Communications pros honored for excellence

Individual and organizational awards were presented recently at the annual Golden Spike Awards ceremony honoring work of communications professionals along the Wasatch Front.

The Communicator of the Year Award was presented to John Thomas, director of the Legacy Parkway Project for the Utah Department of Transportation.

Other individual honors include Professional of the Year Tom Vitelli, Young Professional of the Year Dan Davis and Community Activist of the Year Chuck Penna.

The awards were presented by the Salt Lake and Utah Valley chapters of the Public Relations Society of America, the Utah Society for Healthcare Communication Marketing and the International Association of Business Communicators.

More than 160 people attended the ceremony, including those from corporate, agency, nonprofit, academia and government sectors.

Organizations earning honors, listed alphabetically, include:

• Bremer Public Relations Inc.: four silver.

• Brigham Young University: one gold.

• Bureau of Land Management: one silver.

• Crowell Advertising: two silver, two bronze.

• Intermountain McKay-Dee Hospital: one silver.

• Intrepid Group: four gold, four silver, two bronze.

• Kennecott Land: four gold, one bronze.

• Love Communications: one gold, one bronze.

• Penna Powers Brian Haynes/UDOT: five gold, one silver, two bronze.

• Penna Powers Brian Haynes: two gold, one silver.

• Salt Lake Valley Health Department: one silver.

• Summit Group: three gold, four silver, two bronze.

• University of Utah Development Office: one silver, one bronze.

• Utah State courts: one silver, one bronze.

• Vanguard Media Group: one gold, one bronze.

• VitalSmarts: two silver, one bronze.

• XanGo: one gold, one bronze.

• Lumin Publishing: one gold.