The following was first published in September 2023 print issue of the Ocracoke Observer.
The Ocracoke Observer received seven awards at this year’s North Carolina Press Association annual conference Aug. 25 in Raleigh.
The Observer won first place for its editorials. Editorials are written by Observer co-publishers Connie Leinbach, editor, and Peter Vankevich.
Vankevich won first place in spot photography for his photo of two Least Terns in the story “Birds of Ocracoke: The Least Tern, resilient and feisty,” published July 10, 2022.
In sports coverage, former Observer reporter Richard Taylor won second and third place awards for his stories on the 2022 Ocracoke Dolphins baseball team: a thrilling game and Dolphins finish second.
Leinbach captured third place in spot photography for her photograph of a ferry in the Pamlico Sound as seen through the rigging of Rob Temple’s sailboat “The Windfall II.”
She also won third place for “ledes,” which are the first sentences of stories. Those stories were about Ukrainian exchange student Sonya Voitenko, a record-breaking Scotch bonnet and a story about the OVFD Firemen’s Ball.
Vankevich won third place for his photo essay “The atmospheric moods of Springer’s Point,” published May 22, 2022.
The winning stories were published on ocracokeobserver.com between October 2021 and September 2022.
Although the Observer prints a monthly issue 10 times a year, it competes in the online division in the press association’s annual contest.
It has won more than 50 awards, many in first place, since joining the N.C. Press Association in 2015 and entering the con-test starting in 2016.
