National Award for Community Partners –
Hickory Public Schools & Hickory Daily Record
HICKORY… This isn’t the first time Hickory Public Schools (HPS) has been recognized for excellence in communications. During the past dozen years, the National School Public Relations Association (NSPRA) has presented HPS with several awards including excellence in writing (top 5 in the nation) and awards for marketing, publications, and digital design.
But this time, a joint effort between HPS and the Hickory Daily Record (HDR) earned national recognition for a “special-purpose publication.”
HPS Director of Communications, Beverly Snowden, was notified that HPS is the recipient of two new awards, one in which HPS collaborated with the HDR for a full newspaper-sized, 16-page color publication designed to celebrate the 2021 HPS graduates. The awards are announced one year following production.
“Getting through two years of challenges associated with Covid-19, we desired to support our seniors and celebrate graduation through providing them with a special publication. We actually produced two of these publications during Covid-19, one for the class of 2020 and one for the class of 2021,” said Snowden.
“The publication content represented senior achievements, leadership, scholarships, and visual memory spotlights with one hundred photographs (including additional senior headshots by Carolina Photography), showcasing graduates from both Hickory Career & Arts Magnet High School and Hickory High School,” she said.
While Snowden covered the writing and photography, the HDR advertising department covered the layout and printing. Collaboration was a daily exchange to meet deadlines for this celebration piece. Final issues were distributed to every graduate in addition to the printed inserts and online coverage, courtesy of the Hickory Daily Record.
“I am thankful to the community members who helped to sponsor this publication including those who purchased personal ads and the support from HHS Athletic Boosters,” said Snowden.
“The HDR teamed-up with HPS to make the publication the best possible—and we are tremendously grateful for this partnership. We are thankful for our daily hometown newspaper and appreciate their creative team and professional partnership with Hickory Public Schools,” said Snowden.
“As the Hickory Daily Record nears its 107th birthday, many of the principles that shepherded the newspaper in the early days still guide us today,” said Hickory Daily Record’s Regional Editor, Eric Millsaps.
“One of those principles is the need to be part of our community, which includes Hickory Public Schools. We are especially pleased to see the school system recognized for the celebration publication. We have long known the quality and importance of our city education system, now others are aware of the impressive group of parents, students and educators we have in Hickory.
“Likewise, for many years we have worked seamlessly with Beverly Snowden, the director of communications for the school system. She is attentive, capable and, in many ways, serves as an ambassador for the school system,” said Millsaps.
In addition to recognition of the graduation celebration publication, Hickory Public Schools received an award for the district’s in-house publication, “A Glance at 2021 / HPS Highlights.” The 32-page color print and digital publication was produced entirely by HPS Communications.
“I would like to congratulate Ms. Snowden for these awards and recognition. I appreciate the work she does on behalf of our students, staff, and district. We are very grateful for all the partnerships we have in our community,” said HPS Superintendent, Dr. Bryan Taylor.
To view copies of both award-winning publications, click on the links below and follow the arrows to turn the pages:
https://www.flipsnack.com/comehometohps/glance-at-2021-2/full-view.html
https://www.flipsnack.com/comehometohps/class-of-2021-congratulations/full-view.html
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