Kutztown earns community engagement award
March 5, 2009
release courtesy
of the NCAA News
Kutztown’s
community-engagement effort called “Paint the Town Gold” has been named as
the 2009 winner of Division II’s Community Engagement Award of Excellence.
Division II established the award last year to build momentum for Division II’s community-engagement initiative and reward institutions for their creativity in advancing the effort. Division II schools were encouraged to submit their best community-engagement promotion from the “Ideas that Work” section on the Division II community-engagement Web site. Northern Michigan won the inaugural award last year.
In addition to Kutztown from the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference, winners were selected from the other Division II conferences that submitted nominations. Each winner receives a $500 grant that can be used for other community-engagement efforts.
Kutztown, which will be recognized at the Division II community-engagement workshop April 15-16 in Philadelphia, was selected for its initiative that supported the school’s Family Day activities at the home football game on Sept. 27, 2008.
Activities included a window painting contest, a pep rally on Friday night and a community-based “Spirit Strut” to the stadium on game day. The school also conducted a canned-food drive for a local food bank for the entire week leading up to Family Day. The overall event engaged members of the university, the borough of Kutztown and Maxatawny Township. Three university offices – community relations and development services (Julie Nolan, director), athletics advancement (Alex Ogeka, director), and athletics (Greg Bamberger, director) – oversaw the festivities.
The event involved the mayor of Kutztown, the Maxatawny Township supervisor, local business owners, the chamber of commerce, the Downtown Merchant Association, middle and high school art programs, the fire company, several athletics teams, campus police and the university’s student services department.
“We weren’t sure how the concept of painting windows would go over, but in
the end, we had about 25 businesses, residents and campus buildings
participating,” said Bamberger. “We
tried to engage the community in not only the planning component of the
event but also as active participants. The evaluations we received from the
business community were very positive, and we’re already planning for next
year and how the event can be even better.”
Bamberger cited a strong marketing effort that included signage and Web-based promotions, and a special mailing that asked businesses to support the effort. “We ran press releases, placed announcements on community television calendars, used e-mail blasts and articles via the Downtown Merchant Association and a specially designed street banner that was draped across Main Street,” he said. “We also used public address announcements on the local radio station and an hour-long on-campus radio talk show.”
Paint the Town Gold 2009 is scheduled for Oct. 1-4.
Contact Us
For additional information, please contact Alex Ogeka, director of Athletic Advancement at 610-683-4755 or email ogeka@kutztown.edu. You can also contact Julie Nolan, director of Community Relations and Development Services at 610-683-4756 or email nolan@kutztown.edu.
