Several members of Fort McCoy Garrison learned at the end of January they earned major command-level awards as part of the 2023 Army IMCOM Maj. Gen. Keith L. Ware Communications Awards Competition.
First, Photographer Amanda Clark with the Fort McCoy Multimedia-Visual Information Office earned the 2023 Installation Management Command Civilian Photographer of the Year.
For this category, Clark submitted a portfolio that contained seven photo products, including one news photo, one feature photo, one portrait, three photos of her choice, and one photo series that consisted of at least 7 but no more than 12 photos.
In addition to Clark winning from the Multimedia-Visual Information Office, Audiovisual Production Specialist Greg Mason also earned a first-place finish. Mason led Broadcast Category B, Feature Video.
The requirements for this category include it to be “a storytelling video not news related that has a strong subject and focus.” Entries in this category also “should entertain or inform the viewer; usually a situation that has strong human interest or a fresh view of a commonplace occurrence featuring a military organization, employees, equipment or family members.”
And sticking with the video winners, Public Affairs Specialist Claudia Neve with the Fort McCoy Public Affairs Office earned a first place as well. Neve led Broadcast Category A, News Video.
For this category, the “entry must be a news story, event-/mission-oriented, and would be significant enough to place at or near the top of a news cast.”
Also earning a first place in the competition from the Fort McCoy Public Affairs Office was Public Affairs Specialist Scott T. Sturkol, the editor of The Real McCoy newspaper. Sturkol placed first in Photography Category A, Feature Photograph.
This category, like the feature video, had to be a “storytelling picture not news related,” that “has strong human interest or a fresh view of a commonplace occurrence featuring a military organization, military equipment, employees, or family members.”
In the community relations portion of the competition, Public Affairs Officer Tonya Townsell with the Fort McCoy Public Affairs Office was recognized in Category L, earning the 2023 Installation Management Command Kathy Canham-Ross Award of Distinction as representative overall of the Fort McCoy Public Affairs Office.
The Kathy Canham-Ross Award recognizes the products that best exemplify excellence in community engagement contributions. The award is named for Kathy Canham-Ross, a distinguished director of OCPA-Los Angeles who set an outstanding example to emulate throughout her 30 years as a public affairs officer.
The award draws from the installation’s and Fort McCoy Public Affairs Office’s work for the 2023 Fort McCoy Armed Forces Day Open House — only the second open house held on post since 2019.
In the 2022 IMCOM competition, Fort McCoy communicators earned writer of the year, videographer of the year, Canham-Ross, and four other photo and video awards.
In a message from Col. Chris Ward, acting director for IMCOM-Readiness, he congratulated all the 2023 winners.
“Please join me in congratulating a special group of 42 IMCOM professionals,” the message states. “IMCOM public affairs professionals from garrisons worldwide entered 161 pieces of content into 22 categories. Their work reflects excellence in sharing and communicating the Army’s story around the globe. The work of these civilian writers, editors, photographers, videographers, and graphic designers was distinguished from that of their peers by a panel of seven judges, who were instructed to pick the top two entries in each category.”
The five Fort McCoy winners, like all the others, have advanced to the next level of competition for the Army Materiel Command 2023 David G. Harris Public Affairs Competition. The top winners in all categories will be selected and announced by the U.S. Army Office of the Chief of Public Affairs later this year, and those winners will then compete at the Department of Defense level.
“Great job and thank you to all our Army communicators!” Ward wrote.
Fort McCoy’s motto is to be the “Total Force Training Center.” Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin.
The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services nearly every year since 1984.
Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on the Defense Visual Information Distribution System at https://www.dvidshub.net/fmpao, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” and on Twitter by searching “usagmccoy.”
Also try downloading the Digital Garrison app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base.
(Article prepared by the Fort McCoy Public Affairs Office.)
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