Aug 11, 2006

News Release
For Immediate Release
Media Contacts:

Heather O'Connell
(239) 461-2924
hoconnell@leegov.com

Karen Sloan
(239) 461-2914
ksloan@leegov.com

Lee County Library System Wins State Awards for Southwest Florida Reading Festival

FORT MYERS, Fla., Aug. 11, 2006 – This month, the Florida Festival Events Association and Florida Public Relations Association have both honored the Lee County Library System with state-wide awards for the Southwest Florida Reading Festival promotional campaign.

On August 8, the Florida Public Relations Association presented the Lee County Library System with the Golden Image Award for an Institutional Public Relations Campaign.  Golden Image Awards have become a standard of public relations excellence in the state of Florida. The Florida Public Relations Association states winners demonstrate the very best examples of innovation, planning and design. Entries must incorporate sound public relations research and planning, with the highest standard of production, execution and evaluation of results and budget.

Reading Festival Coordinator Karen Sloan says it is especially exciting that the campaign and materials were created by library system staff.

"This is an honor not only for the Lee County Library System, but for Lee County Government and recognizes all the people on the committee who work nearly year-round to plan and produce the Festival," Sloan said.

On August 3, the Reading Festival was honored by the Florida Festivals and Events Association at the Red Baron Media Awards Banquet. The festival became the first recipient of the newly created Award for Overall Promotional Campaign. The awards acknowledge the skill, creativity and resourcefulness of member event's marketing efforts. The festival was rated on clarity of strategy, materials appropriate and effective for target audience, interrelation of the parts to the whole, overall impression, design and typography, printing quality and originality.

The Southwest Florida Reading Festival is a free day of events presented by the Lee County Library System and its community partners to celebrate the power of reading and promote library services. Each year, the festival features activities for adults, teens and children, and an exciting line-up of best-selling authors. 2007 authors include David Baldacci and more than 20 others. Past authors include Carol Higgins Clark, Janet Evanovich, Sue Grafton and Carl Hiaasen.

For more information about the Southwest Florida Reading, please contact Karen Sloan, Reading Festival Coordinator at (239) 461-2914 or e-mail ksloan@leegov.com

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