The Rye Record took home three awards in the New York Press Association’s 2024 annual Better Newspaper Contest, and one from the Connecticut Press Club’s 2024 Communications Contest.
Jackie Frederick-Berner earned two awards — second place for feature writing and third place for sports features.
Christian Falcone and Jon Elsen shared a second-place award for coverage of local government.
And Beth Levine received an honorable mention from the Connecticut Press Club for feature writing.
“I’m very proud of all of our reporters, photographers, and editors and what they have accomplished in the last year,” said Elsen, The Record’s Co-Publisher and Editor-in-Chief. “I’m thrilled that the judges at the New York Press Association and Connecticut Press Club recognized the outstanding quality of their work.”
The NYPA awards were announced at the group’s spring conference, held in Saratoga Springs on March 20 and 21.
Frederick-Berner’s nod for feature writing was for her article on Rye Town Park’s Russ Gold, who learned to become a beekeeper so he could bring honeybees to the park’s ecosystem.
“Sweet Succcess,” wrote the judges. “Rye Town Park’s Russ Gold and His Beekeeping Adventure is a unique story with engaging and punny copy and great quotes that added to the copy.”
Her prize for sports feature writing was for her article on Terry McCartney and his free boxing lessons. The judges loved her take on the once-a-week classes where McCartney imparts not only lessons on how to throw a punch, but also on how to live a good life.
“This is a great description of the operation, those who are benefitting, and the man behind it all,” the judges wrote.
Falcone and Elsen were recognized for the paper’s coverage of the Nursery Field turf controversy.
The proposal to replace grass on Nursery Field with artificial turf pitted neighbor against neighbor in a battle between the need for more playing fields in town and environmental concerns.
The judges noted the pair’s commitment to getting to the bottom of the story.
“Great reporting on an interesting hot topic with a huge impact on the community,” they wrote. “Sometimes stories like this get overlooked by reporters unless you’re really tuned in to the key people involved. The tie into politics was so important in this issue.”
In all, according to the New York Press Association, 132 newspapers participated in the NYPA contest, submitting 2,082 entries. The group bestowed a total of 280 awards for editorial and advertising excellence.
Levine was recognized for her article, “After the Blast: Veteran Journalist Bob Woodruff and Son Chronicle the Moment that Changed Everything.”
The article profiled Bob and his son Mack, who are from Rye, and their trip to Iraq to make a documentary about the moment Bob’s vehicle hit a roadside bomb and he suffered a traumatic brain injury.
