2007 Front Page, Guild Service Awards

Union members at the Baltimore Sun were chosen grand prize winners in the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild’s annual Front Page Awards contest.

Gadi Dechter and Greg Garland of the Sun won the Bill Pryor Memorial Grand Prize for Writing, with the “Bowling Brook” series, which also captured the Morton Mintz Award for Investigative Reporting. Sun photographer Lloyd Fox won the Bill Pryor Memorial Grand Prize for Photography for his photo, “Cal Ripken,” which also claimed first prize in the Portrait Photography category. The grand prizes are named for a former leader of the Washington Newspaper Guild, so named before it merged with the Baltimore Newspaper Guild in 1964.

In the concurrent Guild Service Awards, which honor rank-and-file leadership, two Guild members from the Sun, Michael Hill and Angela Kuhl, were picked as Members of the Year. The Sun Guild unit also took the “Build the Guild” award for Bargaining Unit of the Year.

The Front Page Award grand prizes and the Guild Service Awards carry cash prizes. Activists at the local’s American Nurses Association unit claimed the lion’s share of the other Guild Service Award prizes, with Sheila Lindsay named one of two winners of the Shop Steward of the Year award, and Terry Bowditch named WBNG Unit Officer of the Year. Also at the ANA unit, Cecilia Byrd, Barbara Kennedy, and Hope Walker were the top picks for the Customer Service Professionals of the Year award.

Front Page and Guild Service award-winners will be honored Monday, May 5, at a ceremony at St. Ignatius Catholic Church, 805 N. Calvert St., Baltimore. A reception is set for 6:30 p.m., with the conferral of awards slated to begin at 7:15 p.m.

The Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild has sponsored the Front Page and Guild Service awards for more than a half-century to recognize the top contributions made by Guild members and employees at workplaces covered by a Newspaper Guild contract.

The Baltimore Sun swept the photography categories and was one honorable mention shy of sweeping the design categories. Multiple award winners to be recognized May 5:

Lloyd Fox (Sun), first prize in Portrait Photography and honorable mention in Sports Photography.

Greg Garland (Sun), first prize in Labor and Business Reporting and honorable mention for Investigative Reporting.

Kim Hairston (Sun), honorable mentions in Feature Photography and Picture Story.

Brian Henderson (Sun), first prizes and honorable mentions in both Illustration Design and Page Design.

Michael Hill (Sun), first prize for Criticism and co-winner of the Daniel deSouza Memorial Award for Member of the Year (the award is named for a Washington Guild Newspaper president who died in a Christmas Eve car crash while delivering toys to the children of striking Guild members in Newark, N.J.)

Jamie Smith Hopkins (Sun), honorable mentions for Public Service Reporting and for Labor and Business Reporting.

Chiaki Kawajiri (Sun), first prize and honorable mention in Picture Story.

Jed Kirschbaum (Sun), first prizes in Feature Photography and Local News Photography, and honorable mentions in National News Photography and Portrait Photography.

Mike Klingman (Sun), first prize and two honorable mentions for Sports Reporting.

Rona Kobell (Sun), honorable mentions for Investigative Reporting and Local News Reporting.

Angela Kuhl (Sun), co-winner of the Member of the Year award and honorable mention in Advertising Design.

Monica Lopossay (Sun), first prizes in National News Photography and Sports Photography, and honorable mentions in Feature Photography, Local News Photography, Sports Photography, Portrait Photography, and National News Photography.

Jeanne Maglaty (Washington Post), three honorable mentions for Headline Writing.

Bus G. Sentementes (Sun), first prize and honorable mention for Local News Reporting.

Stephanie Shapiro (Sun), honorable mentions for International News Reporting and for Criticism.

Front Page Award judging was done by a team of Washington-area media professionals. The Guild Service Awards were judged on the basis of nomination letters reviewed by the local's top two officers and its executive director.

The complete list of Front Page Award and Guild Service Award winners:

Front Page Awards

Bill Pryor Memorial Grand Prize for Writing: Gadi Dechter and Greg Garland, Baltimore Sun, “Bowling Brook” series
Bill Pryor Memorial Grand Prize for Photography : Lloyd Fox, Baltimore Sun, “Cal Ripken”

Writing
Bernie Harrison Memorial Award for Commentary: Yvonne Scruggs-Leftwich, National Labor College, “Bigger, Uglier Story of Addicted Women Goes Untold” and “HIV-AIDS and Black Women? Time for Fireworks”
(Honorable Mention: Michael Dresser, Baltimore Sun, “Road Rage” series)

Criticism: Michael Hill, Baltimore Sun: “Grief: On the Printed Page and, Suddenly, In Your Life”
(Honorable Mention: Glenn McNatt, Baltimore Sun: “Molding Matisse”)
(Honorable Mention: Stephanie Shapiro, Baltimore Sun, “Debating the Efforts of August Wilson’s Successes”)

Feature Writing (tie): Ruben Castaneda, Washington Post, “Cracked” and Jonathan Pitts, Baltimore Sun, “Alive With the Dead”
(Honorable Mention: Chris Kallenbach and John Woestendiek, Baltimore Sun, “Going Far”)
(Honorable Mention: Michael Sragow, Baltimore Sun, “Mr. Moore Goes to Washington ”)

Headline Writing (Honorable Mentions only): Jeanne Maglaty, Washington Post, “Jeans Therapy,” “Heirs Aberrant,” and “A High Scoring Look at the Harlem Renaissance”

