SD VOAD Story Submission Sheet
To help share about the work of South Dakota VOAD with local and national audiences, we need stories from the field. These stories help put a face on the disaster, letting people know that behind each disaster is a multitude of personal stories -- and that in the response to each disaster there is a multitude more, of the volunteers who come to serve, the communities who find the resilience to carry on.
This template form is meant to help you in submitting stories to the SD VOAD President for inclusion on the website as well as the OEM Newsletter, local newspapers and so on. Also, any stories you have already published/used could be sent on for us to repost. If you have a person responsible for communications in your organization they would be extremely helpful in this process. Make sure to follow-up with volunteers to see if they have stories that were shared that they would like to pass on.
Title: [Enter a short sentence/phrase that describes the main point of the story.]
Summary: [This is two to three sentences that give an overview of the story.]
Full Copy: [The story itself. The focus should be on what your organization is doing to bring hope to people in their time of need. Include more rather than less, though even a story of 300 words can be useful. Things to include are quotes from people affected or from responders, with full names and where they’re from; statistics (houses damaged or rebuilt, how many people have been sheltered, money raised/given, how many people responded); any other interesting facts; a description of your organization and how it is involved. Also, more business related communications (like situation reports) can be very helpful.]
Pictures
The adage about a picture being worth a thousand words is absolutely true. A picture can make or break a story. The “make or break” is less about the quality of the photo than about having one at all.
To help with this, we are requesting 1-3 original, hi-resolution digital photos. The most useful photos focus on people in the midst of responding, but photos that show the impact of the disaster are also helpful. Also, a good caption description of what’s going on in each picture is necessary.
Picture #1 Caption
· [Names of people in photo]
· [Date & Location of the photo]
· [Overview of the photo]
· [Credit for the photo (ex. ELCA/Matthew Ley)]
Picture #2 Caption
· [Names of people in photo]
· [Date & Location of the photo]
· [Overview of the photo]
· [Credit for the photo (ex. ELCA/Matthew Ley)]
Picture #3 Caption
· [Names of people in photo]
· [Date & Location of the photo]
· [Overview of the photo]
· [Credit for the photo (ex. ELCA/Matthew Ley)]
Submit stories and photos for SD VOAD usage to Lisa Adler, SD VOAD President (). If you have any question regarding submission or story ideas call Lisa at 605-229-1500.