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Tag: Florida Press Club

The Sun wins five statewide awards

Written by Sun staff on . Posted in Awards, Special Sections.

ANNA MARIA ISLAND – The Anna Maria Island Sun has earned five awards in the Florida Press Club’s 2021 Excellence in Journalism Competition, announced at a virtual ceremony on Jan. 22.

Political cartoonist Steve Borggren won first and second place in the Editorial Cartooning category for cartoons depicting the environmental fallout from the dumping of wastewater at Piney Point into Tampa Bay and the first day of school for Anna Maria Elementary School children during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Sun’s 20th-anniversary issue on Dec. 30, 2020, won second place in the “Special Sections” category, highlighting stories including the demolition of the iconic pier at Manatee Beach, over-development on the Island, environmental disasters such as red tide, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and Piney Point, two murders, a hurricane, a treehouse built illegally on the beach and the pandemic.

Cindy Lane won second place in the “That is So… Florida” category for a 20th-anniversary issue story compiling the quirky things that have happened on Anna Maria Island over the years, such as a mannequin being “kidnapped,” beheaded and left on the beach and Bradenton Beach mayoral candidates deciding a tie race by cutting playing cards.

The Sun’s website, amisun.com, won second place in the “Affiliated News Site” category. The site offers readers breaking news, updates on stories in between weekly print editions, more in-depth coverage of some complex stories, photo galleries of Island events, archives of past editions and easy access to beach reports and other subjects of local interest.

Four Sun staffers win 12 state awards

Written by Sun staff on . Posted in Anna Maria Island, Awards, Community News, Special Sections.

Four Anna Maria Island Sun staff members have won 12 awards in the Florida Press Club’s 2019 Excellence in Journalism Competition.

Political cartoonist Steve Borggren swept the Editorial Cartooning category, earning 1st, 2nd and 3rd place awards.

Outdoors columnist Rusty Chinnis earned 3rd place in the Environmental News category for “Elephant in the Bay,” about water quality in Sarasota Bay, and 3rd place in the Light Features category for “We’ll see,” about allowing for flexibility in plans for a fishing trip.

Digital Editor Cindy Lane won 2nd place in the Online Multimedia Package category for “Pool, beach lifeguards train together,” which included a video and photo gallery with the online story.

Lane won 2nd place in the Lucy Morgan Award for In-Depth Reporting for “County moves to regulate horses in bay,” a series on a move to ban rental horse businesses from Palma Sola Bay, and 3rd place in the “That is So …Florida” category for “Florida flotsam washes up on European beaches,” a story about four plastic cups from the Anna Maria Island Beach Café that were found in England, France, Portugal and the Azores.

Trash the Turtle – Kristin Swain | Sun

Reporter Kristin Swain won 1st place in the Light Features category for “Sculpture illustrates local trash problem,” a story about a sculpture called “Trash the Turtle” by artist Wendell Graham, created from trash collected by Longboat Key Turtle Watch.

Swain also won 2nd place in the Light Features category for “Pups and owners celebrate dog park opening,” and both 2nd and 3rd place in the Community News category for “Problems plague Spring Lake residents” and “Heron nest halts construction.”

Sun wins nine Florida Press Club awards

Written by Sun staff on . Posted in Anna Maria Island, Awards, Community News, Special Sections.

The Anna Maria Island Sun staff has won nine awards in the 2019 Florida Press Club Excellence in Journalism Competition. Awards were presented on Saturday, Nov. 2 at the FPC annual banquet in Boca Raton.

First place

Second place

  • Online News Site, Cindy Lane, Kristin Swain, Joe Hendricks and Tom Vaught, for amisun.com.
  • Lucy Morgan Award for In-Depth Reporting, Cindy Lane, for “Hunters have bird lovers crying foul,” about duck hunting in Perico Preserve and Neal Preserve
  • Artist Illustration, Cindy Lane, for a digitally-sewn quilt of vintage Cortez Commercial Fishing Festival T-shirts
  • Headline Writing, Cindy Lane, “Fish house owner in Catch-22”
Three decades of Cortez Commercial Fishing Festival logos recount the fishing-related themes. – Cindy Lane | Sun

Third place

  • Commentary, Cindy Lane, for “Earthy Ideas from The Sun,” about Odette Katrak, founder of Beautiful Bengaluru in India, connecting with The Sun on coverage of plastic pollution
  • Environmental Writing, Cindy Lane, for “Hunters have bird lovers crying foul,” about duck hunting in Perico Preserve and Neal Preserve
  • Opinion Writing, Cindy Lane
  • Headline Writing, Cindy Lane, “Turtle Watch at loggerheads with city.”
Awards

Sun earns nine statewide awards

Written by Sun staff on . Posted in Feature, Opinion.

