In honor of National Public Safety Telecommunicator Week — which this year comes April 13-19 — we salute the hard-working women and men of 9-1-1 everywhere. We are blessed to have the opportunity to work hard for them. Among many highlights of that experience, here’s one of my favorite professional stories ever.

 

In the fall of 2012, in connection with my 9-1-1 client, NENA: The 9-1-1 Association, we heard that Academy Award-winning actress Halle Berry would be playing a frontline 9-1-1 call-taker in the forthcoming film, The Call.

 

Our PR minds went into overdrive. How could we catch a ride on the wave of publicity that would accompany this film?

 

We started persistently contacting her people and the film producers, and eventually we connected with them. We explained who we were, and asked if we could collaborate.

 

The end result? During the film’s premiere week, we organized a special screening in Los Angeles for 200 local 9-1-1 professionals, including several of those she had worked with in preparing for the role.

 

The icing on the cake? The gorgeous, talented Halle Berry herself dropped by to share a few words of appreciation for the people of 9-1-1.

 

Needless to say, our client and everyone in attendance was over the moon. We didn't achieve our dream of getting a “Thank You 9-1-1” message on Access Hollywood or Entertainment Tonight. But we were mentioned in several Hollywood media outlets, and the social media results and bragging rights were huge. After all, how often can you arrange for your client to get a kiss from the likes of Halle Berry?

 

Lessons learned:

-- Be audacious and persistent. Just ask, and you never know what you might achieve.

-- Even huge celebrities will occasionally say “yes” to doing a favor for a good cause. Other VIPs will, too.

 

In fact, since then, we’ve developed a minor specialty in engaging celebrities to say good things about the people of 9-1-1. Check out NENA’s YouTube channel to see a few of the celebrity shout-outs we’ve gathered from Rob Lowe, Jennifer Love Hewitt, and Connie Britton (from the hit TV shows 9-1-1 and 9-1-1: Lone Star); as well as Anthony Anderson, Sean Astin, Luke Wilson, Paula Abdul, and Ice-T, who graced us with the highest-performing NENA social media post ever.