City of Hickory wins Excellence in Communications Award

The City of Hickory was among 27 North Carolina jurisdictions to earn recognition in the North Carolina City & County Communicators (NC3C) 2025 Excellence in Communications Awards. 

Hickory won a second-place award in the Photography – Small Population category for a photograph of the Aviation Walk pedestrian bridge at sunset. 

The awards were announced April 10 during NC3C’s 2025 annual conference in Asheville, North Carolina. A record 179 award program entries from 47 different local government organizations were judged by professional communications peers from the Minnesota Association of Government Communicators. The Photography category was the most competitive, receiving the largest number of entries in the awards program.

“With the new opening of the Hickory Aviation Walk bridge across U.S. 321, there was an opportunity to photograph the bridge and the surrounding area of Hickory to add to our Hickory Trail marketing photos. The perfect photo of this would feature the landscape, the bridge in the early evening with the HICKORY letters lit, and a perfect evening sky that Hickory shows off from time to time,” said Communications and Marketing Manager Dana Kaminske. 

Jeff Yount, local photographer/artist and owner of Different Perspective Photography, captured the award-winning photograph.

“The photo vividly displays the beauty of the new bridge and the architecture, as well as the landscape that goes on for miles, showcasing the rolling foothills of North Carolina,” added Kaminske.

“Mr. Yount was able to skillfully capture the exact photo that the City of Hickory needed to market this portion of the Hickory Trail and some of the new connections to this Walk.”

The Aviation Walk is the third of five major Hickory Trail segments to be completed, and expansions of this trail segment are already in the works. Three future extensions of the Aviation Walk will create trail connections to the Appalachian State University Hickory Campus, the future Hickory Aviation Museum and Catawba Valley Community College’s The Dale Earnhardt Regional Innovation Complex, and further additions past the Hickory Regional Airport.

The purpose of North Carolina City & County Communicators is to encourage professional development and networking among local governmental communications professionals. The organization was formed in March 2007 and consists of professional government communicators from around the state. For more information about NC3C, visit www.nc3c.com.

Photo caption: Communications and Marketing Manager Dana Kaminske accepts the award from NC3C President Kaisha Brown
 

The award-winning photograph taken by Jeff Yount of the Hickory Aviation Walk bridge at sunset.