Public Relations . Freelance Writing

In honor of the Idaho men and women who have died in service to our country, the Idaho Veterans Cemetery will hold a Memorial Day celebration on Monday, May 25 beginning at 10 a.m. The cemetery is located at 10100 N. Horseshoe Bend Road.

The ceremony will feature several speakers including a representative from Sen. Mike Crapo’s office; Congressman Walt Minnick; Major General Larry LaFrenz, Commanding General of the Idaho National Guard; Col. James McGovern, Commander of the 366th Operations Group at Mt. Home AFB; and Col. USMC Retired David Brassuel, Administrator of the Idaho Division of Veterans Services.

There also will be music from the the Idaho National Guard 25th Army Band, a wreath laying ceremony, rifle and cannon salute, a military flyover and a ceremonial release of white doves.

Because of limited parking inside the cemetery grounds, attendees are asked to park their vehicles at the Optimist Youth Sports Complex, 9889 Hill Rd., and take a free shuttle to and from the cemetery. The shuttle includes handicap accessibility and is being provided by the Brown Bus Company of Nampa.

For more information call the Idaho State Veterans Cemetery at 208-334-4796.

May 22nd, 2009
Tags: Idaho Veterans Cemetery, Memorial Day, Veterans
Posted in Client news, News
Posted by Patti

Perfect Order, a Boise company which specializes in helping people organize their homes and offices, has launched “Senior Moves,” a new service designed to help older adults and their families with the emotional, mental and physical aspects of relocating, downsizing, or aging in place

Professional organizers with the Senior Moves program are trained to help people sort and categorize items, and decide what to what to keep and what to let go of. The service is designed for people who must relocate quickly, people who can no longer maintain their home, people with declining health who have little or no surviving family, family members or people grieving from a recent illness or a loss of a loved one, people dealing with a build-up of belongings, families struggling with age-related illnesses and conflict, and adult children that need help moving their parents or family members.

This is a very important service, as one of the biggest challenges for older people is not knowing where to start. Senior Moves director Lori Davies told me, “When faced with a lifetime of treasures, memories, belongings and papers, it can be emotional and overwhelming.” But Senior Moves can break the process into manageable pieces that can be divided up between family and friends, or they’ll handle the complete process from beginning to end.

Here’s some of the services they offer:
• helping people sort belongings into groups to keep, pass down to family, give away, or sell;
• Arranging to ship, store, sell, or donate belongings;
• Pre-packing non-essential items to make a move easier;
• Paring down stored paper records, and shredding confidential paper;
• Helping plan a new home’s layout to determine what furniture to move;
• Helping a person get settled in a new home;
• Sorting, dispersing and preparing an estate for sale after a family member has passed away.

Another unique service is that they work with “aging-in-place” professionals to help a person remodel their home so they can continue to live there safely as they age and their lifestyle changes.

This program is the only local senior moving service certified by the National Association of Senior Move Managers.

For more information call 208-323-6761 or visit the website at www.perfecttransitions.com.

May 15th, 2009
Tags: Boise Idaho, Murphy Media Services, Perfect Order, Senior citizen, Senior Moves
Posted in Client news, News
Posted by Patti

The Summer/Fall 2008 issue of Sun Valley Magazine (which included two of Patti Murphy’s articles on the sport of falconry and on the Peregrine Fund) has won the 2009 Maggie Award for best Semi-Annual Consumer Magazine! The Maggie Awards are the most prestigious national publishing awards in the Western United States (presented by the Western Publications Association), considered the “Oscars of the magazine publishing industry.”  Sun Valley Magazine is in good company, as other winners have included Shape, Sunset, Arizona Highways, Western Interiors and Design, Backpacker, Yoga Journal, Sierra, Mother Jones, and San Francisco Bay Guardian.

And this same issue was also the proud recipient of a 2008 Ozzie Award for “Best Use of Photography” and a 2008 Eddie Award for Best Editorial Content (including Murphy’s two feature stories). The incredibly prestigious Ozzie and Eddie awards are open to all nationally-distributed magazines and are given in recognition of excellence in magazine design (the Ozzie) and editorial content (the Eddie). It is the largest national competition for magazines, and we are proud to have been able to contribute to this wonderful honor.  

May 5th, 2009
Tags: falconry, Maggie Award, Murphy Media Services, Peregrine Fund, Sun Valley Magazine, World Center Birds of Prey
Posted in Agency news, News
Posted by Patti

Murphy Media Services owner Patti Murphy received two Excellence Awards from the Idaho Press Club on May 2 in recognition of her freelance writing and her media campaign and public relations work on behalf of her client.

Murphy received an award for the Media Campaign she developed for the National Diving Dog Tour sponsored by Oust and Purina. Murphy partnered with FusionSet, Inc., another Boise, Idaho marketing agency, on the program which was designed to gain media and community awareness of a nationwide traveling Diving Dog competition during the Summer of 2008.

Murphy also received an award in the category Magazine Writing-Light Feature, for her article, “The Elegant Barn,” which she wrote for Sun Valley Home Magazine. The judge, commenting on Murphy’s article, wrote, “The opening of this story set up the rest of it beautifully, not an easy feat to accomplish when writing about anonymous owners.”

