This year PRSA partnered with Inside PR, a weekly podcast about public relations and social media, hosted by Gini Dietrich in Chicago, Joseph Thornley in Ottawa and Martin Waxman in Toronto and produced by Thornley Fallis to get behind the scenes interviews with several Silver Anvil finalists.
MyGoodDeed founders Jay Winuk and David Paine received a Silver Anvil Award for their campaign, "10-Year Anniversary of 9/11: The 'I Will' Campaign". Inside PR's Dietrich interviewed Winuk, who is also president of the public relations firm Winuk Communications, Inc., about the success and personal challenges of this campaign.
In 2011, after having successfully won passage of federal legislation formally designating September 11 as a National Day of Service and Remembrance, the nonprofit MyGoodDeed set out to organize the single largest day of charitable service in U.S. history in observance of the 10-year anniversary of 9/11. MyGoodDeed recognized that this seminal moment represented its most important opportunity to build nationwide awareness of the newly established charitable tribute. Working with HandsOn Network and many others, MyGoodDeed led an extraordinary, integrated communications campaign that inspired a record 33 million Americans to engage in charitable service in honor of the victims of 9/11.
Winuk has a personal connection to this campaign in light of the fact that his younger brother, Glenn Winuk, died a hero as first responder on 9/11. Glenn Winuk was a volunteer firefighter and emergency medical technician on Long Island who ran into a falling tower of the World Trade Center from his office at Holland & Knight, where he was an attorney. Since this tragedy, Jay Winuk has worked tirelessly to get recognition for his younger brother.
For more pre-ceremony footage of the MyGoodDeed's Jay Winuk before the big win, check out the video interview.