Lincoln, Neb.(Oct. 8, 2025) —The Association of Great Lakes Outdoor Writers (AGLOW) Golden Glow Excellence-in-Craft Award is a hallmark of excellence in the outdoor communications arena. Each year, AGLOW’s Council of Past Presidents meticulously reviews nominations and selects an individual or organization that has made exceptional contributions. This prestigious honor isn’t handed out lightly. It reflects years of hard work, dedication, and impact within the community.
During the Annual AGLOW conference last month in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Mark Smith was awarded the Excellence-in-Craft Golden Glow as a testament to his award-winning contributions to outdoor communications in writing, publishing, radio, television, and electronic media.
Mark Smith’s infatuation with the outdoors started as a boy, where the Michigander by birth and Indianan by residence hunted, fished, and trapped his way through adolescence. Whether it was time with the local conservation club, the archery club, or the fly-tying club, Smith was involved or leading the way. Mark’s career in outdoor communications began with humble beginnings. After graduating college from Indiana University and the Worsham College of Mortuary Science, Mark with his brother Brian brainstormed the “Raghorn News,” a publication first directed to the eleven members of their deer hunting camp. The periodical was so well done, it started growing in circulation month by month by word of mouth. In time, the modest deer camp periodical dream became “Indiana Outdoor News,” the largest outdoor newsprint publication in Indiana with around 80,000 in monthly distribution. Smith served as President, Treasurer, and Co-Publisher for Indiana Outdoor News for 20 years.
Not content to merely write, Mark branched into the multi-media landscape of outdoor communication. When Raghorn News took off, Mark and brother Brian began a weekly radio program called “Raghorn News Radio Network” and eventually started a weekly live television program “Indiana Outdoor News Television.” Mark created a corporate umbrella of Raghorn, Incorporated, which produced and hosted outdoor television programs that aired on Outdoor Channel and Versus. Raghorn, Inc. included such popular programs as “Icemen”, “Raghorn Adventures”, “Wild Adventures”, “Lightfield Wild Adventures”, and “Angling the Great Lakes”. These television shows were often nominated and awarded various national television awards, were highly decorated within the AGLOW Awards-in-Craft annual awards, as well as being recognized for their excellence by the Hoosier Outdoor Writers Association.
In addition to a lifetime of achievement in writing, photography, radio, and television, Mr. Smith left his mark on the AGLOW organization, serving several committee assignments, board of director terms, and serving as the organization’s Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer. Mark also wrapped up a ten-year run from 2014 to 2024 as the organization’s Executive Director, helping the organization navigate organizational and industry challenges unique to the outdoor space and outdoors media as well as an international pandemic that was harsh on outdoor travel and tourism. Smith’s leadership allowed AGLOW to thrive while other professional outdoor communication organizations withered.
AGLOW Chairman of the Board and Past President Trent Marsh reflected on his time working with Smith: “Over the last decade, we’ve seen organizations similar to AGLOW falter and fail altogether. It’s because of the leadership that Mark has shown and decades of dedication to the industry that AGLOW remains the strongest among outdoor communication organizations. To recognize all of his professional accomplishments in the hunting and shooting space would take volumes. We have been blessed to have had Mark Smith lead our AGLOW family and to care so deeply and richly for our individual members.”
“I never, ever expected to be among the greats who have received this award,” reflected Smith on his Golden Glow Excellence in Craft accolade. “I am truly humbled to even be considered, let alone awarded. It is more a reflection of the quality of my peers within AGLOW; if you hang around the best people in the outdoor industry, good things happen. Whatever I was able to accomplish in the outdoor industry was because of the influence of those I was around within AGLOW and the great innovators that helped boost me. This award is truly an honor.”
For more information about AGLOW and its many opportunities, visit aglowoutdoors.com.
About AGLOW:
Since the first conference in 1956, AGLOW has grown into a premier organization for outdoor content creators of all types, outdoor brands, and the CVB and destinations that make our wild adventures possible. Founded as a regional organization, AGLOW has grown into a group with international impact and membership. AGLOW members come from almost 40 states and multiple Canadian provinces. AGLOW members include writers, podcasters, YouTubers, and photographers, brands from the shooting, fishing, and hunting categories, and destinations across the country. AGLOW – Regional Name, Global Impact.
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