The Anna Maria Island Sun was recognized with nine awards in the 2018 Florida Press Club Excellence in Journalism Competition at a ceremony in Mt. Dora on Saturday.

The Sun’s online edition, amisun.com, won third place for “News Website” statewide, competing against online newspapers of all sizes.

Staff writer Kristin Swain swept the “Community News Writing” category, winning all three awards in the division. Her first place award is for “Hurricane recovery begins for condo owners,” about delays in the repairs of several Holmes Beach condos damaged by Hurricane Irma. She won second and third place awards for “Protecting Holmes Beach from rising tides,” about a city engineer’s plans to harden the city against flooding, and “Property owners sue neighbors for complaining about noise,” about vacation rental owners suing neighbors who reported noise violations to the city.

Staff writer and Digital Editor Cindy Lane won first place in “Commentary Writing” for “The press goes back to school,” about statewide coverage erroneously reporting that a new Florida law allowed beachfront property owners to keep people off the beach.

She won second place in “Online Package” with Bob Hite, of Kinship Productions, for “Vaught’s Vietnam,” (see video) a story honoring the military service of Sun staff writer Tom Vaught; second place in “That is so… Florida” for “State investigates net camp construction,” about a Cortez resident who built a structure on pilings in state waters; second place in “General News Writing” for “Fishermen ask Floridians to cast vote against net ban,” about commercial fishermen’s efforts to put a constitutional amendment on the state’s ballot reversing the net ban; and third place in “Features Photography” for “Island SUNset.”

- Cindy Lane | Sun

- Cindy Lane | Sun

 

Sun earns 17 awards

Written by Sun staff on . Posted in Awards.

The Anna Maria Island Sun has earned 17 awards in the Florida Press Club’s 66th Excellence in Journalism Competition, including five first place trophies for opinion writing, breaking news photography, feature photography, sports photography and cartooning.

Florida Press Club

The awards, presented at Hotel Indigo in Sarasota on Saturday, Nov. 4 are:

Opinion Writing

Mike Field, 1st place, The ‘Big M’

Mike Field, 3rd place, The mayors have it right

Breaking News Photography

Tom Vaught, 1st place, Soggy Monday Blues

Mike Field, 2nd place, Red tide continues to plague AMI

Tom Vaught, 3rd place, First day of school

Feature Photography

Maggie Field, 1st place, Silver Sunset

Maggie Field, 2nd place, Meltdown

Joe Sambito, 3rd place, Holiday Moon

Sports Action Photography

Monica Simpson, 1st place, Redemption

Cartooning

Steve Borggren, 1st place, Beautiful sunrise

Steve Borggren, 2nd place, Brick road

Steve Borggren, 3rd place, Ghost tour

Special Awards – That is so… Florida

Cindy Lane, 2nd place, Eat more octopus

 

Government News Writing

Kristin Swain, 2nd place, Turn back time

Headline Writing

Mike Field, 2nd place, Houndfish

Pat Copeland, 3rd place, Pooh-pooh

 

Front Page Design

Ricardo Fonseca, 3rd place, Rays

Sun wins 14 awards

Written by Sun staff on . Posted in Awards.

The Anna Maria Island Sun has earned 14 awards in the Florida Press Club’s 66th Excellence in Journalism Competition; specific awards will be announced at an awards banquet on Saturday, Nov. 4 in Sarasota. Staff members to be recognized at the event are:

Steve Borggren, Illustration

Pat Copeland, Headline Writing (2)

Maggie Field, Feature Photography

Mike Field, Breaking News Photography, Feature Photography, Headline Writing (2), Opinion Writing

Ricardo Fonseca, Front Page Design

Cindy Lane, Special Award – That is so… Florida

Monica Simpson, Sports Action Photography

Kristin Swain, Government News Writing

Tom Vaught, Breaking News Photography