DEKALB—The Observer swept the religion writing awards and won several other honors at the Northern Illinois Newspaper Association banquet Oct. 29 at Northern Illinois University, here.
The religion awards are named to honor former NINA president Dr. Owen Phelps, who is also the retired Rockford Diocese communications director and editor of The Observer.

First place in the category went to Lynne Conner, an Observer correspondent, for her story “Bringing Dignity to Death: Beliefs are Foundation of Winnebago County Coroner’s Work.”

Conner also took second place for “Parents of Nun, Seminarian Not Too Surprised by Call to Religious Life.”    

Penny Wiegert, The Observer editor, took third place with “Road to Recovery Begins with Prayer.”

Wiegert also took second place in the best columns category for her column, “From the Editor.”

Amanda Hudson, news editor took first and second places for spot news photos. First went to her shot from Boylan Central Catholic High School in Rockford, “Prosthetic Hand.” Second place went to “Bishop Celebrates Mass for Inmates” from the Winnebago County Jail.

She also took third place for spot news story for “Engineering Success: Boylan Students Learn while Helping,” which was illustrated by her award-winning prosthetic hand photo.

Sharon Boehlefeld, features and mutlimedia editor took second and third places for best information graphics for  “Did You Subscribe?” and “Helping in Haiti.”

The banquet featured keynote speaker Jim Rossow, executive editor of the News-Gazette in Champaign/Urbana, who presented “50 Ways to Engage Your Readers.”

He was assisted by John Dixon, the News-Gazette’s photo editor, who brought the paper’s drone and talked about using it for coverage of topics from agriculture to University of Illinois football.

Also on Oct. 29-30, Wiegert, Boehlefeld, and The Observer correspondent Pat  Szpekowski,
attended the Associated Press Media Editors’ News Train at NIU.

The continuing education program featured workshops on topics from analyzing public data to using smart phone videos. The emphasis of the program was on technologies useful to newspapers. Speakers included Pulitzer Prize winners and staffers from papers such as The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune and The Detroit Free Press.