The International Association of Fire Fighters announced the winners of the 2008 Media Awards today and the Ontario Professional Fire Fighters Association has two big reasons to be very pleased and proud!

In April of this year, the OPFFA made two submissions to the IAFF Media Awards.

The first submission was our official quarterly publication, known as the Intrepid Magazine, which was entered in the "Affiliate Publication (Circulation Over 1,000)" category.

The second submission was made in the "Affiliate PR or Political Campaign" category and highlighted our "Fire Fighters for McGuinty" and "Answering the Call" campaigns during the 2007 Provincial Elections.

It is my distinct pleasure and honour to announce at this time that both of our submissions won First Place in each of their respective categories, making them the best Affiliate Publication published and PR Campaign conducted between January 1, 2007 and December 31, 2007 among IAFF Locals across all of North America. 

I want to congratulate and recognize James Coones, the Editor of our Intrepid magazine who has worked extremely hard over the past two years since becoming the Editor and for continuing to produce a high quality - and now award winning - magazine that we are very proud of. 

As well, it was the efforts of James Coones and OPFFA Executive Vice President, Mark McKinnon, who jointly produced our provincial election campaign submission.  This submission effectively captured the wave of the IAFF's trademark 'gold & black' across Ontario from our endorsement of Premier McGuinty, to the provincially coordinated grassroots efforts, to election day and the historic McGuinty victory.

I want to thank the IAFF for this recognition.  It is opportunities such as these that allow us to pause and give praise to work well done.

I know the membership joins me in extending congratulations and gratitude to James, Mark and everyone involved for the efforts behind the submissions.

There were also six other IAFF awards announced for OPFFA Locals (listed below). Congratulations to each of them for their hard work and international recognition.

Fred LeBlanc,
OPFFA President

Click here to view the entire list of 2008 IAFF Media Award winners

AWARDS FOR OPFFA LOCALS