What's Happening

June 26, 2018, Green Bay, Wisconsin – The Adrian Dominican Congregation received four awards from the Catholic Press Association for videos, website content, the 2016-2017 Annual Report, and its Christmas 2017 social media campaign.

The awards were announced at a Catholic Press Awards Banquet June 15, 2018, at the end of the Catholic Media Conference, “Touchdown in TitleTown,” held June 12-15 in the KI Conference Center in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The awards earned were the result of collaboration over the past year among the offices of Communications, Development, Technology, and Vocations.

The Adrian Dominican Sisters received the following awards:

• "Preach with Your Life," a series of videos produced as vocations outreach, won second place for Best Freestanding Presentation of Online Video: Depiction of Religious Life. First place went to the Catholic News Service. Recognized for this project were Sisters Lorraine Réaume, OP, and Sara Fairbanks, OP, of Formation and Vocations; Scott Miller, of Technology; and Ashley LaVigne, Angela Kessler, and Sheila Wathen, of Communications.
  
  
• “Hope,” a prolonged social media Christmas fundraising appeal, which ran from November 28, 2017, through December 29, 2017, took second place for Best Social Media Campaign. The HOPE Campaign consisted of a series of five videos, which were posted on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube and sent to donors in a series of emails. “This campaign uses compelling videos with a consistent brand experience,” the judges commented. “It is no surprise that last year’s fundraising achievements were exceeded!” Co-workers involved in this appeal included Scott Miller, Technology; Amy Palmer, Development; and Ashley LaVigne, Angela Kessler, Sheila Wathen, and Jessica Havens, Communications.
  
  
• “Counting our Blessings,” the 2016-2017 Annual Report for the Adrian Dominican Congregation, received honorable mention in the category of Best Annual Report for a Catholic Nonprofit Organization. Among those involved in producing the Annual Report were Amy Palmer, Development, and Angela Kessler, Sister Barbara Kelley, OP, and Jessica Havens, Communications.
  
  
• A selection of five “What’s Happening” news articles, written by Sister Barbara Kelley, OP, and published on the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ website from September to November 2017 received honorable mention for Best Online Content Not Published in Print: Written Content. The articles entered were  “Sister Barbara Cervenka, OP, Paints 1,000 Cranes for Iraq”; “Aftermath of Shooting Brings Trauma and Support to Hospital Community”; “Former Adrian Dominican Sisters Continue to Influence the World”; “Literacy Center Volunteer Helps Distribute More than 12,000 Books to Flint Children”; and “Adrian Dominicans Inspired by Beatification of Solanus Casey.”

June 29, 2017, Québec City, Québec, Canada – Scott Miller, of the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ Technology Department, received honorable mention as Video Producer/Videographer of the Year from the Catholic Press Association (CPA) for his production of the video series JOY. 

JOY was a series of videos produced as part of the Christmas fundraising effort of the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ Development Office. Each video highlighted a different type of ministry of the Congregation, showing how that ministry brought joy to the minister and those who were served. 

The series included A Special Message of JOY; Bringing Joy through Music – Sister Magdalena Ezoe; Bringing JOY through Ministry – St. Luke’s N.E.W. Life Center; Bringing JOY through Education – Dominican Literacy Center; and Bringing JOY through Art – the Rosa Parks Peace Program. The series, filmed and edited by Scott, was a collaborative effort of the Communications, Development, and Technology Departments.

“Thanks to Scott’s amazing work and the generosity of our donors, we had an 11 percent increase in our annual appeal over the year before,” said Amy Palmer, Director of Development.

The award was announced on June 23, the final day of the CPA’s Catholic Media Conference at Laval University, Québec City, Québec, Canada. This is the second year in a row that the Congregation has been recognized for its video production.

In this award category, Scott faced stiff competition. The first-, second-, and third-place winners were staff members of Catholic News Service, a news wire service with headquarters in Washington, offices in New York and Rome, and correspondents around the world. Also receiving honorable mention was The Georgia Bulletin, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Atlanta.