Kentucky Educational Television will honor Jack and Phyllis Moreland at December’s Martinis & Mistletoe event

Kentucky Educational Television (KET) Northern Kentucky Regional Board members gathered at Fort Mitchell Country Club last month, each with a bottle of top shelf bourbon to contribute to a silent auction package that will be a feature of the Dec. 7th KET Martinis & Mistletoe event at Drees Pavilion, honoring northern Kentucky’s Jack and Phyllis Moreland.

KET NKY Regional Board of the Commonwealth members with select Bourbons that will be featured as part of a silent auction for KET Martinis & Mistletoe event, Dec. 7, at Drees Pavilion. Members from left to right: Rosemary Weathers, Rose Communications; Ben Barlage, GBBN; Jim Uebel, Central Bank; Cathy Stickels, DBL Law; Jack Moreland, Southbank Partners; Elena Ferrero, KET; Katelyn Lincoln, director of philanthropy, KET; and Michele Ripley, president of the Commonwealth Fund at KET.

Once a month, since 1997, representatives from KET, have made their way to Fort Mitchell to meet with members of its regional board at Fort Mitchell Country Club (FMCC). The board’s goal is twofold – it forms relationships that help KET stay in touch with the pulse of the region, its people, events, and happenings, while the board spreads the word about KET and helps raise important funds.

Board member Milly Diehl, who was raised on Edgewood Road in Ft. Mitchell, which she says was most often described as ‘on the third fairway’ of FMCC’s golf course, spent her youth much like her fellow KET board members – Gee Gaither and Carol Bierne – with neighborhood kids at FMCC. She says she was a latecomer to the NKY KET board, having moved after high school to Lexington to attend UK, and not returning to northern Kentucky for 21 years. But her time in Lexington was critical to her relationship with KET.

“It was in Lexington that I came to know, respect, and revere the role of KET in advancing the educational and cultural horizons of Kentuckians,” says Diehl. “In later years, I came to be friends of both Len and Lil [Press], and to fully appreciate the genius that built one of the foremost public education television organizations in the country. So, being a board member is like coming full circle.”

O. Leonard Press was the founder of KET, and the driving force behind making KET a nationally recognized model for educational and public affairs programming. Press died in July at the age of 97.

The Martinis & Mistletoes event is the NKY board’s annual event in the region. This year the event honors Jack and Phyllis Moreland. Jack, who is president of Southbank Partners and the Newport Southbank Bridge Company, had a long career in education as a public high school teacher, principal, and superintendent; interim president of Northern Kentucky University; and as a top Kentucky education official who helped merge the state’s community colleges into the system that is now known as the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS).

KET values the board’s role in making an impact in the region.

“As Kentucky’s only statewide television network, KET further engages Northern Kentucky and the surrounding region via the Northern Kentucky Regional Board – a dedicated group of opinion leaders and business influencers who are pivotal in KET’s on-the-ground approach to making a deep impact for Northern Kentucky,” says Katelyn Lincoln, KET director of philanthropy. “Their annual gala, Martinis & Mistletoe, is entering its 12^th year and has raised more than $355,000 for KET programs and services.”

In June, KET productions and programs received seven Regional Emmy Award nominations from the Ohio Valley Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. In 2007, the network received an Emmy for Best Regional Documentary on its three-hour documentary history of northern Kentucky’s Boone, Kenton, and Campbell counties – the first long-form documentary on the region.

“We hope everyone will join us on Wednesday, December 11 at the Drees Pavilion in Covington as we honor Jack and Phyllis Moreland,” says Lincoln.

Visit www.ket.org/martinis for more information and to purchase tickets.