Public relations

Adding to the herd: Ambulance contest

In the fall of 2014, I learned that Wyoming Medical Center would be getting a new ambulance to add to its fleet. For years, the hospital has wrapped its ambulances in photos of Wyoming’s iconic wildlife, and I recognized this was a great opportunity to involve the community. I developed a contest for elementary students to choose the next Wyoming animal for our new ambulance. To enter, children were asked to draw their favorite Wyoming animal on our ambulance template and write a short essay about why the animal should join our “ambulance herd.” The entries were shared on social media, garnering a lot of community engagement, throughout the contest. A committee of WMC paramedics and teachers from Natrona County School District selected 10 finalists which went to public vote. The contest resulted in 133 entries from elementary students and garnered nearly 60,000 views on The Pulse.

The new ambulance was unveiled at a surprise party at the winner’s school, which was covered by all local media outlets. Now, we use the contest to pick our the animal whenever we get a new ambulance. The community loves it, and we often get people asking when we’re going to start the next one. Aspen Scherck won the contest in 2016 with her entry on the endangered black-footed ferret, and I invited an educator from the National Black-Footed Ferret Conservation Center to bring a ferret to the unveiling party.

Articles

• Here comes the cutthroat: Contest winner Colten Sheets unveils new ambulance in front of Crest Hill Elementary (PDF)

• Black-footed ferret ambulance unveiled at Mills Elementary by contest winner Aspen Scherck (PDF)

• The 2020 contest launched in February. (PDF)

‘Whole lotta shaking going on’ Concussion Awareness

In the late fall of 2014, at the start of football season, one of our local neurosurgeons, Don Penney, MD, noticed a spate of serious concussion cases in his practice and wanted to educate young athletes, coaches and parents.  I forged partnerships with Natrona County School District, Safe Kids of Central Wyoming and two former Superbowl champions to create, ‘Whole Lotta Shaking Going On.” In all, the campaign generated seven news stories in outside media, several articles for The Pulse, and more than 550 public contacts at two live events.

Articles

• Whole lotta shaking going on in the heads of young athletes  

• NFL stars: Play the sports you love, just play them wisely 

• The changing definition of concussion and why it matters to young athletes 

• Changing the culture around concussion for athletes of all sports  

Public events

To draw students and families to the public events, I recruited Joe Jurevicius and John Howell, players on the 2002 Superbowl Champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers. On Jan. 19, 2015, the NFL stars helped fit free winter sports helmets on more than 300 kids at our Winter Sports Safety Day in conjunction with Safe Kids of Central Wyoming.

Later that night, the NFL stars joined Dr. Penney, local coaches and others to talk about concussion and raise awareness of the issue in school sports. More than 250 student athletes, parents and coaches attended. The NFL stars signed autographs after the event.

Concussion cards

In the roll out of this campaign, we also developed these pocket-sized concussion cards for high school coaches to carry during sporting events. The cards outline signs and symptoms of concussion on one side and expected coach action on the other.

We sent these cards to sports coaches across the state, and they are still requested annually.