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PATRICK CAVANAUGH
Patrick Cavanaugh is the 1999 Arizona Press Club Community Journalist of the Year, recognized for his work at the Northwest Explorer in Tucson.
"Given the criteria for the award, I thought this entrant was the best example of exhaustive reporting, and not incidentally, excellent writing," wrote judge Walter V. Robinson, an assistant managing editor of the Boston Globe. Robinson has covered local politics, national affairs and international news for two decades; last year he directed the Globe's investigative unit. There were 13 entries in this category.
Cavanaugh, 38, is a native Tucsonan and a veteran of the U.S. Army. After leaving the service, he worked as a security guard and investigator until going back to school in 1995. He earned a journalism degree from University of Arizona in 1999 and, with no published clips but strong recommendations and a killer interview, he was hired by the Northwest Explorer last June. He covers the Marana area, including Marana town government and the Marana school district.
Robinson continued: "The writer explored issues across a broad spectrum that were of compelling local interest, and left the readers much better informed about their community. The entrant also achieved some results with the investigative piece about bad management, or worse, in the non-profit after school program. That work was richly detailed, and I thought quite well-balanced with its presentation of differing viewpoints. The rest of the articles by this entrant also provided valuable community service, including the pieces on air pollution and asthma; the community college's gamble on building on land it might not own; and several articles on the consequences of rapid development."
Allen Kalchik, editor, co-publisher and cofounder of HeatStroke News, is the first runner-up for Community Journalist of the Year.
"The writing is extraordinary," Robinson wrote of Kalchik's work. "And several of his articles do a substantial service for the gay and lesbian community, while at the same time providing valuable insights about that community to others who might be interested. I was especially impressed with the writer's sensitive feature on the single gay father. His personal memoir about his father was excellent. His story about the AIDS drugs issue was of real service. And his feature on the Tambourine Man was compelling."
Prior to founding HeatStroke (a bi-weekly newspaper covering the Phoenix gay & lesbian community) in 1996 with Kelly J. Reidhead, Kalchik, 38, he worked as a bar manager, display designer and freelancer for other gay-community publications in Phoenix and Las Vegas. In addition to editing HeatStroke, planning coming issues, promoting ad sales, delivering and restocking, Kalchik is the paper's chief reporter. His stories include human-interest profiles, celebrity interviews, politics, features and local news. Kalchik, who grew up in northern Michigan and earned a bachelor's degree from Siena Heights College in Adrian, Mich., has lived in Arizona since 1986.
Bryon Wells, a reporter with the Northwest Explorer, is the second runner-up for Community Journalist of the Year.
Robinson: "I was impressed with this writer's ability, in a more standard news feature format, to report in-depth on local issues that matter to readers. The writer's exploration of what seemed on the surface to be a minor homeowners' dispute was intriguing for the detail suggesting that some are treated more equally than others by homeowners' associations. The twin pieces about the end to the copper mining operations and their impact on people's lives was excellent, as was the article about the intrusion of development on the horseback riding program. Even the fairly straightforward piece about theft and vandalism at construction projects was an eye-opener - prompting me to make an inquiry about whether the same problem exists here."
Wells, 27, was born and raised in Chicago Heights, a suburb of Chicago, and served in the U.S. Marine Corps before returning to school to study journalism. He attended Pima Community College and the University of Arizona, where he pursued his interests in both journalism and photojournalism. Wells worked for the Arizona Daily Wildcat, the UA paper, as a general assignment reporter and police beat writer until graduating in May, 1999. He was hired by the Explorer a week before graduation.
Northwest Explorer
First runner-up
ALLEN KALCHIK
HeatStroke News
Second runner-up
BRYON WELLS
Northwest Explorer
PAST WINNERS OF THE COMMUNITY JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR AWARD
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