Bonnie Carroll's Life Bites

"Letting go is not always quick or silent, there is something a heaviness that lingers for a while. A knot tied long ago will bring up old memories as it unravels and is finally unbound. Your work is to stop avoiding or fighting. To accept, to feel and allow yourself to be."

As the Publisher of Bonnie Carroll’s Life Bites News, and the editor for “Successful Aging” Newspaper/Newsletter, in the fall of 2022 I was so honored to be presented with an Association for Women in Communications Clarion Award at the 2022 October AWC National Conference in Kansas City, Missouri, along with over fifty other national award recipients including the International Matrix winner, Tara Gatewood, and the International Crystal Award winner Wolters Kluter.

Judith Smith-Meyer, Senior Communications Manager of Foodbank of Santa Barbara County, who was unable to attend the conference, won a Clarion Award in the Public Relations Category for her Foodbank Annual Report. These coveted awards are judged and selected by a panel of eleven Association for Women in Communication judges from around the country. The awards were personally presented at the Clarion Awards Dinner in The Fontaine Hotel by AWC National Chair Anita K. Parran.

Anita K. Parran, AWC National Chair presenting Clarion Award 2022 to Bonnie Carroll, Publisher/Editor Bonnie Carroll's Life Bites News for Editor of Successful Aging Newspaper

About the Clarion Award – An honor highly sought after by both women and men, the Clarions -- named for the medieval trumpet known for its clarity—symbolize excellence in clear, concise communications. Clarion recipients represent media companies large and small, leading corporations, small businesses, and nonprofit associations and institutions.

Started in 1972, the Clarion honor excellence in more than 100 categories across all communications disciplines, including advertising & marketing, audiovisual productions, books & CDs, brochures, custom & special publications, education, fund development, magazines, major news events, newsletters, newspapers, online media, photography, graphics & design communications, public relations, radio, and television.

In 2019, Carolyn Jabs, Santa Barbara’s AWC Past President presented Ms. Carroll, Publisher of Bonnie Carroll’s Life Bites News, with the Member of the Year Award during the group’s December Holiday Celebration held at Uncorked Wine Tasting & Kitchen. During the presentation Mrs. Jabs said, “Bonnie is an exceptional communicator who spontaneously uses her skills on behalf of our organization. A consummate professional, she takes advantage of new technologies to tell the stories of places and people that capture her attention.

Under the banner of her monthly award-winning online lifestyle magazine, Ms. Carroll has also produced her own radio show. She has continuously contributed to a variety of national and international travel and lifestyle publications as well as local publications, including LivingBetter50.com, GettingOnTravel.com, Luxe Beat Magazine, Food & Beverage International Magazine, Santa Barbara Daily Sound, Montecito Messenger, Food & Home Magazine, SB Seasons Magazine, Noozhawk.com, Edhat.com as well as Beverly Hills Times Magazine, Beverly Hills News, Beverly Hills Courier, Malibu Times, Santa Monica News and The Brentwood Media Publications, while also doing radio/TV appearances. She began her career in communications in the 60s as a television, stage, and film actress in Chicago, where she also did commercial voice over work.

In 2004 she was presented a proclamation by Mayor of Beverly Hills Mark Egerman for planning, implementation and securing partnership participation from Ka’anapali Beach Resort Association for the highly successful Beverly Hills Farmer’s Market 10^th Anniversary Chili Cook-off and Hawaiian Festival, as well as reporting as a food writer, food columnist and radio show host of “Bonnie Carroll’s Life Bites News” CRN radio show.

She is happy to serve as a judge at prestigious food festivals and was a coordinator for the first Basil Festival in Malibu, Coffee Festival in tandem with the Beverly Hills Classic Car Show, and first Taste of Malibu in tandem with the Malibu Art Show. As an appointed member of the LAOOC public relations commission and owner of BCPR a boutique public relations firm, she not only represented celebrity owned restaurants, but she was selected to co-manage the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee’s press operations at Pepperdine University and traveled with the Gold Medalists on a historic tour following the Olympics, where she marched in a New York ticker-tape parade with Mayor Koch and the athletes.

She served on the executive board of the Malibu Chamber of Commerce, where she was a public relations consultant for Marmalade Café, Bambu, Mobay, God Mother Café & Catering and others, chairing the Malibu Ambassadors Committee. Ms. Carroll currently aids local organizations with their publicity needs.

As a photojournalist, she has published stories of her travel adventures around the world and hopes to cruise Antarctica on the newly launched Viking Ship as well as go air ballooning over Cappadocia, Turkey. Her first children’s book was published in 2002 and she has plans to release a second book in 2023-24.

Ms. Carroll works and lives in Santa Barbara, is the mother of four, grandmother of three and great grandmother of two little boys, and many of them have collaborated with her on projects over the years or have just provided great inspiration for past and current endeavors and travels.

The Association for Women in Communications (AWC) is the premier organization for empowering women with the strength, support, and tools for elevating a career and becoming an agent of change in the industry. AWC is a network of like-minded women who are genuinely invested in helping members reach their potential and is a strong national network of communicators in a broad range of disciplines. For Santa Barbara membership information visit: www.awcsb.org.

Thank you AWC for this honor and thank you to media friends in Santa Barbara who were kind enough to share this good news!