Published: June 12, 2008 06:14 pm      

Press Club spotlights Orange County talent

Special to The Leader



Lamar University students, faculty and staff won a total of 49 awards, including 18 first places, in the 2008 Excellence in the Media competition sponsored by the Press Club of Southeast Texas.

Among the winners were several residents of Orange County.

First-place honors went to former University Press photo editor Trish Coughlan of Orange, non-daily news photo, “Should intolerance be tolerated?”; and to former UP features editor Jennifer Moore, of Orange, for non-daily feature page design/layout, “A guide to Oscar’s big night.”

Lamar Public Relations and Cardinal Cadence won seven second places and six third places. Brian Sattler of Bridge City, director of public relations, and designer Mike Rhodes of Rhodes Design in Vidor won first place for magazine layout for Cardinal Cadence, while media specialist Louise Wood of Beaumont and Rhodes won second and third places in the category – for “Legends of Southeast Texas” and “Private to president,” respectively, also for Cadence.

Sattler earned second place for his writing portfolio, which included “An art for imaginative development,” “One of the trusted” and “Treasured teeth: Dental discovery yields new species.” Wood won second place for her personal profile “A cultural affinity.” The magazine won second place for overall excellence.

Additionally, Sattler and December 2007 communication graduates Laura Ibarra of Beaumont and Sarah Parker of Lumberton won first place in website content for their coverage of Lamar’s Bernard Harris Summer Science Camp.

Sattler also won two awards for news releases – second place for “New primate species found in 42 million-year-old Laredo fossils” and third for “Hydrogen refueling station no pipe dream.” He and Janna Fulbright of Beaumont won first place in radio public service announcements for their promotion of the Texas Academy of Leadership in the Humanities.

Andy Coughlan of Orange, assistant director of student publications, won seven awards for his work in several media, including Issue Magazine, published for The Art Studio Inc. Those honors include three first places – for fine arts reviews/critiques for “Addenda”; magazine personal profile, “Andy Ledesma,” both for Issue; and news release, “Macbeth,” for Port Arthur Little Theatre. Coughlan also won second places for overall excellence, special supplements/promotional publications/tabloids, for Issue and for graphic/cartoon/illustration, “Global Warming,” for The Beaumont Enterprise. He won third place for magazine news story, “Saving the music and The Art Studio too” and for magazine feature story, “Stagg ‘can’ build legacy.”

The Press Club also honored Brad Brown and Steve Forman as Newsmakers of the Year for their efforts to secure legislation requiring seatbelts on school and charter buses in Texas. Brown’s daughter Ashley and teammate Alicia Bonura died in an accident while en route to a West Brook High School soccer playoff game March 29, 2006. Forman’s daughter Allison and other students were seriously injured. Fifteen months after the tragedy, Gov. Rick Perry visited West Brook to sign the seatbelt bill into law.

The Excellence in the Media competition attracted several hundred entries from across the nine-county area of Southeast Texas served by the Press Club.