The Rise of the Peoria Locavore wins Ebeling PRize

05/21/2012 10:13 AM

By Ivy Hillman ’12

Seniors Karla Carr, Melissa McGuire, Ken Sanderman, and Rachel Fogle are the winners of this semester’s Ebeling PRize. Charles Ebeling ’66 has been offering the award to students of the public relations capstone course since 2004. To win, students create a project that focuses on a current social issue.

The winning team’s campaign is called “The Rise of the Peoria Locavore.”

“A ‘locavore’ is a person who buys local food whenever possible,” Fogle said. “Local food is grown up to 100 miles from a person’s residence.”

The team’s for profit client was Living Earth Farm and their not for profit client was Peoria County Farm Bureau. Consumers buying local produce and meat is a new trend.

“The locavore movement, though fairly new, is gaining momentum especially in large cities like Boston,” said Dr. Maha Bashri, assistant professor of public relations. “The arguments made are that it is safer and fresher food, it stimulates local economies and cuts on expenses incurred by the consumer because of transportation.”

Each member of the team won a cash award and accomplished a huge goal.

“As a group we were thrilled to win the PRize as our entire class had great campaigns,” Fogle said. “From the start of the campaign it was one of our goals like any team.”

Fogle saw the win as one of the best ways to end her college career at Bradley.

“Winning the PRize was icing on the cake before we all graduated,” Fogle said.