News Release: Wall Education Center Wins Telly Award

03 September 2009

A series of public service announcements (PSAs) created to raise awareness of the Education Center at The Wall has received a 2009 Telly Award.

The Memorial Fund created the PSAs in conjunction with TV Worldwide, the Chantilly, Virginia-based company that developed the first Internet TV network and works closely with the Memorial Fund to film events at The Wall. The series won a bronze Telly in the commercial category for a not-for-profit campaign.

The series includes six PSAs filmed by five individuals: Gen. Colin L. Powell, USA (Ret.), honorary chair of the campaign to build the Education Center at The Wall; Tom Selleck, national spokesman; Gen. Barry McCaffrey, USA (Ret.), chair of the Advisory Board for the Center; Jan Scruggs; and Ann Wolcott, Gold Star Mother.

“We created these PSAs so that people across the country could learn about what we are planning to build here on the National Mall,” said Jan C. Scruggs, founder and president of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. “The Education Center at The Wall will be a unique learning space, and I am honored that our spokespeople have been recognized for their efforts to get the word out about this worthwhile project.”

The Education Center at The Wall is a visitors and education facility that will be built on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., near the Vietnam Veterans and Lincoln Memorials. The Center will provide context to The Wall for visitors, showcasing some of the more than 100,000 items that have been left at The Wall in tribute and recognizing this country’s rich legacy of service by honoring those who have served in all of America’s wars. The focal point of the Center will be a Wall of Faces, showing pictures of those lost during the Vietnam War—on their birthdays. An effort is getting under way next month to begin collecting photos of the more than 58,000 individuals whose names are on The Wall.

The six 30-second spots were filmed early in the year and launched in time for Memorial Day. Distribution through broadcast channels was possible thanks to support from the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), who made the spots available to all of its members after they debuted during the NAB Show in Las Vegas in late April. Bresnan Communications has supported the spots for airing on cable television in the Rocky Mountain states. And TV Worldwide has made the spots available on its Internet TV channel for veterans, http://www.usvets.tv/.

“We are pleased and honored to have our PSAs selected for this distinguished award,” said TV Worldwide Chairman and CEO Dave Gardy. “Although our staff has won Tellys in the past, this is one of our most treasured, because of its important production purpose in raising money for the Education Center at The Wall and the precedent it set in multi-outlet distribution via broadcast, cable and Internet TV. It was a pleasure to work with the Memorial Fund staff and the on-camera talent.”

The PSAs can be viewed online at: www.usvets.tv/vvmf_psas/. Stations that would like broadcast-quality tapes for airing can contact the Memorial Fund at (202) 393-0090.

Copyright © VietnamGear.com. All rights reserved. This material is intended solely for internal use within VietnamGear.com. Any other reproduction, publication or redistribution of this material without the written agreement of the copyright owner is strictly forbidden and any breach of copyright will be considered actionable