MARKETING

Windsong Productions, LLC announced Wednesday its “Win for Fun” TV campaign, produced with the Jeffrey Scott Agency for Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino, has been awarded a Gold Telly Award in the local TV category in the 40th Annual Telly Awards. The Gold Telly is exclusively awarded to the top 3% of winning entries. The Telly Awards is the world’s largest honor for video and television content across all screens and is judged by leaders from video platforms, television, streaming networks and production companies, including Vice, Vimeo, Hearst Digital Media, BuzzFeed and A&E Networks. Windsong Productions is a full service video production company and is headquartered in Fresno with a division in Glendale, California. This marks the first Gold Telly Award for the organization since The Telly Awards introduced its new highest marker for excellence in 2017.

“Windsong Productions is pushing the boundaries for video and television innovation and creativity at a time when the industry is rapidly changing,” said Sabrina Dridje, Managing Director of the Telly Awards. “This award is a tribute to the talent and vision of its creators and a celebration of the diversity of work being made today for all screens.”

Windsong Productions won a Bronze Telly in 2018 for its work on the Educational Employees Credit Union TV campaign for Derek Carr’s Music Album, produced alongside the Jeffrey Scott Agency. 

“We’re honored to receive a Gold Telly Award for this campaign.” said Sara Bourbeau, partner and head of production. “The entire production team put so much into this project, so we are elated to be recognized for the work alongside such talented creators.”

The award-winning TV campaign can be viewed at www.windsongpro.com/portfolio/win-for-fun.

HEALTH CARE

Saba Khalid, MD, FAAP, has joined the team at Visalia Medical Clinic as a pediatrician. For the past 35 years she has served as a clinical professor of pediatrics, and was part of numerous research projects. She also served as a pediatric hospitalist caring for newborns in the neonatal intensive care unit and the emergency department.

California Health Sciences University College of Pharmacy will hold its Graduation Ceremony for the Class of 2019 on May 18th at 10 am at Clovis Hills Community Church. The University is graduating its second cohort of Doctor of Pharmacy students, with 54 graduates in their Class of 2019.  These graduates will soon become one of 116 alumni from the CHSU Doctor of Pharmacy program, with the first cohort of pharmacists graduating in 2018. With over 60% of their students from the Central Valley, the majority of their graduates are working in the Central Valley as licensed pharmacists.

BANKING & FINANCE

Suncrest Bank (OTCQX: SBKK) this week announced it has been named as one of DepositAccounts.com Top 200 Healthiest Banks for 2019. This is the second year in a row that Suncrest Bank has been named to this prestigious list. Suncrest received an A+ rating signifying its status as one of the healthiest banks in the United States. To compile the rankings, DepositAccounts.com analyzes data from 5,267 federally insured U.S. banks and considers a set of performance criteria including; capitalization, adjusted Texas ratio, and deposit growth. 

“Our goal is to be The Best Community Bank in California,” said Ciaran McMullan, President and CEO of Suncrest Bank. “We call it our ‘Three in Three Strategy,’ which is to be the best to work for in terms of employee engagement and our organizational culture, the best to work with in terms of how well we support our customers and communities, and the best to invest in, in terms of financial performance and shareholder value.”

TRANSPORTATION

JTS (Johanson Transportation Service), a leading third-party supply chain solutions provider based in Fresno, announced that it has been awarded CargoNet’s Best in Cargo Security Award for their 2018 prevention efforts in the Mid-Size Broker Category. This is the second time JTS has received this honor. In 2016, CargoNet awarded JTS Best in Cargo Security in the Small Broker category. Considerations for the award include factors such as: a willingness to commit resources to security; standard operating procedures and best practices; and, the scope of utilization and support for the CargoNet program.

 “It is with great pleasure to be able to recognize Johanson Transportation Service’s cargo security efforts as they clearly demonstrate a cargo security-centric environment”, said Ryan Shepherd, CargoNet general manager. “It is easy for an intermediary to place the responsibility of cargo security on the carrier and shipper; yet that doesn’t seem to stop Johanson from implementing best practices to help protect their customers’ freight.”

CargoNet is a vendor that provides a digital product that helps prevent cargo theft and improves recovery rates in the logistics industry.

EDUCATION

Students at Clovis West High School in Fresno have donated a solar suitcase they have built for the Fresno County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue (SAR) Team.  A demonstration of the device and its presentation was made to Sgt. Matt Hamilton, which he will add to his collection of tools for SAR missions.  Todd Kennedy is a teacher of Environmental Science and Biology.  He and his class designed the lightweight system that is able to provide both light and convenient charging of a variety of electronic devices through a USB hub. The system can also be adapted to accept standard plugin devices.

As the school year winds down, two groups of Fresno Unified high school students are gearing up to compete on the national stage. The three-person Windustrial Revolution team from Hoover High School competed May 21-23 at the KidWind National Challenge in Houston. The students qualified with their winning wind turbine design at the local competition at CSU Maritime in February. The team’s coach is Michael Zapata.

A four-person History Day team from Edison High School will compete June 9-13 at National History Day at the University of Maryland. The students qualified by winning the state title recently in Rocklin in the Senior Division Group Performance. Their project is “A Life and A Legacy: The Harvey Milk Story.” The team’s coach is Gary Mrkaich.

“I am extremely proud of these two groups – and a number of others this year – who have risen to the top and gone on to represent Fresno Unified in national competitions. To have the opportunity to travel and test their skills against the best of the best is the kind of experience that students never forget and it inspires them for future success,” said Superintendent Bob Nelson.

ENVIRONMENT

 

A Merced dairy family is playing a key role in protecting imperiled Tricolored Blackbirds, a California-native species federally listed as a Bird of Conservation Concern and as a State of California Threatened Species.

A large colony of the birds has been nesting at Diamond J Dairy since late March, and Luciana and Wiebren Jonkman halted their silage harvest to allow the birds to complete their nesting cycle. Now the colony, which peaked at 25,000 birds, is nearing fledging.

“At least 10 percent of this entire species is nesting on this one Merced farm,” said Aaron Rives, soil conservationist for USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service in Merced. “Without the help of the farmers, this species could be set back for years. And once it’s gone, that’s forever.”

Because Tricolored Blackbirds are colonial nesters, thousands of birds may impact—and be impacted by—farming operations near their nests.  By delaying harvest farmers can allow the young birds to safely fledge.