Armour&Armour Advertising and Public Relations received a 2002 Silver Anvil Award of Excellence from the Public Relations Society of America for ReLeaf Nashville, a community relations project sponsored by Nashville Tree Foundation and Metro Parks/Beautification and Environment to replant trees after the 1998 tornado.

Joan Armour, president of Armour&Armour and a member of both the Tree Foundation board and ReLeaf Executive Committee, accepted the prestigiouspublic relations award at the Silver Anvil Awards Celebration in New York City June 6.

"The Silver Anvil competition recognizes and honors the most outstanding public relations programs planned and executed each year in 15 categories and several sub-categories," Armour said. "We are honored that the public relations work done in Nashville by a small, family-owned firm can compete on the same level as the largest firms and corporations in the nation."

Winners were chosen from 92 finalists representing major international public relations agencies, Merrill Lynch, Library of Congress, VISA, Compaq Computer Corporation, and Johnson & Johnson, among others.

Armour said the firm’s contribution to the success of ReLeaf Nashville was a team effort. "We are pleased to be a part of the larger team on a unique project that represented so many areas of our community with a common goal of bringing back our historic city’s tree canopy and helping our friends and neighbors heal."

Formed in 1982, Armour&Armour is a full-service advertising and public relations firm that won Best of Show for the same project at the Parthenon Awards, the local version of the Silver Anvil.

• The Nashville Tree Foundation/ReLeaf Nashville won a National Arbor Day Foundation Project Award for 2001.

• The first annual Partners Award was presented June 8, 1999, to ReLeaf Nashville by the Mayor's Beautification Awards for its "vision, courage, and faith to provide Davidson County with hope for a greener tomorrow."

• The Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce East Area Business Council presented its area beautification award to ReLeaf Nashville in 1999 for special projects/special programs.

• Armour&Armour Advertising and Public Relations won the 1999 Best of Show in the annual Parthenon Awards competition sponsored by the Nashville chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. Judges in Columbus, Ohio, termed the community relations program "awesome, wonderful community involvement, great program."

• The American Society of Landscape Architects, State of Tennessee Chapter, gave its honor award in landscaping, planning and analysis on behalf of landscape architects involved with ReLeaf Nashville: Hawkins Partners, Ben Page, Dana Currier, Gresham Smith & Partners, Hodgson & Douglas, Michael Kaiser, Joe Morrison, Alissa Null, Cliff Reinhert, and Metro Parks/ Beautification and Environment.

• Grace Sanders, who celebrated her 16th birthday with her friends planting trees at the 1998 planting, was featured in a national teen weekly newspaper insert in April, 1999.

• Southern Living plans to feature ReLeaf Nashville in its November issue. None of this would have been possible without wonderful volunteers and generous donors.

Your efforts to plant shade trees in areas devastated by the 1998 tornadoes have garnered honors and national recognition for the ReLeaf Nashville project.