Kansas City Star staff members won top honors in 11 categories, including investigative reporting and deadline reporting, as the Heart of America journalism awards were handed out Saturday.
The contest, sponsored by the Kansas City Press Club, honors print and broadcast journalists working in western Missouri and eastern Kansas.
The Star won newspaper of the year based on points earned in the competition. Star police reporter Christine Vendel was named journalist of the year for the second straight year.
Keenan, a Great Bend native and regular contributing writer to the Great Bend Tribune, was a gold winner for non-news column writing.
Other Star gold winners, in the category of daily newspaper over 50,000 circulation: staff for deadline reporting the night of the JJ’s restaurant explosion; Laura Bauer and Judy L. Thomas for investigative reporting; Thomas and Bauer for public service project; Steve Paul for feature; Rick Montgomery for profile; Keith Myers for breaking news photojournalism; Jill Toyoshiba for feature photojournalism; David Eulitt for sports photojournalism; Sara Smith for entertainment reporting; and Ben Unglesbee for magazine story.
Star staffers capturing silver awards were Bauer and Thomas for deadline reporting/breaking news/spot news; Dugan Arnett for general reporting; Edward M. Eveld for business reporting; Sarah Gish for feature; Gish for profile; Cindy Hoedel for news column; Hoedel for non-news column; Hoedel for magazine story; Smith for entertainment reporting; and Eric Adler for public service project.
Staffers earning bronze awards were Vendel and Glenn E. Rice for general reporting; Hoedel for feature; Emily Parnell for non-news column; Hoedel for entertainment reporting; and Eveld for magazine story.
In the nondaily category, Gish and Eulitt received a gold award for a magazine story that appeared in Ink.