Kruszewski wins 5 VPC awards; Henrico residents shine

Citizen Managing Editor Patty Kruszewski won five awards in the Virginia Professional Communicators (VPC) 2018 communications contest, including two first-place entries that will advance to the National Federation of Press Women competition. Awards were announced at the VPC spring conference held at University of Richmond May 5.

Kruszewski collected first-place honors in the personal columns category for two Family Forum columns on the topic of "Growing a Grown-up," or raising children to be responsible adults. Judges praised the columns for their ability to make readers pause and consider, and for the author's "convincing perspective, offered up in a no-nonsense, ironic, and entertaining voice."

Kruszewski also won a first place award for her feature story, "Fire thieves and sour lemons," about a former firefighter who wrote the book "Fire Thieves" as a tribute to his late son and who fundraises for charitable causes at his book signings.

Also in the feature story category, Kruszewski won second place for her story, "Talking Teeth," about former Washington Post reporter Paula Otto, who spoke at the Virginia Oral Health Summit in Henrico about her coverage of a child's death from an infected tooth and how it inspired her book, Teeth. Two other feature stories, "Henrico Woman Leads Foster Care Effort" and "Benefit Concert Raises Funds for 3-Time Transplant Survivor" won third place and honorable mention, respectively.

Among the Henrico residents who also won VPC awards were Joan Tupponce, who took first place honors in the feature story, personality profile, and specialty articles categories. Tupponce also won three second place awards for personality profiles and specialty articles. Additional awards won by Henrico residents included first place and second place honors for Tiffany Murray in the writing for the web category, and a first place for Sunni Brown in the information for the media category.