NACON 2008 Coast Guard Awards

Awards

Mr. WHELAN is cited for outstanding achievement while serving as National Marketing Director from November 2006 to August 2008. Mr. WHELAN was the architect of many cooperative ventures between the Auxiliary, Coast Guard program offices, commercial interests, and other boating safety organizations. Working closely with Coast Guard and Auxiliary program managers, he designed advertisements for the America’s Waterway Watch mission that were carried in Boating World Magazine and which reached more than 100,000 subscribers. Mr. WHELAN similarly oversaw development of a new advertisement designed to promote the Auxiliary public education and vessel safety check programs, the America’s Waterway Watch mission, and was distributed at more than 1,000 boat shows across the country. His determined efforts and superb negotiating skill were instrumental to the establishment of a multi-year financial support sponsorship for vessel safety check decals that ensured their availability through 2011. Applying extraordinary foresight and corporate diplomacy, Mr. WHELAN worked closely with Stearns, Inc. and Bass Pro Shops to coordinate the Auxiliary’s nation-wide Fit-To-Float life jacket marketing campaign. He skillfully assisted the arrangement of Auxiliary engagement in these annual 36 city tours, significantly raising the Auxiliary’s profile as an integral partner in securing America’s boating safety. Mr. WHELAN administered a remarkably broad range of media coverage in five major media markets including a live Fox News Channel national television segment in which an audience of over one million viewers learned from an Auxiliarist how to correctly fit and wear a life jacket. Mr. WHELAN’s dedication, judgment, and devotion to duty are most heartily commended and are in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Coast Guard and the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary.