(July 18, 2014) On Saturday, July 26, WBNG members and friends will gather at St. Ignatius Church (740 N. Calvert St., two blocks from the Sun) in Baltimore to host our annual Guild Service and Front Page Awards, which recognize and honor hard-working union activists and journalists.
2013 Guild Service Awards
Member of the Year (Dan de Souza Memorial Award)
Bruce Kaufman (Bloomberg-BNA)
Shop Steward of the Year (Nadine Grinder Memorial Award)
Lori Richards (UFCW)
Unit Officer of the Year
Stephen (Rocky) Richardson, Nikita Stewart (Washington Post)
Organizer of the Year
Mo-Yain Tham (Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network)
Bargaining Unit of the Year
UFCW
Outstanding Service to the Local (Connie Knox Memorial Award)
Ken May (Bloomberg-BNA)
Customer Service Professional of the Year (Darlene Meyer Memorial Award)
Monique Carr (Baltimore Sun)
2013 Front Page Awards
A comprehensive Baltimore Sun series on problems at the Department of Veterans Affairs – which ran months before the rest of the national media even discovered the story – won the Grand Prize for writing and reporting in 2013.
The award judges were unanimous in their praise of the completeness, timeliness and quality of Sun reporter Yvonne Wenger’s “VA Falls Short Of Helping Vets” series, which also took the Guild’s Morton Mintz Award for Public Service Reporting.
Wenger will receive her honor, which includes a cash prize, at The Guild’s Front Page Awards ceremony. The other grand prize, for Photography, went to Sun photographer Algerina Perna for her picture story, “Linda’s Journey.” The grand prize also includes a cash prize. Perna’s pictures accompanied her feature story, with the same headline, which won that writing category.
The Sun, Catholic News Service and Bloomberg-Bureau of National Affairs dominated the awards. The Guild represents those publications, the Washington Post, and workers at 26 other newspapers, media outlets, union staffs, associations and magazines in Washington, Baltimore, York, Pa., Chicago and, in one case, worldwide.
Other Front Page winners and honorable mentions, among the 124 entries, were:
Sports Reporting: Mike Klingaman, Sun, “Beloved Player Known For His Grit And His Wit Went On To A Second Career As A Storyteller: Artie Donovan, 1994-2013.”
Feature Writing: Algerina Perna, Sun, “Linda’s Journey.”
Morton Mintz Award for Public Service Reporting: Yvonne Wenger, Sun, “VA Falls Short Of Helping Vets” series.
News Analysis: Dennis Sadowski, Catholic News Service, “To Frack Or Not To Frack.” Honorable mention: Mark Pattison, Catholic News Service, “The Economic And Moral Dimensions Of The Debt Ceiling Debate.”
Non-Daily Specialized Technical Reporting: Steven Burkholder, Bloomberg-BNA Correspondents, “Financial Reporting In Japan.” Honorable mention: Julie Steinberg, Bloomberg-BNA, “Primary Jurisdiction Argument Often Raised In Food Label Suits.”
National News Reporting: Kevin Rector, Yvonne Wenger, Carrie Wells, Sun, “Please Tell Me You’re OK.” Honorable mention: Yvonne Wenger, Sun, “Wage Theft On The Rise As Economy Flounders.”
Labor And Business Reporting: Meredith Cohn and Andrea K. Walker, Sun, “System Failure, Technixl Problems, Feuding Contractors. Those Issues – And More – Plagued The Launch Of Obamacare In Maryland.” Honorable mention: Meredith Cohn, Sun, “A Remedy And A Rebirth: Badly Wounded And Economically Drained By Scandal, St. Joseph Hospital Follows A Prescription For A New, Brighter Future.”
Criticism: Chris Kaltenbach, Sun, “Honesty, Insight Flow In Porterfield’s Latest Film.”
Local News Reporting: Justin Fenton, Justin George, Sun, “At Summer’s End, Weary City Grapples With The Toll.” Honorable mentions: Andrea K. Walker, Sun, “Approaching Birth, Preparing For Death,” and Ian Duncan,Sun, “Fall Of Online Drug Bazaar Began With Tip In Maryland.”
Picture Story: Algerina Perna, Sun, “Linda’s Journey.”
Sports Photography: Kim Hairston, Sun, “Taylor Cummings.”
Local News Photography: Karl Merton Ferron, Sun, “Nuns Heading For Mass.” Honorable mention: Algerina Perna, Sun, “From The Rooftops, Fire Fighters Battle.”
Portrait Photography: Amy Davis, Sun, “Hairspray.” Honorable mention: Kim Hairston, Sun, “Timothy Devine, The Waterman.”
Feature Photography: Kim Hairston, Sun, “Stepping High.”
Advertising Design: Michelle Schneider, Bloomberg-BNA, “Holiday Practices.”