockroaches. In addition to taking a closer look into a bug’s life, zoogoers will be able to walk through a butterfly garden where up to 600 free-flying butterflies and moths will be feeding, resting and emerging as adult butterflies.

WHO: Garth Brooks, zoo director Sandy Craig, exhibit director Jonathan Newsome and elementary school science teachers and their students

WHAT: Grand opening of a bug exhibit at the Nashville Zoo

WHERE: Nashville Zoo

WHEN: March 6, 2009, begins at 10 a.m.

FACTS: Garth Brooks will be releasing the first butterfly into the butterfly garden at 10 a.m.

Spider trainer Alfonso Hernandez will be giving spider presentations and answering any questions about our little creatures.

Exhibits feature colorful North American butterflies and moths.

Zoo director Craig and exhibitor director Newsome will be available for interviews at 10:30 a.m.

Great interview and photography opportunities with Garth Brooks and the local elementary schools.

CONTACT: Dana Blickensderfer, director of communications, (615) 833-1537

Public Relations press release

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA

4202 East Fowler Avenue, CIS 1040

Tampa, FL 33620-7800

Contact: Dana Blickensderfer

Phone: (813) 340-5596

January 24, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SOCIAL EXPERIMENTS TAKE OVER THE CLASSROOM AT USF

TAMPA, Fla. — A public relations writing class at the University of South Florida is using social experiments as a theme to enhance their learning experience this semester.

For the entire spring semester, students of Dr. Burn’s writing class will conduct social experiments that give them practice in writing and media relations. The class was instructed to be creative and make their own.

Burns said, “They are writing press releases, broadcast releases and feature stories as well as blogging about their experiments. I thought this project would give them practice at media relations.”

Annie Morales, public relations student, is using smiles as the theme for her social experiment. She created a smiley face sign that she will flash walking around campus or in her car. “I love to smile and I want to share it with other people because smiling makes everyone feel better,” Morales said. She describes the reactions of people on her blog at shareasmile.wordpress.com.

Lauren Opelt, public relations student, is basing her social experiment on networking. “Networking is an important part of the public relations profession, so I thought I would incorporate building my network into my social experiment,” Opelt said. Her experiment is successful thus far but she still is adjusting to her daily goal of meeting a new person each day. Opelt is blogging about her experiment at meet80people.wordpress.com.

The School of Mass Communications at the USF is housed in modern facilities located in Florida’s largest media market—the Tampa Bay metropolitan area. The school’s program introduces students to the theories, principles and problems of mass communications—emphasizing the concept of freedom of information as the cornerstone of constitutional democracy—and prepares students for future leadership roles in communications media. Each course of study offers a balanced mixture of basic and advanced laboratory and lecture courses. Laboratory courses sharpen students’ skills while lecture courses enable students to view the profession from a variety of perspectives.

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A how to on Blogs

In today’s society, blogging is a very common tool. It is very easy to blog. Many first time users go to blogger or free webs to create a free blog. Those websites take you through a step-by-step process on how to blog.

According to reason4smile.com, they mention reasons why you should blog. You will become better at words.  If you are not strong at expressing yourself, blogging is perfect for your ideas or thoughts to be heard.  Being able to write your ideas, especially if the person is introverted, will help in daily expression.  You are also able to declare your dream, according to the website.  Also, you learn from blogs. There are many blogs out there that are informative. As a blogger, you can research and look into things of interest and share with others that share the same passion.

Blogging is easy and effective. It is the new trend in social media. Many businesses and corporations have easy access to the blogging world.  There are so many benefits to blogging and it all starts with the click of a button. As you get more into blogging, however, you can pay to make your site more official. But for a first time user wordpress is a very popular blog site.

Practioners Use of Social Media

Social Media is taking over this generation of professionals. The Web and other online informational outlets are tools professionals use in communication. Today this age is all about emails, texts, and technology based communication that public relation practitioners have become aware of. Practitioners are increasingly recognizing that it is necessary to utilize social media tools in order to reach their target audience.

Social Media tools vary among companies. Websites are not enough to reach the public. Businesses can research their product or topic of discussion through blogs. Blogs are a great way to have two-way feedback, where the companies receive reviews or other insightful information from the product user. Blogs are also useful in networking with other related companies. Today, social media unites business ideas or used for competing purposes.

Other social media tools that are commonly found in companies are Twitter, Facebook, freewebs, Linkedin and Myspace. Companies, with these resources, reach a whole new level of publics that they would not have ordinarily been able to connect with.

Public Relations Takes on the Blogging World

Public relations is a constant, ever-changing field. In order to become a successful public relation’s practitioner, one must always stay up-to-date with communication functions. Social media is a crucial aspect to communication and vital to expanding any business.

Blogging is one of the social tools proven to be successful in reaching a large audience. According to 101publicrelations.com, blogs are easy to use and a great source for internal communications, project tracking, issue resolution, etc. For a company, blogs hold potential for expressing a product, discussing an upcoming event, or addressing a crisis. These messages reach not only their customers but the press as well.

Organizations that use blogs tend to bring more visitors and attraction to their business. Blogs convert into sales and profit, according to 101publicrelations.com. It has been discovered that a high percentage of those who visit a blog will buy from the company.

One advantage blogs bring to a business is customer relations. According to www.aimclearblog.com, firms use their sites to engage, enchant, and enlighten. Public relations organizations are able to highlight new products and provide technical solutions while customers review and respond. This enhances the customer experience, which improves business.

Tips for Writing E-mails

E-mails have become a fundamental part of personal and business life. As a public relations practitioner e-mails are an essential key to communication. Today, being categorized under such a savvy tech generation proves that e-mails are the source for effective communication.

