Briefcase
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Press awards
Columns and sports stories earned awards for current and former Gazette staffers.
The awards were to be presented tonight during a reception at the Kansas Press Association’s annual conference in Wichita. The Awards of Excellence competition covered members’ work in 2008.
Two Gazette columnists took home awards in column writing. Emporia’s Cheryl Unruh took first place for her “Flyover People” dispatches. Ashley Knecht Walker, Gazette projects editor, won second place. Both Unruh and Walker had to submit three separate columns written during 2008 to be considered for the award.
On the sports side, The Gazette’s former team of Michael Ashford and Jesse Newell captured first places.
Newell took first place in sports feature story for “In Her (Running) Shoes,” a profile of former Emporia State track athlete Jonel Rossbach. He also earned second place in the same category for “More than a small sacrifice,” a profile of Hornet softball player April Huddleston. He also earned third place for sports story for “Victory Erased,” the story of the ESU men’s basketball game against Northwest Missouri State in which a 50-foot, at-the-buzzer shot from beyond half-court was taken away after an official timed the game video with a cell phone stopwatch.
Ashford received first place in sports story for “State of Excitement,” which told of the Emporia High girls’ basketball team’s win over Kapaun Mt. Carmel to take the Sub-State title and head to the 2008 State tournament.
C.J. Moore, who last summer followed Ashford into the Gazette sports editor chair, earned a third place in sports feature story for “Spend Less, Win More?,” a look at Emporia State’s athletic budget and how it stacks up to other schools in the MIAA conference.
Center has new chief
BURLINGTON — Life Care Center of Burlington has planned a reception for its new executive director, Peter Mungai, from 4 to 6 p.m. May 5.
Mungai, who holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration, was previously the administrator of Solid Health Group in Hutchinson. Earlier, he was the assistant administrator at Brookside Nursing Home in Overbrook. He began his career in long-term care in 2002 as a certified nursing assistant.
Business changes hands
Chris Keith is the new owner of Quick Change Mobile Oil Service. The business continues to use the same phone number: 366-1776.