Previously, Murphy won the 2005 First Place award for Crime and Courts Reporting for Weekly Newspapers for her reporting on a double murder trial. In 2004 she won a Second Place award for Media Campaigns; a Second Place award for Script Writing; and Third Place for News Release Writing. To see a complete list of 2008 award winners, visit the Idaho Press Club.

May 2nd, 2009
Tags: Idaho Press Club, Murphy Media Services, Patti Murphy, writing awards
Posted in Agency news, News
Posted by Patti

Robert Howell, president of Green Clean, a Boise commercial cleaning service, has earned the Accredited Professional designation from the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environment Design (LEED) program.

This is quite an achievement as Howell is the first LEED Accredited Professional (AP) in the Treasure Valley commercial cleaning industry. For more information about the LEED program visit http://tinyurl.com/5whn3j .

APs have demonstrated a thorough understanding of green building practices and principles, and are able to facilitate the certification process for the LEED Green Building Rating System. LEED recognizes performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality.

“Our company specializes in using cleaning methods designed to protect health without harming the environment,” Howell said about Green Clean. “This type of cleaning program goes beyond chemical and equipment choices. It also include specific policies, procedures, training, and shared responsibilities that minimize the impact of cleaning materials on building occupants and the environment,” he said.

Green Clean can be reached at 208-345-2109 or visit www.greencleanidaho.com.

May 1st, 2009
Tags: Green Clean, LEED
Posted in Client news, News
Posted by Patti

I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Idaho Business Review blogger Michael Boss to talk about how public relations is changing. Mike asked several local PR colleagues to share their thoughts, and I was pleased to be included in this great group of professionals.

I’ve worked in the public relations industry since 1981, and it’s been only in the past few years that I’ve seen such significant changes in the profession. Traditional public relations has always been about working with the traditional media – television, newspapers, radio – to get the word out about a organization, program or person. PR people had the media connections and, in turn, media people stood as the gatekeepers on what news got published and what didn’t. It’s been like that since the day I wrote my first press release.

But over the past few years, social media – Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs, etcetera – have opened up whole new ways of communicating. In theory, anyone can post anything they want – a blog, a video, a Tweet on Twitter, and become their own “media.”

It’s a new landscape for sure, but public relations professionals still have a critical role to play.  Why? Because its still all about communicating the accurate message, and reaching the appropriate audiences. We can help organizations and the media (traditional and new) get to the facts and uncover the accurate information that is so important for the public to know.

Here is Michael’s blog, “How many PR people does it take to issue a press release”!

March 19th, 2009
Tags: blogs, Idaho Business Review, Michael Boss, PR, public relations
Posted in Agency news, News
Posted by Patti

Purity Essential Mineral Makeup, a natural cosmetic line based in rural Twin Falls, Idaho, will make its Hollywood debut at this year’s Academy Awards! The company was invited to be one of the featured products in the celebrity gifting lounge hosted by Billboard Magazine and Children Uniting Nations.

The gifting lounge is where companies provide free gifts of their products to the Oscar nominees.

This opportunity is unique for a product that was just launched in 2007, and continues to be formulated, manufactured and packaged in its hometown of Twin Falls, a southern Idaho community with a population of just over 40,000.

Tonja Valdez, founder of the Purity Essential Mineral Makeup line and owner of the Purity Spa and Wellness Center in Twin Falls, created the mineral makeup line when she realized her clients’ needs for a superior quality makeup were not being met.

“Many of our spa clients were going home and using cosmetics with ingredients that caused the very skin problems they came to us for help with,” said Valdez, who is a licensed practicing esthetician. According to Valdez, many cosmetics, including other mineral makeup products, use filler ingredients which can create skin problems.  ”Our goal in developing  Purity Essential Mineral Makeup was to create a makeup line with the same superior quality as our spa products that women could use at home.”

Valdez believes one reason her company received an invitation to participate in the exclusive celebrity gifting lounge is because of the quality of her products, which are totally free of paraben, talc and other harsh ingredients that other makeup formulas use.

Purity Essential Mineral Makeup also will be participating in the Academy Awards preview party and the post Oscar party, hosted by Billboard Magazine.

For more information about Purity Essential Mineral Makeup visit http://www.buypurity.com or call (208) 734-7873.

February 17th, 2009
Posted in Client news, News
Posted by Patti

Murphy Media Services has been selected to provide marketing and media outreach for the launch of the new Redmont Health Services drug and alcohol addiction treatment center opening in Boise in January, 2009.

Murphy Media Services will partner with FusionSet, Inc., on this project, which will involve conducting a statewide media outreach and publicity campaign to promote the new facility and its services. Redmont is a private treatment facility that will provide  affordable and effective treatment options for adolescents and adults including assessments, individual, group and family counseling, and personal, individual treatment plans.

Headquartered in Alabama, Redmont is expanding into Idaho to address the state’s acute need for affordable and effective substance abuse treatment. The company will open its outpatient center in January 2009, and has plans for a 48-bed residential facility to be built in Meridian later in the year.

This is the second project that Murphy Media Services and FusionSet have collaborated on. In the summer of 2008 they partnered on the national launch of the National Diving Dog Tour presented by Oust® and Purina®, which involved developing and conducting media and publicity campaigns in New Jersey, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Georgia, and California.

January 2nd, 2009
Tags: Alcoholism, drug abuse, inpatient outpatient treatment, Redmont Health, substance abuse
Posted in Agency news, News
Posted by Patti