International News Reporting: Robert Little, Baltimore Sun, “Feel-Good Diplomacy”
(Honorable Mention: Barb Fraze, Catholic News Service, “Catholics in China ” series)
(Honorable Mention: Stephanie Shapiro, Baltimore Sun, “Getting In at Last on India’s Boom”)

Morton Mintz Award for Investigative Reporting: Gadi Dechter and Greg Garland, Baltimore Sun, “Bowling Brook” series
(Honorable Mention: Rona Kobell and Greg Garland, Baltimore Sun, “Oystermen Reap Federal Bounty”)

Frank C. Porter Memorial Award for Labor and Business Reporting: Justin Fenton and Greg Garland, Baltimore Sun, “Minor League, Major Troubles”
(Honorable Mention: Jamie Smith Hopkins, Baltimore Sun, “$11.30”)

Local News Reporting: Gus G. Sentementes, Baltimore Sun, “Violence Hits Too Close to Home”
(Honorable Mention: Gus G. Sentementes and Annie Linsley, Baltimore Sun, “Gang Problem Hemorrhaging”)
(Honorable Mention: Larry Carson, Baltimore Sun, “Out of Townhouse, But Not By Choice”)
(Honorable Mention: Rona Kobell, Baltimore Sun, “Troubled Tributary”)

National News Reporting: Fred Schulte and Doug Donovan, Baltimore Sun, “The ’Bupe’ Fix” series
(Honorable Mention: Robert Little, Baltimore Sun, “Justice Capsized?”)

Public Service Reporting: Jonathan Bor, Baltimore Sun, “An Epidemic’s Unseen Course”
(Honorable Mention: Lorraine Mirabella and Jamie Smith Hopkins, Baltimore Sun, “City Share of Profit Sharing Is Zero”)

Sports Reporting: Mike Klingaman, Baltimore Sun, “Avoiding the Rush”
( Honorable Mention: Mike Klingaman, Baltimore Sun, “’66-’67 Knights Still Hold Court” and “Ravens’ Big O”)

Photography
Feature Photography: Jed Kirschbaum, Baltimore Sun, “Halloween, I Presume”
(Honorable Mention: Kim Hairston, Baltimore Sun, “Foxhounds”)
(Honorable Mention: Monica Lopossay, Baltimore Sun, “Tristan”)

Local News Photography: Jed Kirschbaum, Baltimore Sun, “Guardsman's Farewell”
(Honorable Mention: Christopher T. Assaf, Baltimore Sun, “Virginia Tech Vigil”)
(Honorable mention: Monica Lopossay, Baltimore Sun, “Darlene Dixon” and “Murder”)

National News Photography: Monica Lopossay, Baltimore Sun, "Poverty in Port-Au-Prince "
(Honorable Mention: Monica Lopossay, Baltimore Sun, “Waiting in Line”)
(Honorable Mention: Jed Kirschbaum, Baltimore Sun, “Betty Ford” and “Burning the Chometz”)

Picture Story: Chiaki Kawajiri, Baltimore Sun, “All in the Family”
(Honorable Mention: Chiaki Kawajiri, Baltimore Sun, “Scars of the Heart”)
(Honorable Mention: Kim Hairston, Baltimore Sun, “Price of Survival”)

Portrait Photography: Lloyd Fox, Baltimore Sun, “Cal Ripken”
(Honorable Mention: Jed Kirschbaum, Baltimore Sun, “Naomi Wallace”)
(Honorable Mention: Monica Lopossay, Baltimore Sun, “ Tattoo Museum ”)

Sports Photography: Monica Lopossay, Baltimore Sun, “Jumping Jacks”
(Honorable Mention: Monica Lopossay, Baltimore Sun, “Joy Hobbs”)
(Honorable Mention: Lloyd Fox, Baltimore Sun, “Grady Sizemore”)

Design
Advertising Design: Judy Boyle, Baltimore Sun, “Baltimore Dates.net”
(Honorable Mention: Felicia Hung, Baltimore Sun, “Maryland Non-Profits”)
(Honorable Mention: Angela Kuhl, Baltimore Sun, “Dental Aesthetics”)

Illustration Design: Brian Henderson, Baltimore Sun, “Finding the Deals”
(Honorable Mention: Brian Henderson, Baltimore Sun, “Tax Nightmare” and “Zombie Debt”)
(Honorable Mention: Emily Thompson, Catholic News Service, “Turn of the New Year”)

Page Design: Brian Henderson, Baltimore Sun, “Grand Illusion”
(Honorable Mention: Brian Henderson, Baltimore Sun, “Fade to Black”)

Web Site Design: Timothy Thew, Baltimore Sun, “Save Your Sun”

No grand prize was given this year for Design, nor were awards conferred for National News Reporting, Non-Daily Specialized and Technical Reporting, Bargaining Unit Publication, Marketing and Promotion Design, or News Graphic Design.

Guild Service Awards

Member of the Year: Mike Hill (Baltimore Sun) and Angela Kuhl (Baltimore Sun)
 
Organizer of the Year: Rick Weiss (Washington Post)

Unit Officer of the Year: Mary Esslinger (Catholic News Service) and Shelia Lindsay (American Nurses Association)
 
Shop Steward of the Year: Terry Bowditch (American Nurses Association)

Customer Service Professionals of the Year: Cecilia Byrd, Hope Walker, and Barbara Kennedy (American Nurses Association)
 
Bargaining Unit of the Year: Baltimore Sun