South Carolina wins 11 UMAC awards

Seven of those 11 awards honor the Advocate

SAVANNAH, Ga.—South Carolina has won 11 more writing, photography, website, design and publication awards from the United Methodist Association of Communicators—including five first-place wins.

UMAC gathered Oct. 22-25 in Savannah to honor communicators across the country for their work to tell the denomination’s story.

The Advocate won four first-place awards for writing by Editor Jessica Connor: first place in the opinion/editorial category for her column “Holy Moments,” first place (a tie) for her news article “AC to Consider Resolution on Mentally Ill Inmates,” first place for her feature article “Modern-Day Circuit Riders” and first-place for her “In the Church” article series featuring stories on how the church responds to people struggling with medical care, mental health and addiction issues.

Connor also won a third-place award for her feature article “Wood Ministry Relies on Hard Work to Bring Winter Warmth to Those in Need.”

Visit www.advocatesc.org to read the winning articles.

The Advocate also won second place in the overall newspapers category and third place in visual design for its newly redesigned website, AdvocateSC.org.

The recent honors bring the total to 57 awards the Advocate has earned in the last four years, both from UMAC and the S.C. Press Association.

Conference Communications Director Matt Brodie won first place in photography for his Revolution photo series and second place for his Annual Conference photo series. Brodie also won third place in social media online content for the S.C. Conference Facebook Page and third place in the blog category for the S.C. Annual Conference website, www.umcsc.org.

The Rev. Angela Ford Nelson, Advocate board chair, said the board is extremely proud of Connor and Assistant Editor Allison Trussell.

“The Advocate Board of Trustees continues to celebrate the wonderful accomplishments of our editor, Jessica Connor, and our assistant editor, Allison Trussell, as they lead the Advocate into the future. And we are overjoyed by their latest seven awards from the UMAC,” Nelson said. “Jessica and Allison's work and dedication are a testimony to the promise in Proverbs 18:16: your gift will make room for you! Indeed, their gifts are making room for ministry to be shared and lives to be changed across our beloved South Carolina Conference and beyond.”

For more on UMAC and the awards, visit www.umcommunicators.org.