First one must recognize that there are formal and informal ways of approaching emailing. In the article The Difference Between Formal and Informal Writing, details are given on formal and informal styles in writing. For example, informal e-mail writing styles are very casual. Usually friends or families fit under the classification of informal methods. However, formal writing targets business relationships and are held at a much higher standard.

Once the type of e-mail style has been established it will aid in a successful communication message. For business e-mails, sending the proper message with all the correct information is imperative. Begin with clarity as to why you are writing the e-mail. According to the article Writing sensible email messages, think through your email from the recipient’s point of view. If it’s a valuable message, treat it that way. Put in the time to making every word count. Make sure that every e-mail holds meaning, keeping it short and sweet.

Other common tips for writing e-mails are making sure that the message remains short, to the point and polite. The problem with e-mail is that personal contact is lost. Being polite and considerate of your viewer will be reciprocated. In return, the viewer will more likely respond with a fast, simple response. According to The Art of Writing Good Emails blog, the problem with e-mail is the personal disconnection. Make sure when writing a message to express it as if the person is being spoken to. This will bring personality back to e-mailing.

St. Jude Press Release

For more information contact:

Danielle Prestipino

Associate Director

14499 N. Dale Mabry Hwy. #260

Tampa, Fl 33618

(813) 264-5780

St. Jude Family Appears at Super Bowl Event

On January 29, 2009, honoring Chris Berman for the Pat Summerall Award

January 16, 2009, TAMPA, Fla.- While at the playground one mid-September afternoon in 2006, Jackson, an energetic 2 year old, was hit in the head by another child coming down a slide. Knowing these little accidents happen on the playground all the time, his parents, Casey and Mark, weren’t too concerned. But later that afternoon, the usually playful toddler became lethargic. Their doctor suggested a CT scan to rule out a concussion. When the scan revealed a brain tumor, the family’s grief was overwhelming. “We were beside ourselves with fear and anxiety,” Mark recalls. Jackson underwent immediate surgery at his local hospital in Florida.

The family began to research on the Internet the best place for Jackson’s follow-up care and came across the work that Thomas Merchant, DO, PhD, was doing at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Merchant even spoke with them personally, a caring gesture that reassured the family. Casey and Mark decided St. Jude was the best place for Jackson’s treatment.

At St. Jude, Jackson completed six-and-a-half weeks of radiation. He received conformal radiation, which focuses directly on the tumor and helps minimize side effects. When radiation was completed in December 2006, Jackson’s scans looked clear. He now returns to the hospital every four months for MRI checkups. The sorrow and worry the family felt when they first found out, Mark says, has been completely superseded by the amount of joy they feel now. “We have a cancer-free, healthy boy because of St. Jude,” Mark said.

On January 29, 2009, at 6 p.m., the Kiser family will be appearing at the Legends for Charity Super bowl event. This dinner and silent auction will be honoring Chris Berman of ESPN with the Pat Summerrall Award. Other guest such as Jim Kelly, Mike Golic, and Mike Greenberg will be present. These media celebrities and local St. Jude supporters are attending this event in hopes to raise money towards the fight against cancer and other catastrophic diseases. Jackson Kiser has overcome the battle against Ependymoma and without the help from St. Jude and their supporters this would not have been possible.

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, founded by the late entertainer Danny Thomas, is one of the world’s premier centers for the research and treatment of pediatric cancer and other catastrophic childhood diseases. St. Jude is the first and only pediatric cancer center to be designated as a Comprehensive Cancer Center by the National Cancer Institute. Children from all 50 states and from around the world have come through the doors of St. Jude for treatment, and thousands more around the world have benefited from the research conducted at St. Jude – research that is shared freely with the global medical community. St. Jude is the only pediatric cancer research center where families never pay for treatments that are not covered by insurance. No child is denied treatment because of a family’s inability to pay.

Please contact Danielle Prestipino at (813) 264-5780 to find out how to support this event. Please visit www.stjude.org for more information about St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

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St. Jude Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For more information contact:

Danielle Prestipino

Associate Director

14499 N. Dale Mabry Hwy.

Suite 260

Tampa, FL

(813) 368-5913

Giving Thanks for the children

at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

Rather than win a cruise, John McLaughlin had the winnings benefit St. Jude.

December, 8, 2008, ORLANDO, Fla.- John McLaughlin, Smokey Bones vice president of operations, exchanged his cruise winnings to a cash donation for St. Jude Children’s Research. The value of the cruise, sponsored by Land O’Lakes Foodservice, was approximately $5,000. Rather than take the cruise, McLaughlin requested that the money be donated to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The cruise drawing was held at the annual National Restaurant Association (NRA).

“Instead of benefitting myself, I would rather the money support a greater cause –

St. Jude,” said McLaughlin. At Smokey Bones, they employ involved staff members who are interested in benefitting the local community. This bar and fire grille restaurant’s fresh renovated location is in Orlando. Smokey Bones prides themselves in reaching out, which contributes to their new philosophy on fine dining.

Jim Zell, Land O’ Lakes marketing manager, submitted the prize to St. Jude, per McLaughlin’s request. Land O’Lakes foodservice industry is the number-one butter supplier and one of the top cheese suppliers. They provide premium dairy products from farm to table to satisfy consumer needs. Their sponsorship at the NRA is part of their many contributions.

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, located in Memphis, Tenn., is one of the premier pediatric cancer research centers. Its mission is to find cures for children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases through research and treatment. St. Jude does not discriminate against race, religion, or a family’s inability to pay. St. Jude, founded by late entertainer, Danny Thomas in 1962, was built on the premise that “No Child should die in the dawn of life.” The impact of the life saving work done at St. Jude extends throughout the country and around the world.

Please contact Danielle Prestipino at (813) 264-5780 or visit www.stjude.org for more information about St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.