“Life was ruff, but with you it’s purrfect”

That was the clever theme of a public relations campaign for the Felines and Canines no-kill animal shelter in Edgewater, IL, conducted by a team of students studying community service communications at Loyola University Chicago.

Last night, at a reception attended by more than 150 students, faculty and guests of Loyola’s School of Communications, the Ebeling PRize for excellence in cause-related communications was awarded to students Rebecca Bowman, Madison Rau, Jacklin Kochen and Alexis Genge, by Charles Ebeling, creator of the award, now in it’s 11th year at Loyola.

The winning campaign was selected by a team of independent judges from among nine campaigns for different Chicago-area not-for-profit organizations mounted by student teams in the 2015-16 academic year. The students attended the senior-level class, where they are challenged to bring all their communications skills together for the benefit of real not-for-profit organizations and to produce real results.

The winning team sought to build awareness, attract more young people and gain corporate sponsors for the shelter. Their program included a wonderful mix of brochures, posters, social media, events, fact sheets and outreach, and they more than exceeded their goals. The first semester class was taught by Dr. Kay Felkins, co-founder of the Loyola Ebeling  PRize, and the second semester by Virginia Mann, a Chicago public relations consultant. Judges were Julianne Beck, APR, North Branch Communications, Kristine Kappel of Catholic Charities and Emily Van Camp, of Baxalta Corp., who was on the first Loyola Ebeling PRize winning team in 2006.