SWARNER COMMUNICATIONS & PR

We have been busy at Swarner Communications this holiday season.  We published our largest gift guides in our 60 year history.  They were a blast to do, and all of our clients received free ads on the daily Santa Blog we did as well.  

Our attention now turns to the many military support events we have planned for 2012. We will pamper the spouses of deployed troops in February, plus continue to support barbecues for returning soldiers from the war zone.

We had a very successful support event for the kids October 13.  After the dust cleared, we saw roughly 2,000 children of all ages turn out for a free day of fun.  Our clients, of course, made the day a complete success.  We loved DuPont Realty's free gold fish booth - yep, I kept hearing how excited the kids were to get a free gold fish.  Thanks especially to Richmond American Homes for providing the signature sponsorship for the day's event.  In total, we had 50 businesses show up to spoil the kids.

Since that party, we have also sponsored the Wounded Warrior's Trunk or Treat, the Haunted House on JBLM, the Firefighter's Open House - and this weekend, we have organized with AUSA a care package event with Santa for families of I Corps on JBLM, plus we are saluting our adopted Unit the 218th Veternarians welcome home.

On the horizon, we are sending another of our adopted units, A Co. 5-20th Inf off to Afghanistan with a party.

Finally, we spent October laying the groundwork for our new adopt a unit program at McChord Field.  Businesses that would like to support an Air Force unit can call us to get connected.  Call Chrystal at (253) 584-1212.

We already have 1500 kids registered to attend our Salute to Unsung Heroes.  We are thrilled with the community outpouring of support, including our main sponsor, SDC Homes.  Those attending and handing out free prizes or services include Shipwreck Beads, Mattress Makers, Dennys, Hands on Children's Museum, Albertsons, Kaplan, Walmart, YMCA of Lakewood, Lakewood Ford, Dupont Realty, The Ram, The JBLM Commissary, Branding Innovations, Education Services, The Melting Pot, Harborstone Credit Union, The Pet Brigade, Children's Denistry of DuPont, Dhane Orthodontic, America's Credit Union, NW Harley Davidson, Epic Realty, USAA, Hawks Prairie Furniture, Steilacoom High School, Lacey Parks & Recreation, YPN, PAVE, and Il Forno.  
It is sure to be the fitting tribute that our local military kids deserve.

Our next big party - an effort to salute our local military kids who have sacrificed so much during the past 10 years is now open for reservations.  The FREE event is a fitting tribute to children that have passed many milestones in their lives while a parent or parents have been deployed.
This event will show them that their trials and tribulations have not gone unnoticed by the local business community.
If your biz would like to participate, email us here.
To see the story on the event, click here.

9-11 concert in Tacoma to be a PBS documentary.  Click here for the story.

More details will be available September 6th, but mark October 16th on your calendars as The Ranger & NW Airlifter Newspapers, along with SDC Homes hosts A Salute to the Unsung Heroes: Military Kids.

The day will be packed with free goodies, games, food and prizes for the children of our local military personnel.  It's a day to recognize those that have no choice in being part of a military family, and yet sacrifice heavily for this country.  They are our brave boys and girls who shoulder the burden and hardship of having a parent or parents deployed multiple times in harms way.

We are proud to announce this event, and we will have greater details and sign-ups beginning September 6th.

OK, we haven't posted for awhile.  But believe us, we've been mighty busy.

Our summer has been choked full of activities, including major support to AMC Rodeo at McChord, turning out our largest Best of Tacoma Guide ever, building an Adopt A Unit program for both the 62nd Medical Brigade and the 6th CID, fundraising to support the DuPont Sub-chapter for AUSA's Single Soldier Project (we helped raise funds and coordinate gift baskets to returning single Soldiers and Airmen including the Special Tactics Airmen at McChord), and supporting both Freedom Fest and Freedom Fair on the 4th.

We are putting the final touches on June with our newspapers due out Thursday, as well as our final JBLM Singles magazine for the month.  It's great to be busy!!

Now onto July with our AMC Rodeo Guide, Best of Tacoma Guide, the start of our Christmas in July promotion, Freedom Fest booth at JBLM on the 4th, Single Soldier Day booth on JBLM, and final touches on our 60th Anniversary celebration.

WOW!  We have been busy with the launch of our new Star Marketing Program, plus the soon to roll out Weekly Volcano Blast Program.  It has been fun connecting business with the military community through a variety of print, online and street marketing strategies.  You can see more of our program HERE.

Meanwhile, we are in the middle of voting for our annual Best of Tacoma Guide.  It's all about super heroes this year. 

AND, we are gearing up for two HUGE events on JBLM - Freedom Fest on July 4th and Single Soldier Day on July 14.  We will have the mobile video game trailer out for both.

We are also providing the program guide for Freedom Fair on the waterfront in Tacoma this 4th of July weekend - it is a special 100 year salute to Navy Aviation.  The event draws well over 200,000 people.

Of course, there is much more that we are involved in, including the AMC Rodeo competition at McChord (that is air rodeo), the BOSS car show which just wrapped up, monthly newcomer events at JBLM (lots of families moving here this summer), getting ready to send a reporter to Afghanistan with the I Corps, organizing a big salute to military kids this Fall, and much more.

The staff is gearing up for a busy June.  Between the Weekly Volcano and our military papers, we are almost doing a special section every week during the month.  That takes a lot of planning and coordination, but, as is always true, our folks handle that mission with great precision and dedication.  In June we feature our annual Drink and Sexy guides inside the Volcano, then at the end of the month we produce event guides for Freedom Fair in Tacoma, and Freedom Fest at JBLM.

It's never a dull moment!