Acadian Receives 2004 Award for Communications Excellence

Acadian Ambulance was honored as the “best show” in America at the National ESOP Association’s 27th Annual Awards for Communications Excellence in Washington, D.C National ESOP Association President Michael Keeling presented the top award for Special Events & Promotions and the runner up award for Total Communications to Julie Mahfouz, PR & marketing coordinator; Keith Simon, VP of PR & marketing; Mark Trahan, AIS Training Center Manager & past ESOP chairman, and Dean Landry, paramedic dispatcher & Acadian ESOP chairman.

Contact: W. Keith Simon, VP PR & Marketing, 1-800-259-3333

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, May 19, 2004

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The ESOP Association, a national organization of companies in which employees are owners through Employee Stock Ownership Plans, presented its 2004 Award for Communications Excellence to Louisiana’s own Acadian Ambulance Service. The presentation was made at the association’s annual conference here.
Acadian Ambulance received top honors in the Special Events & Promotions category for the company’s “ESOP News” magazine show written, acted, produced and performed live by Acadian employees. Employee owners used humor to discuss their company, its services and accomplishments, and talk about how ownership enhances their quality of service. Commenting about Acadian’s entry, the judges, who were also employee owners from across the nation, said “Acadian Ambulance Service uses their clear, consistent communications style with a twist of humor in the form of a special newscast, very nicely staged. The message comes from peers, always more powerful. Well done, Acadian.”
Acadian was also honored as runner-up in the Total Communications Program. On this category, the judges said, “Acadian Ambulance presents a wide range of activities, all well done. Their ownership communications are clear, open and consistent. They use humor to good effect, in a business which can be very stressful and serious.”
National ESOP Association President Michael Keeling who hosted the awards ceremony was also a guest at Acadian’s special event last August. “Every time I am with an Acadian employee,” Keeling said, “I am truly impressed with the caliber of the people Acadian has been able to recruit. I had the pleasure of seeing Acadian’s special newscast in which the employee owners participated as news anchors and in skits as they explained what employee ownership meant to them. It was extremely unique and entertaining. The judges who are employee owners themselves thought that Acadian’s program was the best in any large company in America. The 2400 ESOP members are absolutely proud to have Acadian Ambulance associated with our national organization,” concluded Keeling.
In accepting the award Keith Simon, vice president of public relations & marketing said, “Employee-ownership is the foundation of Acadian’s success in the emergency medical field. Our growth and progress stem from the fact that our people are motivated by pride of ownership and this has brought our company from ambulance transportation to NEMSA, the National EMS Academy, where students are taught to become paramedics, and to our Nursing Solutions Division where our paramedics can become nurses and retain employee ownership or go on to Acadian Industrial Medical Services, or Safety Training. All of our new divisions and successes are a direct result from the participation and pride that being an employee owner creates.”
Also attending the conference and accepting the award was Acadian’s ESOP committee chairman Dean Landry. According to Landry, a paramedic dispatcher, Acadian is a better company because of ESOP. “We are all passionate about our work, and being an employee owner enables us to share in the wealth we help create,” he said.
Founded in 1978, The ESOP Association represents more than 1,200 ESOP companies and 750,000 employee owners who believe that employee ownership will improve American competitiveness, increase productivity through greater employee participation and strengthen our free enterprise economy. It is the number one advocacy group for employee ownership in the U.S.
Acadian Ambulance Service ranks among the top 100 employee-owned companies in the U.S., according to a list compiled by the National Center for Employee Ownership. The men and women of Acadian became employee-owners of the largest privately owned ambulance service in the U.S. in 1993, with the adoption of an Employee Stock Ownership Program (ESOP). Under the plan, 75 percent of the company value in stock is available to employees. The plan involves placing the stock in trust, with those shares acquired by employees redeemable in cash at the time of retirement.

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