5550 Highway 63S
Columbia, Missouri 65201
Contact(s): Matt Garrett
(573) 884-3269
______
For Immediate Release July 13, 2010
KOMU 8 Wins National Service to America Community Award
COLUMBIA, MO – The National Association of Broadcasters Education Foundation (NABEF) recently honored KOMU 8 with its celebrated Service to America Community Award for Radio and Television.
This award honors radio and television broadcasters for a single campaign, project or program that provides exemplary service to their local community. There is only one television recipient of this award each year, regardless of market size.
KOMU 8 was honored for its community journalism project, Central Missouri Honor Flight. Central Missouri Honor Flight is the local hub of the national Honor Flight program that sends terminally ill and aging veterans to see their memorials in Washington D.C. at no cost to them.
There are approximately 90 Honor Flight hubs across the country, but Central Missouri Honor Flight is only one started and sustained by television station employees. KOMU 8 News Anchor Sarah Hill and Videographer Scott Schaefer began an effort to start this local hub after doing a story about an Honor Flight Hub in western Missouri. KOMU 8 helped to rally the community, bringing together individuals and businesses and raising money to make the Central Missouri Honor Flight program possible.
To date, Central Missouri Honor Flight has raised more than $350,000 and sent approximately 600 World War II veterans to Washington, D.C. to see the memorial dedicated to them.
“KOMU 8 is proud to honor the sacrifices our veterans made when they answered our nation’s call to service,” said KOMU 8 General Manager Marty Siddall. “We are especially proud to have inspired our community to accomplish great things for these people who deserve our appreciation and support. It is truly an honor for our efforts to be recognized with the NABEF Service to America Award.”
Siddall, Hill, Schaefer, and Central Missouri Honor Flight President Barb Brueggemanwere on hand to accept the award in person at the Celebration of Service to America Awards dinner in Washington D.C.
KOMU 8 is a self-funded auxiliary enterprise of the University of Missouri. The station serves a dual purpose within the community. KOMU 8 provides the public with news and entertainment programming while also serving as an educational institution for students of the University of Missouri. The KOMU 8 newsroom is the only one of its kind to also serve as a teaching lab. At KOMU 8, students attending the prestigious University of Missouri School of Journalism are given the unique opportunity to work alongside professional journalists in a real-life newsroom. This program is set up through the school’s Department of Broadcast Journalism. KOMU 8 also operates Mid-Missouri’s CW station.
- 30 -