Horwitz helps make Club place ‘where news happens,’ wins top volunteer award
Over the past year as chairman of the Newsmakers Committee, Jamie Horwitz has helped ensure that the National Press Club lives up to its motto as being “the place where news happens.”
His work resulted in Horwitz winning the Berny Krug Award as the Club’s top volunteer at a Jan. 9 ceremony in the Holeman Lounge.
“Jamie Horwitz has done an amazing job,” said Club President Thomas Burr.
The Newsmakers Committee hosted about 50 news conferences last year. The events involved more than a dozen members of Congress and many celebrities, international officials and leaders of social and religious organizations – from actress Patricia Arquette, and Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, to a debate between the candidates for the presidency of the Teamsters Union.
“Our goal was to have fewer Newsmakers but to have high-quality events,” Horwitz, a media consultant at PRWRK, said in an interview. “We had a very engaged committee that brought good ideas to the table.”
Horwitz, who was in his first year as chairman, had a knack for scheduling Newsmakers.
“He was always ahead of the news cycle, bringing us speakers who would fill the room,” Burr said in an interview.
The Krug Award was one of several that were presented at the event honoring outstanding Club volunteers.
Vivian Awards, named after former Club President Vivian Vahlberg, were given to 54 Club members.
There were three recipients of the President’s Award – Doug Harbrecht, for leading the effort to invest millions of dollars generated by the Club’s sale of its Norman Rockwell painting; FrannMarie Jacinto, for raising the Club’s visibility on LinkedIn, Twitter and other social media platforms; and John Domen, for his many years coaching the Club’s softball team.
The Cosgrove Award, named after the late Club President John Cosgrove, was presented to Angela Greiling-Keane for being a former Club president who has remained deeply involved in the Club’s activities.
Volunteers “are the lifeblood of the Club,” Burr said. “There is an impressive core of Press Club members who do so much heavy lifting, from planning events, to writing statements, to covering speeches, to winning softball games, to promoting us on social media, to honoring the best journalism, to helping boost communicators and marketing professionals to reliving our storied history, to keeping our clubhouse in order and so many other worthwhile and important activities.”
The 2016 Vivivan winners are Will Lester, Joe Luchok, Adam Kanowe, Mike Hempen, Bill McCloskey, Veronica Vaquer, Paul Minehart, Jacquelyn Kasuya, Leslie Kingsley, David Anderson, Joan Coyle, Ken Dalecki, Carmen Russell-Sluchansky, Scott Sowers, Elizabeth Smith-Brownstein, Cary Pollak, Peter Urban, Tyler Crowe, Celia Wexler, Tony Gallo, David Hodes, Bob Weiner, Patti Giglio, Noel St. John, Alan Kotok, Darlene Shields, Al Teich, Kasia Klimasinska, Lisa Matthews, Jerry Zremski, Kevin Wensing, Rod Kuckro, Erik Meltzer, Fay Iudicello, Sean McMinn, Ellen Mitchell, Courtney Moseley, Rachel Oswald, Ferdous Al-Faruque, Glenn Marcus, Herb Jackson, Mike Soraghan, Mark Schoeff Jr., Lorna Aldrich, Bill Miller, Heather Forsgren-Weaver, Wes Pippert, Sho Chandra, Jonathan Salant, Julia Haskins, Larry Feinberg, Gwen Flanders, Yasmine El-Sabawi, Sylvia Smith.