Orange County Honored with Two 2025 VACo Achievement Awards By: Orange County Communications Department
Thanks to the innovative efforts of our staff, Orange County continues to enjoy recognition at the state and national levels. Earlier this month, we were honored to be awarded two 2025 Virginia Association of Counties (VACo) Achievement Awards! This competitive award process evaluates programs from the preceding year (meaning 2024 programs were eligible for recognition). We’re proud to report that our Friday Night Fly-In Airport Movie Night and the Youth- Driven “Smoke Makes You Broke” Campaign were recognized as winners out of a record 155 entries received by VACo!
Around 300 attendees visited the Orange County Airport on April 26, 2024 for the facility's first ever movie night! Staff were inspired to offer this event as a way to increase public awareness of the Airport and to foster connections between the community and a variety of County departments and partner agencies. Planes: Fire & Rescue was chosen as the feature because it helped illustrate the important role played by public safety agencies and how airports can support that mission. In fact, just a few months prior to the movie night, the Orange County Airport served as a base of operations for out-of- state firefighting aircraft that were in Virginia to assist with the containment of the Quaker Run Fire in neighboring Madison County. Along with the movie, activities included interactive displays and vehicles brought by local first responders, a demonstration aircraft and flight simulator from the Virginia Department of Aviation, an aircraft ID worksheet using Hubert Compton’s collection of models on display in the terminal, paper airplane creation and a subsequent flight contest, and more! The event was a great success. Unfortunately, weather forced the cancellation of the 2025 event, but staff plan to bring the event back next year!
Our second 2025 Achievement Award recognized the Orange County Youth Council and their work with our Office on Youth to craft an awareness campaign designed to prevent and reduce underage tobacco use. “Smoke Makes You Broke” utilized specialized messaging and visuals designed by youth, for youth. The County’s Youth Council is made up of young residents in grades 6-11. Participation in the Council helps them gain a firsthand look into the functions of their local, state, and even federal government; provides them with an opportunity to help the community through service projects; and gives them a platform through which they can advocate to local officials regarding causes important to them. In recent years, many of their efforts have focused on youth tobacco use prevention. They have written letters to legislators and drafted resolutions to recommend stricter laws regarding the sale of tobacco and nicotine products to underage users, they have physically cleaned up the streets by conducting tobacco-focused litter cleanups, and they have helped provided resources like “This is Quitting” to our students and residents. Smoke Makes You Broke was a natural evolution of this long- term effort, which drew inspiration from the Virginia ABC’s Sticker Shock program. After designing the stickers and window clings which reminded potential purchasers of the potential health hazards and legal implications of underage tobacco use, they sought permission to place them at establishments that sold tobacco products. “Anything we can do to educate the youth on the
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OCI August 2025
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