By Tao Woolfe
While celebrating its 15th year in business, The Coastal Star received 13 awards for excellence from the Florida Press Association, a nod to the paper’s reporters, photographers, and artists who are showing how the paper endures.
“These are difficult times for practicing journalism, but The Coastal Star continues to hang tough, and with the strength and depth of our team — and our business partners — we keep looking forward,” Mary Kate Leming, the paper’s executive editor, said at the beginning of 2024.
The monthly newspaper — which was competing in an awards division dominated by the state’s largest weekly publications — won five first-place awards this year, four second-place awards, and four third-place awards for writing, photos and graphics.
The awards, from the 2024 Florida Press Association Weekly Newspaper Contest, were announced in July.
One of the first-place winners was a profile by Brian Biggane of tennis star Coco Gauff’s grandmother — Delray Beach resident Yvonne Odom — who watched the young athlete become a U.S. Open champion.
Biggane used the tournament backdrop to portray the “almost legendary” status the Odom/Gauff family has achieved in Delray Beach since the 1950s. Odom, for example, was the first Black student to integrate Seacrest (now Atlantic) High, in 1961.
Reporter Ron Hayes took home a first-place award for his story about the sartorial splendor of John Jackson, a longtime staffer at Harbour’s Edge luxury senior living community in Delray Beach.
“Relaxing at a table outside the Edgewater dining room before his 5 p.m. shift, he sports a suit so red it almost could make Santa jealous, a black dress shirt, red-and-black plaid socks, a white necktie and white boutonniere,” Hayes wrote.
Hayes also won a first-prize award for an obituary he wrote about Vin Dinanath, longtime owner of Gulfstream Texaco — the only gas station along State Road A1A in the 47 miles between Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale.
Reporters Rich Pollack and Jane Musgrave won a first-place award for a breaking news story about how the execution of Duane Eugene Owen for two brutal murders — including that of teen Karen Slattery while babysitting in Delray Beach — would not make the pain go away for the victims’ families.
Besides the families’ pain, the piece explored the crimes and examined the psychology of the murderer through the lens of his own horrific childhood.
Pollack also received a first-place award for a column he wrote about some of the best birdwatching spots in Palm Beach County. With a little patience and binoculars, people can spot some of the rarest of birds— such as a red-legged thrush and La Sagra’s flycatcher — in coastal hammocks and nature preserves, he wrote.
A second-place award went to local photographers Peter Cross and Susan Wasserman, who provided photos for Pollack’s story on birding destinations.
Photographer Tim Stepien won a second-place award for a feature photo depicting people finding inspiration on the beach at sunrise.
The Coastal Star staff scooped up second-place awards for an arts season preview supplement and in “general excellence” for the March, April and October editions. The same editions earned a third-place honor for graphic design.
Reporter Sallie James won a third-place award for an obituary about Doug Baumgarten, the longtime dockmaster of Briny Breezes.
Third-place awards also went to reporter Joe Capozzi for a story about a bicyclist who gave up riding along State Road A1A after a debilitating collision with a truck; and to reporters Charles Elmore, Larry Barszewski and Steve Plunkett for in-depth reporting about how the state’s new financial disclosure requirements were leading some elected council and commission members to give up their seats rather than comply.
“I am so very proud of the work done by everyone for The Coastal Star,” Leming, the executive editor, wrote in her award announcement memo. “Fifteen years and still going strong!”
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