Publicity opportunities already exist … usually under our very noses!

One of the points I keep hearing time and again is that funeral homes, crematories and cemeteries don’t know what is news worthy; or if they know something is news worthy, they don’t know how to get coverage for their good deeds. Another interesting point I personally have observed as well is that most of the time, death care operations are already sitting on a mountain of potential publicity and don’t even know it!

For example … while in San Diego this past week, I was randomly glancing at a magazine in my hotel room. It was the San Diego Magazine, March 2008 issue. Flipping through the pages at random, my eyes came across a headline: Remembering the Monster by Lisa Petrillo. Page 26. The headline caught my eye. I read the first sentence:

“Killer cop Craig Peyer has spent the last 22 years in prison for strangling golden-haired San Diego State University student Cara Knott during the cold Christmas aftermath of 1986, dumping her body off an abandoned overpass in a then-underdeveloped black hole at Mercy Road.”

The article goes on to explain the plight of the family post-tragedy and how Cara’s father, Sam, was instrumental in getting legislation passed to protect women drivers prior to his own death from a heart attack in 2004. The article also describes how the San Diego community has banded together when Peyer was up for parole this year and overwhelmed the parole commissioner’s office with letters passionately requesting Peyer remain behind bars.

A quick round of internet research about Cara Knott’s death revealed the following:

• The location near where Knott was found is home to a memorial garden of oak trees to honor her and other victims of violent crime —- the result of efforts spearheaded by her father, Sam Knott. It was one if his victories: to turn the bleak wasteland where Cara died into a flourishing nature preserve, dedicated to Cara and fellow crime victims. From acorns, Sam grew the native oaks planted off Mercy Road, and his trees dedicated to Cara are growing throughout the county now, donated to nonprofit groups.
• Cara was a San Diego University student studying to become a teacher and wanted to get a doctorate in education.
• Cara loved animals and was artistic, interests she likely would have used to enhance her teaching, her mother Joyce Knott said.
• Cara ran track for Valhalla High, worked summers at the San Diego Zoo, tried to save endangered animals.
• Cara’s sisters, Cheryl and Cynthia, wore over-sized amethysts to the parole hearing … amethyst is Cara’s birthstone.
• Cheryl flew in from her professional duties at Harvard University to read the essay her 17-year old sister Cara had written about how much she wanted to change the world.
• In death, Cara became a symbol for victims’ rights—the cause for a crusade led by her father, Sam, a balding, bearlike man whose steely determination would change laws, police policies and many public minds in his quest to find justice. By late 1991, Sam had convinced several local law enforcement agencies to adopt “a more sensitive protocol,” as authorities put it delicately, announcing the change in the way they handled nighttime stops for women.

The research above took me about 15-25 minutes maximum to collect and the bulleted data above provides insight into this family’s efforts to keep the lessons learned from Cara’s tragedy into the foreground. The information collected from my internet searches is highly personalized information. We can see Cara was a bright light, studying at the local university with many goals and dreams that will remain unattained, or will they?

What I would like to know is where is the funeral home, crematory or cemetery that made the arrangements for Cara along with her family? There is such a *wonderful* opportunity here for the death care operation that worked with the Knott family to really do some good for the community as well as elevate its establishment’s visibility. Here are some ideas:

• Cara was a San Diego State University student studying to become a teacher. Why not partner with the university, Cara’s high school Valhalla High and other community partners to help establish a scholarship fund for graduating seniors wanting to also become teachers?
• Cara loved animals, worked summers at the San Diego Zoo and tried to save endangered animals. This is another angle to explore with local partners. Perhaps sponsor a raffle, a silent auction or a fundraiser benefit in memory of Cara’s love for animals and donate proceeds to the San Diego Zoo or local humane societies.
• Cara’s dad Sam Knott turned the bleak wasteland where Cara died into a flourishing nature preserve, dedicated to Cara and fellow crime victims. The new trees dedicated to Cara are growing throughout the county now and are donated to nonprofit groups. Yet another wonderful angle for involvement. Perhaps sponsoring the nature preserve; perhaps promoting the nature preserve in outgoing communications (email and/or print newsletters) to families. Or why not donate some of the staff’s time to volunteer at local victim shelters?

The possibilities here are endless. I literally whipped these publicity and outreach possibilities in no time. The opportunity for the death care establishment who worked with the Knott family to really reach out to the family and enrichen the community with its goodwill is surely news worthy and will help position the establishment in a highly regarded positive light and as a caring community member.

If I were the publicist for the death care operation that worked with the Knott family back in 1986, I would be all over this. I would:

• work with the operation to identify which event to pursue, then time the launch of the event before or near Peyers’s next parole hearing. His last parole hearing created a media frenzy in 2004. The most recent hearing was on January 2008, and the next hearing is scheduled for 2012.
• positively position the event gracefully as a community outreach rather than seen as one related to the parole hearings.
• plan and execute the event in such a way that reflects a positive memorial for a young lady taken much too soon, whose family was instrumental in updating San Diego’s victim’s rights and inspiring new legislation protecting female drivers being pulled over by cops.

See? Opportunities for publicity are sitting around all the time. They are everywhere! Look around and I promise you that they’ll be there. Open up a local magazine. Read community-based blogs. Get involved in your communities. Surely … events and ideas like these are staring at you right in the face; you just have to read between the lines sometimes to see them … but trust me, they are there.

SIDENOTE
And as a side note, if anyone knows the name of the funeral operation that worked with the Knott family in 1986 and is willing to share this blog post with them, please do so. I did a lot of searching online to see if I could find out who they are but no luck. If this can help that establishment in any way, I would be most pleased! Thanks to all!