Iowa PBS receives Public Media Award nomination for digital series Wander & Wonder

The National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA) today announced the finalists for the 53rd Annual Public Media Awards. Each year, the Public Media Awards celebrate NETA members' finest work in community engagement, content, education and marketing/communications.

Iowa PBS’s digital series Wander & Wonder is a finalist in the Community Engagement — Kids & Family category. The series was established in the summer of 2020 as a means of reaching families whose summer plans were disrupted due to COVID-19, encouraging them to use local and national PBS KIDS resources to keep their children entertained and educated throughout the summer. 

“We created a series of activity videos featuring local Iowa children doing fun activities that also taught them science, history and social-emotional concepts in an age-appropriate manner,” said Iowa PBS Director of Emerging Media Taylor Shore. “Families watched our episodes, participated in online conversations and sought out our interactive, socially distanced activities, like geocaching.”

Award winners will be announced during the 53rd Annual Public Media Awards Gala presented by Georgia Public Broadcasting on January 25, 2022, as part of the NETA Conference and CPB Public Media Thought Leader Forum.

“For the third year in a row, the Public Media Awards received a record number of entries. The work that stations are achieving is inspiring,” said NETA president Eric Hyyppa. He continued, “One judge shared with us, ‘Wow — this was a hard category. So very many compelling stories — all terrific and all hard to choose. These stations stepped up their game over the last year and how proud I am to be a part of the PBS family.’ I couldn’t say it any better. Congratulations to all of the 53rd Annual Public Media Award finalists!”

Awards were judged by a group of expert panelists from within the public media system, as well as industry professionals working outside of public media. Except for the overall excellence categories, stations competed within their appropriate divisions based on their station size. More information, including a full list of nominees, can be found at netaonline.org.