National Awards Presented to Blue Ridge Electric
For Immediate Release
Contact: Renee Whitener, Director of Corporate Communications, Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation, (828) 758-2383 ext. 3213; Pager:1-800-471-1323; or E-mail: Renee Whitener
Lenoir, North Carolina (August 20, 2002) – Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation was recently recognized with three awards for excellence in communications from the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA).
NRECA hosts the Spotlight on
Excellence competition each
year to highlight the best
performing electric cooperative utilities in the field of communications. This year’s awards were presented during NRECA’s marketing and member relations conference in St. Louis, Missouri.
Blue Ridge Electric received the top award for “Best Touchstone Energy Program” for a two-day series of events featuring the Touchstone Energy hot air balloon last July. Touchstone Energy is a nation-wide network of electric cooperatives like Blue Ridge Electric that focus on customer commitment, accountability and innovation.
The events all featured the hot air balloon and included: a customer appreciation day in Caldwell County that included various community agencies and activities for all ages; the Blue Ridge Fair that included various university and community agencies held was on the campus of Appalachian State University in conjunction with cooperative’s annual key accounts customer appreciation reception; and An Appalachian Summer Festival’s Outdoor Fireworks Concert sponsored by the cooperative.
Coordinating the Touchstone Energy events were Judy Current, advertising manager, Susan Simmons, electronic communications manager, Renee Whitener, director of corporate communications, Amanda Huffman, employee relations specialist, Karen Ford, administrative assistant, and Cornelia Cornell, administrative assistant.
Two separate awards were won for a commemorative video created to honor employees receiving service awards during the cooperative’s 65th anniversary year. The video won an award of excellence in the Best Wild Card category as well as award of merit in the Best Video category. The video aired at the cooperative’s service awards banquet held at Appalachian State University’s Broyhill Inn last November.
Simmons, along with Benson-Crutchfield Filmworks of Chapel Hill, produced the video, which featured approximately 40 Blue Ridge Electric and Blue Ridge Energies employees.
Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation is a not-for-profit, member-owned electric cooperative serving over 63,000 members in Caldwell, Watauga, Ashe, Alleghany, Alexander, and Wilkes counties. Its subsidiary, Blue Ridge Energies, provides propane and home heating fuels as well as commercial gasoline from offices in Lenoir, Boone, West Jefferson and Hickory.
