ELGIN—Pat Szpekowski, a correspondent for The Observer, received several honors, including one first place, in the Illinois Woman’s Press Association 2016 communications contest.  

The first place was in the PR materials category for a brochure created for Aquatic Therapy and Wellness LLC in Algonquin.  

Szpekowski, APR, is president of PR Strategies and Communications in Elgin.

She received two third place honors in writing categories. One recognized Szpekowski’s personality profile on George and Jo Ann Lazansky, members of St. Margaret Mary Parish in Algonquin published in The Observer.

The couple were among 153 passengers who were held hostage on TWA Flight 847 in 1985.

The second third-place award was for “Season of Giving,”  which was published in the Winter edition of Air Chicago Magazine, the quarterly publication of the Chicago Department of Aviation.

She also received honorable mentions for two stories in The Observer. “True Love” was about the founding of the John Paul II Renewal Center in the Diocese of Rockford by Jeff Galush and Jack Rigert of St. Charles, and “The Blended Bunch,” was a profile about Lee and Jan Cremer of Crystal Lake who developed a program to help couples in a second marriage achieve success with the added pressures of combined families.