Hoosier State Press Association - The Indiana Publisher - Better Newspaper Contest
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/222183
Division 1 Headline Writing/Category 7 First place Giving presents of mine; Troubled bridge over waters; Hurry up and weight Scott Slade The Times-Post (Pendleton) Comments: Clever reworkings of familiar phrases make for some nice headlines. Good job. Second place Up in arms; One shell of a good time; Happy New Year, baby! Hendricks County Flyer (Avon) Comments: Funny, lighthearted headers. I particularly like "One shell of a good time." Third place New LES Garden Club grabs attention of hundreds of sprouts; Feast wasn't built in a day; Amid criticism of pizza comes crust of hope Scott Slade The Times-Post (Pendleton) Comments: Quippy headlines that don't read as if the writer is too hard. Thumbs up. Best Short Feature Story/Category 8 First place Long distance love (and the race to end youth homelessness) Hannah Fleace The Loogootee Tribune Comments: Great lede with personal story from homeless youth. Writer let runner tell the story, subhead breaks make for easy reading flow. Well-done by all parties involved. Second place Story of hope inspires Sue Carpenter The Garrett Clipper Comments: Writer lets mom tell story. Good feature elements. Would have preferred the news reporting on the meeting come in form of separate sidebar, but overall nice feature. Third place Tree farm marks last Christmas Wade Coggeshall Hendricks County Flyer (Avon) Comments: Homey, small town, personal – all great elements for feature writing. Good job. Best Profile Feature/Category 9 First place A strong will to live Bonnie Hackmann Ferdinand News Comments: None given Second place Alie's triumph Lisa Hoppenjans Ferdinand News Comments: None given Third place Twenty-seven shades of grey Lisa Hoppenjans Ferdinand News Comments: None given • Giving presents of mine • Troubled bridge over waters • Hurry up and weight Scott Slade The Times-Post (Pendleton) Long distance love (and the race to end youth homelessness) Hannah Fleace The Loogootee Tribune "Hello. My name is Martha. This is my second time coming to Safe Place. The first time I came here was because my mother was allowing my uncle to live at my house. He was a registered sex offender. In June of 2010 I was molested by my uncle. My mother's home also has various issues: we did not have running water, no electricity, and we had farm animals living with us. ... I stayed in a place with my sister. I lived there for two weeks. We had a dispute which caused me to end up in a mental institution. I was then placed in foster care. I was moved to one home and stayed there for a year and eight months. I was unable to be adopted there, so I was moved to another foster home. I felt very unsafe there. I cut myself a lot. So I decided to run away. I went to my best friend's house. The next day I came here to Safe Place and plan to be here until the state can find me a new home. Wish me luck." Meet Martha. She is just one of the 2.8 million teens who find themselves homeless each year. These teens are considered an invisible population because they don't fly a sign, sleep on the streets, or beg for money. They are the kids in the next desk over, the short-stop on the baseball team, or the drum major; they're normal in all ways but one, they don't have a home. These kids are constantly on the run, but they aren't the only ones. Going the Extra Mile Jordan Connell is running across America. He started in New York City and will be ending Santa Monica, Calif. His aim has been to run 40 miles a day, 5 days a week, a total trip that will take him 109 days. However, this run is much more than a Forrest Gump reenactment or an overzealous workout; Jordan is running to raise awareness for youth homelessness. Jordan's journey began after his parents' divorce. "I didn't want to be home anymore, I took to staying with friends and bouncing around," Jordan explained on his stop in Loogootee last Thursday at Loogootee Christian Church. "Not really knowing where I was going to stay really showed me that I could a make difference with my experiences." With this knowledge, For complete story, see www.hspafoundation.org. Click on "Contests." A strong will to live By Bonnie Hackmann Ferdinand News "We were a sorry looking bunch," recalls Lucia Wood describing the people of Vienna, Austria, in the waning days of WW II. "We had nothing. What ever there was went to the German Army. The war effort was more important than the people. And, when the Russian army came in, they hated everything German and considered Austria to be German," she recalls. With the infrastructure of the town destroyed and most businesses closed, there was little to eat. Beans and dried peas and potatoes were the staples of life because they could be stored. Lucia and her mother made trips to the country to buy eggs from farmers at exorbitant prices, and farmers brought their crop of potatoes to town to sell. Mushrooms and berries were picked in season to add to the meager diet. "Women used to bring soap outside into the rain to wash their hair," recalls Lucia. Laundry and bathing was done with whatever rain water could be collected as the water sources were contaminated. Most people were reduced to rags. "Yes, we were a sorry looking lot," says Lucia as she shakes her head. But, "we made do with what we had and kept going." ••• Born in Vienna in 1931, the only child of Ludwig and Josefine DallaBona, Lucia was just seven years old when Hitler "annexed" Austria. Lucia, known as Lucy after moving to America, still recalls what life under the Nazis was like and the destruction of her beautiful city by Allied bombers. Like so many others during the Great Depression, her father had been unemployed for six years before Hitler took power. Her mother scrubbed floors and the family lived in a tiny apartment with no bathroom, using coal for heat and cooking. Ironically, although her parents secretly hated the Nazis, it was under Hitler that her father finally found a job with the Austrian Department of Internal Revenue. After her father got the job with the IRS, the family moved to another part of town with a larger apartment and indoor bathroom facilities. But, all was not as it seemed when Ludwig greeted fellow workers with the traditional "Heil Hitler" and sat facing a picture of Hitler each day at work, for her father was a member of the Austrian Underground. "I remember people coming to our house at night. I would be sent to bed, so I never heard what they said. I only heard their voices late into the night. "They were planning for the new government after Hitler and the Nazis were defeated," says Lucia. The chances they took in meeting at all were For complete story, see www.hspafoundation.org. Click on "Contests." Page 15