(L) Kevin Michalowski (R) Mark C. Smith
The Past Presidents of the Association of Great Lakes Outdoor Writers presented their Golden Glow Awards at an awards ceremony held during the 63rd annual meeting of the Association of Great Lakes Outdoor Writers in La Crosse, Wisconsin on September 17, 2019. The Golden Glow Awards are the highest honor awarded at their annual conference.
The Past Presidents of the Association of Great Lakes Outdoor Writers presented their Golden Glow Awards at an awards ceremony held during the 63rd annual meeting of the Association of Great Lakes Outdoor Writers in La Crosse, Wisconsin on September 17, 2019. The Golden Glow Awards are the highest honor awarded at their annual conference.
Honored in the Corporate Category was the United States Concealed Carry Association (USCCA). USCCA was founded in 2004 on a kitchen table in West Bend, WI. Tim Schmidt wanted to learn more about personal protection and, finding nothing he thought would help him, he created Concealed Carry Magazine. The first edition was 32 pages and drew a few subscribers. Over the next several years the organization slowly grew. In 2012, Schmidt decided to change the direction of the company and hired AGLOW past-president Kevin Michalowski as Executive Editor of Concealed Carry Magazine and Ken Wangler as Creative Director. The team immediately revamped the look of the magazine and, behind an aggressive internet marketing campaign, the circulation grew from 48,000 to more than 100,000 in less than a year.
One of the first things Michalowski did was have USCCA join AGLOW. In the intervening seven years, the USCCA has continued to grow, topping more than 300,000 member subscribers and Concealed Carry Magazine has become recognized as one of the finest publications in the nation, earning multiple awards from the Niche Publishing Council, the Milwaukee Press Club and being named a finalist in several award categories by both FOLIO and the American Society of Magazine Editors the past few years. What you might not realize about that last statement is this: Both of those groups are openly anti-gun, but Concealed Carry Magazine is so well-done that those groups have looked past their bias to take note of the quality of this publication. It is competing with likes of National Geographic, Time Magazine and The New Yorker.
The USCCA Content Team has now grown to 21 members. They provide outstanding free information on gun laws and legal issues and provide member benefits to ensure that responsibly armed Americans get the best possible protection.
For their constant support of responsible gun owners and their commitment to outdoor communicators, USCCA was awarded the Golden Glow Corporate Award