STERLING, VA (February 25, 2008) - The International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association is pleased to announce its 2007 KIP (Keeping It Personal) Awards winners, recognizing the best in personalization in the cemetery and funeral service profession.
Created by the ICCFA Personalization Committee, the KIP program honors recipients in four categories: Best Practices/Personal Touch; Innovative Personalized Product (Supplier); Most Personalized Service or Memorial; and Events.
This year's contest drew 25 entries from across the United States and abroad. Eight communications and marketing professionals from outside the cemetery and funeral service profession performed the judging.
Information on the winners is available on the ICCFA Web site at www.icfa.org/kip_categories07.htm. Applications for the 2008 KIP Awards will be available from the ICCFA in April. The ICCFA congratulates the winners and all who entered the 2007 KIP Awards.
The winners are as follows:
BEST PRACTICE
1st Place & Grand Prize Winner
Cedar Memorial
Regina Nassif, Director of Sales & Marketing
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Cedar Memorial revamped its approach to providing "service after the service" and developed an AfterCare program to improve contact with families. In creating the program, Cedar Memorial addressed overlaps and gaps with regard to services being provided by other community groups such as churches and support groups. It also surveyed families to learn what types of services they desired and what expectations they had regarding timing after the service. As a result of its research, Cedar Memorial hired a retired family services counselor to administer its AfterCare program. She provides exceptional hands-on service to address families' needs, requests and complaints, and she delivers an AfterCare basket two weeks after each service has been performed. The basket contains reading materials on grief and loss as well as assorted food items and gift cards.
EVENTS
1st Place
Flanner & Buchanan Funeral Centers
Bruce W. Buchanan, Owner
Indianapolis, Indiana
Flanner and Buchanan Funeral Centers of Indianapolis, Indiana, collaborated with local citizen Bert Pettygrove to create a welcome home reception for Indiana National Guardsmen returning home from duty in Bosnia. The Buchanan organization planned to create a memorial not only to honor fallen heroes but also to recognize the sacrifices these citizen-soldiers and their families make. This memorial is unusual as memorials of this stature tend to be reserved for the main military branches of Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. After five years of planning and fundraising, the Hoosier Patriot Memorial was dedicated November 8, 2007.
Honorable Mention
Keystone Group
James D. Price, Chief Operating Officer
Tampa, Florida
Keystone Group's 217 funeral homes and cemeteries held events to encourage individuals to support our troops with "A Little Piece of Home." Individuals stopped by one of any 217 locations and dropped off needed/recommended items for American soldiers in Iraq. Once collections boxes were full, Keystone arranged for shipment of over 15,000 boxes to make certain troops received their own "little pieces of home." This community service program benefited U.S. troops and cast Keystone funeral homes in a positive light in the communities they serve.
Honorable Mention
Sunset Memorial Park
Paul F. Layer Jr., Vice President of Development
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Sunset Memorial Park in Albuquerque, New Mexico, created a centennial urn garden -- the first of its kind in New Mexico -- to celebrate 100 years of community service. The garden took over two years to plan and showcases a Southwestern theme environmentally designed for more than 1,500 urn placements in a variety of settings.
MOST PERSONALIZED SERVICE OR MEMORIAL
1st Place
Schoedinger Funeral & Cremation Service
Michael Schoedinger, President
Columbus, Ohio
Schoedinger Funeral & Cremation Service in Columbus, Ohio, helped to facilitate the funeral for Harold Runnion at the Ohio Theatre -- the first for the theater -- due to Runnion's life-long dedication to the theater after four decades of service. The theater's historic 1928 organ was brought to life to play show tunes and a video tribute was shown in the theater lobby featuring Runnion's many contributions to the restoration of the facility. Toward the end of the ceremony, Runnion's name appeared in lights on the Ohio Theatre's marquee, simply stating, "Celebrating Harold Runnion."
Honorable Mention
Olinger Chapel Hill
Shannon Maestas, Location Manager
Littleton, Colorado
Olinger Chapel Hill in Littleton, Colorado, personalized a moving memorial service for self-proclaimed cowboy, 20-year-old Luke Tiger, who died in a tragic accident at work. Olinger Chapel worked closely with Tiger's family to personalize the service, creating a "cowboy" environment with upbeat cowboy/Western songs that were Tiger's favorites. A video tribute and Tiger's personal cowboy items were used to create a loving display along with flowers, photos and childhood belongings.
Honorable Mention
Darroch Memorial Chapel
Robert E. Barrett
Aliquippa, Pennsylvania
Darroch Memorial Chapel created a highly personalized atmosphere to emulate as best as possible the deceased mother's home in Pacentro, Italy. The funeral home paid attention to every detail to recreate the home's ambiance, using photos to build a look-alike room model. Funeral attendees commented on how touching this was, claiming the reproduction looked just like the woman's home in Italy and that they felt as if they were in her home vs. a funeral home.
INNOVATIVE PRODUCT (SUPPLIERS)
1st Place
A Touch from Beyond
Toni Noel, Owner
Denver, Colorado
A Touch from Beyond offers a variety of cards used in pre-arrangement planning. The cards allow the pre-planner to provide personalized expressions of love, joy and gratitude one final time after passing to help comfort and heal the family, friends and others left behind. The branding of the back of the cards can be individually customized by hospices, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, senior centers and funeral homes, making them powerful sources of referrals to the company.
Honorable Mention
Oregon Memorials
Lee Nielsen, Marketing Director
Hillsboro, Oregon
As a wholesale company, Oregon Memorials rarely works with grieving families. However, on this specific occasion, the firm extended its personal services to the bereaved parents of young Kain Phomphakdy to personalize a memorial for the deceased child. Working closely with the parents and internationally acclaimed artist Hibiki Miyazaki, Oregon Memorials produced a teardrop-shaped memorial with a custom illustration memorializing Phomphakdy with all the toys and things he held dear, including racing cars, a tiger and a dragon. The lettering on the back -- a compilation of notes from the boy's classmates -- required extra detail touches.
Grand prize winner Regina Nassif of Cedar Memorial receives a free registration to the ICCFA 2008 Convention & Exposition, March 26-29 inSan Diego, California. All first-place and honorable mention winners will be recognized at the Convention and in ICCFA Magazine and are being provided promotional news releases to submit to their local media.
Founded in 1887, the ICCFA is the only international trade association representing all segments of the cemetery, cremation, funeral and memorialization industry. Its membership is comprised of more than 7,200 cemeteries, funeral homes, memorial designers, crematories and related businesses worldwide.
