Lions clubs around the world are providing assistance to the survivors of Hurricane Katrina. Inform your local media about your club's relief efforts. Issue a press release to publicize your efforts. Following are some tips for working with your local media:

Do

• Stress the need that will be filled by your activity when contacting newspapers or electronic media.
• Tell the media what you are going to be doing rather what you have already done.
• Offer the media opportunities for visuals-40 people packing boxes, loading trunks or assembling building supplies.
• Have Lions logos or volunteers wearing Lions vest, hats or shirts prominent in photos but keep the attention on the needs and the results.
• Talk in terms of people assisted. Explain how what you are sending or doing will impact individuals or families. For example, tell how many people will be helped-enough water bottles will be provided to give 1,000 people 8 bottles of clean water-rather than that you are shipping 100 cases of bottled water.
• Keep a list of the names and contact information for people and families helped and their response to the help so you can provide the media with human-interest stories.
• Contact your local Red Cross or other relief agency and ask what they need now. Read the newspapers and check online about what is needed. Check the Help Link to see what Lions in affected communities need.
• Emphasize that this is a community activity and tell how community members, both Lions and non-Lions, can or have participated.
• Take photos of club activities both at home and when materials are delivered. Take photos of the area where supplies are being delivered. If possible, take photos of individuals receiving assistance. Send photos to pr@lionsclubs.org.
• Contact the media again after your assistance has been delivered to tell and show how supplies are being used. Provide action photos no posed photos of Lions members.
• Encourage members who are delivering assistance to offer their eye-witness reports on what they saw. Have them write down what they are told about conditions and needs by relief workers on site so they can relay this information to your local media.
• When media cover your local relief efforts, also tell them briefly about what LCIF and other clubs around the world are doing. For up-to-date information, see www.lions-katrina.org.

Don't

• Concentrate on your club when approaching the media; instead, concentrate on the needs of those impacted by the hurricane and what will result or has resulted from your club's activity. Talk about your club later, but the story that will interest the media is the relief efforts.
• Go to your media only once. Even if the media don't cover the story when you are preparing to send assistance, contact them again with follow up about where assistance was received and how that assistance affected survivors.
• Concentrate on major national or major daily papers. Unless you have a very unusual or visual story, concentrate on local media, which are more likely to cover your story.

LCIF's relief efforts have led to media coverage including television coverage.

Many Lions have come together to aid evacuees of Hurricane Katrina; however, some clubs have been exceptionally successful in obtaining media coverage of their efforts. Below are some examples of publicity these clubs received as a result of informing the media of their involvement:

• Liberty, Indiana, Lions partnered with Lions in rural Alabama to provide greatly needed supplies to the Mobile, Alabama region. Liberty Lions collected a truckload of food, clothing, bottled water, baby supplies and toilet paper. Clubs in Alabama are using an old Sam's Club as a staging area for relief efforts on behalf of rural Alabama residents. News of the Liberty Lions assistance appeared in both the Palladium-Item Newspaper and the newspaper's Web site. The daily newspaper serves readers in both Ohio and Indiana, providing great publicity about local Lion's activities and spreading the word about Lions Clubs International. The fact that Indiana Lions teamed with Lions in Alabama to answer known needs helped make this story newsworthy.
• Lions in Maine informed local media of their efforts to fill a tractor-trailer full of relief supplies. The Kennebec Journal in Augusta, Maine, informed readers of the Lions' collection being held at a local school, which helped the club in their collection efforts and also spread the word about how local Lions are fulfilling community needs. Within the story, club members also took advantage of the opportunity to provide general information about Lions Clubs International and other projects the clubs are involved in.
• When Bainbridge and Donalsonville Lions clubs and the Bainbridge High School Leo Club in Georgia held a relief collection at an area Home Depot, they informed the local media of the scheduled collection. A story with accompanying photos was published in the Post-Searchlight Newspaper. Local residents were not only made aware of an opportunity to get involved and assist evacuees, but they also learned what Lions were doing to help those affected by the hurricane.
• The Pawcatuck Lions in Rhode Island took advantage of the opportunity to spread the word about LCIF's grant donations by contacting the Westerly Sun Newspaper. As a result, the newspaper included information on how local residents could contribute to LCIF and provided background on how LCIF assists in times of disaster.