Idyllwild Town Crier Online

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From the Idyllwild Town Crier weekly newspaper, 05.08.08 edition.

Town Crier wins seven awards

Saturday night at the Marriott in Riverside, the Inland Southern California Society of Professional Journalists recognized the Idyllwild Town Crier’s consistent effort to work hard and to bring the news to the community. A jury of judges from Florida and Washington honored the paper’s quality writing, insights and poignant photography seven times.

“I’m really pleased about all the TC award winners,” said Town Crier Publisher-Editor, Becky Clark. “I hope Idyllwild is as proud of their little paper as I am.”

Most of the categories had two divisions, based on circulation levels. Yet not only did the Town Crier capture awards in its classification of less than 50,000 subscriptions, it took three first-place awards against all competition, including much larger and countywide papers.

The seven separate awards were the most the Town Crier has collected from one competition. Three first-place plaques, again the most ever, a second-place award and three third-place honors were shared among four staff members and a contributor.

In their first competition, Photographer Jenny Kirchner and former reporter Marcia Gawecki each received the highest accolades from the judges.

Kirchner’s Oct. 4 front-page photograph of the Town Hall soccer games, “Bendin’ Like Beckham,” was recognized as the best sports photo in the whole competition. Kirchner’s natural style easily captures the subject’s feelings and often tells the story without the words. The judges were convinced that she captured the essence of Town Hall’s soccer strategy.

“Not your traditional sports photo winner,” wrote the judges. “Kirchner not only caught a bunch of cute youngsters and a soccer ball, she also highlights one of the amusements of youth soccer. Namely, everyone goes for the ball.”

Since this was her first professional journalistic competition, Kirchner was elated to have earned an award. She was not nervous while they announced third and then second. But when she heard “Idyllwild Town Crier,” she had not expected the ultimate award.

Despite a very red face as she meandered through the tables to accept her plaque, she acknowledged how unexpected and thrilling the honor is. “I’m still wowed by it today,” she admitted Monday.

Similarly, Gawecki’s revelation of the Idyllwild Fire Protection District’s (IFPD) casual snubbing of the Brown Act was selected as the best government or political story of the year.

Gawecki wrote about IFPD’s October closed session on potential litigation without counsel participating in the discussion. Daniel Walters, IFPD attorney, had been evacuated from his San Diego County home at that time.

In addition, IFPD was scheduled to discuss Chief Steve Kunkle’s compensation behind closed door. This violation keeps the public uniformed about one of the commission’s most important decisions. While never admitting the violation, the board authorized a salary increase during its public session at its December meeting.

“It was quite an honor getting first place for that story,” Gawecki said. “I was nervous writing it. The Brown Act is very complex, involving many, many pages of legal information. You have to know it backwards and forwards to criticize a local organization for violating it.”

Clark earned the third first-place plaque for her Oct. 25, 2007, “Out Loud” piece titled, “A Scary Month,” about the fire dangers that are more prevalent in October during recent years. This piece stood out among editorials from much larger papers throughout the region.

“When I heard the second- and third-place winners announced, I figured this wasn’t the category I had entered. So, I was pretty surprised and awed when I heard him first announce ‘Idyllwild Town Crier,’ then my name,” Clark said. “I did not remember knowing that this category had no circulation divisions.”

Clearly surprised at the accolade, Clark was proud that the judges saw quality of writing and insightful thoughts occur in the smaller newspapers.

“Gets right to the heart of the matter, quickly and easily,” noted one judge.

Contributor Betty Bailey received two third-place honors in the competition. Her story, on the emerging recreation of highlining or slacklining in the sports or sports feature category, was published in January 2007. Just two months ago, the New York Times discovered the sport and printed its own story on the exciting but perilous sport.

Bailey earned a second award for her environmental story about the harrowing life of baby eaglets at Lake Hemet.

Assistant Editor J.P. Crumrine garnered the final two awards of the night. His continuing coverage of the Valley Health System sale and politics earned a second place for “beat” reporting.

Judges gave his story about IFPD’s apparent slow response to the Keith Kent incident at Idyllwild Arts a third-place certificate. Both of these honors were in circulation-dependent categories.

This is the third year in the last four that he has earned recognition from his peers.

J.P. Crumrine can be reached at jp@towncrier.com.

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