The Californian Press Women’s Association honored five members of the Urban Legend staff and one former member in their annual awards ceremony, held this year at the Conservatory of Flowers.
In an awards program held at the San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park, the CPW handed out awards to more than 130 California high school journalists for work in 13 categories, including environmental story, cartoon, news story, features story, Spread, Graphics, Columns, 1 page layout, Editorial, Feature Photo, Opinion Sports Photo, Review, and Sports story.
Sarah Maccabee (’11) and Celine Buehl (’09) won first place for their spread on Angel Island, which appeared in the May 2009 Legend.
Sabrina Werby (’12) won second place for her February feature story on mononucleosis, titled “Monologue on Urban’s Hard to Detect Virus.” Madeleine May (’10) also won second place in feature writing for “A Day in the Life of an ER” published in the May 2009 issue. Sonja Bartlett (’12) and Isabel Moore (’11) both received awards in the feature photo category. Bartlett won an honorable mention for her photos of Urban’s “Nymph Errant” musical production, printed in the Nov. 2009 Legend. Moore won third place for her photo of Jeremy Harvey Brown (’12) in Peer Resource’s Escape Velocity show, which was also published in the Nov. 2009 issue.
The awards ceremony was preceded by a guided tour of the Conservatory of Flowers. A docent escorted the journalism contestants, their parents, and their paper’s advisers around the various exhibits in the arboretum. In particular, those attending the awards were given a tour of the carnivorous plant display.
After the tour, Betty Packard, executive director of the CPW, introduced the awards and the organization. “My hope for the future is always inspired … by reading what you write,” Patterson told the assembled journalists. She and the other judges critiqued all of the submitted articles, and chose 14 first place winners. Nine of these winners, including Urban’s Maccabee and Buehl, move to the national judging round. The official awards for this national contest will be posted on May 22.
The Legend staff members who won awards were particularly enthused by the event. “I am really honored to have the opportunity to be recognized for my work. There is something so rewarding about seeing it on paper,” said Werby. Bartlett was proud of her achievement as well, saying “ I appreciate having the opportunity to take part in an event like this.”