REICH COMMUNICATIONS

Summertime !

My Hero

Juneteenth...What It Means

Torrey Maldonado, a friend who is a teacher and Christopher Award-winning children's book author, shared some thoughts on the meaning of Juneteenth, along with some other writers he knows.

Here's what he had to say...

"Heading into Juneteenth, I had dinner with a friend. Lots of laughs, no. Business. At some point, us joking turned into him saying, “I gave my staff off for Juneteenth. But I want to write a letter to them about why. What would you say? What does Juneteenth mean to you?” I felt two things. First, he’s the Executive Director of a human rights organization so it makes sense that his employees get a day off for a holiday that recognizes our humanity. Second, the history teacher in me got fired up to explain Juneteenth.

I’ve taught history for over twenty years and wanted to say, “Juneteenth is the promise of freedom for enslaved Black people that wasn’t kept until two years after the Emancipation Proclamation” then something inside steered me to do something else—compare notes. Because I hoped to learn if what we experienced today connected us to Juneteenth. So, I gave his question back to him, “What does Juneteenth mean to you?” He shared and each time he spoke I nodded, “Same” because we both experienced what he said. “Didn’t celebrate it. Didn’t know about it. People around us didn’t either. And schools didn’t teach Juneteenth.” But even though we both were born and raised in New York City housing projects, which are very different from the Texas birthplace of Juneteenth, our chat revealed deeper, everlasting connections to Juneteenth.

For starters, our ancestors survived slavery and promises were made to our people that were not kept and still keep us from being fully free. “Liberty and justice for all’ was never fully applied to our families. Our pre-Juneteenth dinner strengthened a feeling in me that Juneteenth is history yet it’s also right now."

Click here to see the entire post, with thoughts from several other writers.

 

What We Do: Safest Summer Ever

More TV interviews around the nation, to tell people about the heightened risk of summer driving, especially for teens.

 

Here's a spot we did for The National Road Safety Foundation with the CBS station in Buffalo yesterday.

Safest Summer Ever

 

The period between Memorial Day and Labor Day is traditionally the most dangerous time for teen drivers, with a 21 percent spike in teen traffic fatalities. 

Traffic safety officials often refer to it as “the 100 deadliest days.”

On behalf of client The National Road Safety Foundation, I'm working again this year with the leaders and student leaders of SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) to help make this “The Safest Summer Ever.”  The two groups are mounting a massive social media campaign to call attention to a range of safe driving issues from distracted and drowsy driving, as well as many other driving skills.  The campaign will have different safe driving messages posted on social media every week, with those posts amplified by shares and re-posts by SADD chapters and tens of thousands of SADD members nationwide. 

“We’re mobilizing the tens of thousands of student safety advocates in the SADD community at the middle school, high school and college level to help spread important safe driving messages to peers, friends and family,” said SADD President and CEO Rick Birt.  “We hope to make this the safest summer ever, not only for teens on the road, but for all drivers and passengers.”  

Part of the effort is media outreach.  We're arranging for TV interviews nationwide, using SADD student leaders and, in some cases, myself and my colleague at NRSF, Michelle Anderson.

 

Here are links to two stories that aired on newscasts yesterday in Missouri and Wisconsin.  And there's lots more to come.

WXOW-TV   ABC 19    LaCrosse/Green Bay WI   

KSNF-TV   NBC   16    Joplin MO    

 

 

 

What We Do: Christopher Awards

 

We've been handling publicity for The Christopher Awards for more than 20 years...actually, closer to 25.

Every year, The Christophers recognize books, TV programs and feature films that recognize the goodness in people, illustrating the Christopher motto "It's better to light one candle than to curse the darkness."

We've been able to get lots of publicity on the winners in their hometowns, as well as a few stories that were syndicated to Catholic papers nationally through Catholic News Service.  And "Currents," on the Catholic Channel NetTV did a nice interview this week with one of the book winners, David Davis, who wrote about how injured WWII vets helped shape today disabilities rights.

Here's a link to the 3-1/2 minute interview.

More info on The Christopher Awards is at https://www.christophers.org/awards