Carroll’s Service Campaign Receives Regional Awards

The Office of Alumni Relations was honored with two awards from District Five of the national Council for Advancement and Support of Education association for its 2011 National Day of Service campaign, a goal-shattering food drive that benefitted Feeding America.

Carroll received a Gold Award for Best Practices in Alumni Relations and a Gold Award for Excellence in a Design Series. The awards will be presented at the CASE V conference Dec. 11-13, 2011, in Chicago.

Heidi Miller, assistant director of Alumni Relations, will accept the award. She said, “This was a wonderful project that offered an opportunity for alumni, students, faculty, staff and friends around the country to get involved, to help those in need at a time when giving is down and to live Carroll’s mission of giving back to the community. We’re setting our sights even higher for 2012.”

In April 2011, the Carroll community donated a total of 25,386 meals, more than doubling the 10,000-meal goal. The project was in partnership with Feeding America and Target Corporation, and drew participants from 28 states who dropped off food at Carroll, donated to their local pantries or made online gifts to Feeding America.

The award-winning campaign materials featured food photographs in place of text, encouraging participants to “squash” hunger, “beet” a goal, “ketchup” with fellow alumni, share a little “thyme,” and more. Orange-shaped informational brochures were stuffed with plastic Target bags and mailed to Carroll alumni nationwide, inviting them to fill the bag with groceries and deliver it to a local Feeding America site or a neighborhood food pantry, then report their donations. The results were “fruitful.”

CASE V includes higher education institutions from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. The Pride of CASE V Awards Program honors institutions and individuals who demonstrate outstanding achievement in the concept and execution of advancement programs and communications.