O-R editorial staff wins statewide awards
The Observer-Reporter editorial staff has won statewide awards for writing and photos, and was also nominated for Press Club of Western Pennsylvania Golden Quill awards.
Winning Pennsylvania News Media Association Keystone Press Awards were:
- Celeste Van Kirk, photojournalist, who received first place for her sports photo, “Hurdling Competition”; second place for her news photo, “Uptown Terror,” and second place for her feature photo, “Veteran Saluted”;
- News staff, second place, ongoing news coverage, “Uptown Terror,” for coverage of the July building collapse on North Main Street, Washington;
- Rick Shrum, staff writer, second place, personality profile, for “Rumble’s Rescue,” which told the story of a man who rescued a woman from a dog attack;
- Liz Rogers, executive editor, second place, business or consumer story, for “Taking the Cake,” about Chatty Cupcakes’ vending business;
- News staff, ongoing news coverage, “Uptown Terror,” for coverage of building collapse.
Receiving Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors awards were:
- Staff, first place, for Best Spot News Coverage, for “Uptown Terror”;
- Van Kirk, first place, Best Spot News Photo, for “Uptown Terror”;
- Rogers, second place, Best Business Writing, for “Taking the Cake;”
- Eleanor Bailey, sportswriter for The Almanac, second place, for Best Sports Story, for “Senior League is a Hit,” about the South Hills Men’s Softball League.
Nominated for the Press Club of Western Pennsylvania Golden Quill Awards were:
- Staff, enterprise/investigative category, for “Drugs, Overdoses and Addiction,” for ongoing coverage of the opioid epidemic in Washington and Greene counties;
- Scott Beveridge, staff writer, general feature, for “Dropping Duckpins in Donora,” about a duckpin bowling alley;
- Natalie Reid Miller, Living section editor, general feature, for “This Kid Should Have Everything,” a mother’s account of her son who took his own life;
- Rogers, business/technology/consumer, for “Taking the Cake”;
- Beveridge, environment, for “Marianna Dam Removal Project Outlined”;
- Park Burroughs, retired executive editor, for “Pay or Die: A Story of the Black Hand,” a seven-part serial that chronicled the rise and fall in Washington County of what may be considered the precursor to the Mafia in the United States;
- Van Kirk, for spot news photo, for “They Didn’t Have to Shoot Him,” and for sports photo, “Cold, Hard Fact”;
- Staff, for digital spot/breaking news coverage, for “Uptown Terror.”
The winners of the Golden Quills will be announced May 24 at Rivers Casino, Pittsburgh. The Keystone Press and PAPME awards will be presented June 1 and 2 in Gettysburg.