KARE-11 STORY ON JANE HELMKE

MINNEAPOLIS -- Augsburg College Athletic Hall of Famer Jane Helmke '83, managing editor for KARE-11 television, was recently honored with induction into the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Silver Circle by the organization's Upper Midwest Chapter.

According to a story on Helmke on the KARE-11 website, Silver Circle members have displayed superior contributions to the television history and/or NATAS for at least 25 years.

Starting as an intern at then-WTCN in 1983, Helmke has worked in a variety of roles at the television station, starting as a sports producer and occasional reporter/anchor -- and was actually the Twin Cities' first female sports anchor. She was promoted to a special projects producer in 1989 and was named the station's managing editor in 1996. She is also in charge of the KARE-11 website.

She has earned numerous state, regional and national awards for her television work, and has produced two documentaries on girls and women in athletics that have been incorporated into curriculum in Minnesota schools.   She has also been honored as a “Pioneer in Women's Sports” by the Minnesota Lynx WNBA team.

"Most people say when you say driven, you think of someone who's driven for themselves. Jane is driven for other people. She's driven to help others," said John Remes, KARE-11 president and general manager, of Helmke in the story on the KARE-11 website.

A softball player at Augsburg, Helmke was a member of Auggie squads that won the MAIAW Division III state championship three times and earned a second-place regional finish and 13th-place national championship finish in 1982. Helmke was a key player at second base for the Auggies for three seasons. Teams Helmke played on finished 63-27 during her career.

Helmke was also a key “behind-the-scenes” worker, promoting Augsburg's women's athletics program through her work in the college's sports information office, as a student assistant in the women's athletic department, as a student representative to the MAIAW, and as a writer for the Augsburg Now, student newspaper and the yearbook. After graduating, she helped develop the Augsburg Women's Athletic Club (AWAC) for alumni and was one of the first women to serve on the Augsburg A-Club board. Academically, Helmke earned degrees in communication and physical education from Augsburg.

Helmke was inducted into the Augsburg Athletic Hall of Fame in 2000.