Colorado Press Women entered the NFPW At-Large Communications Contest in the largest numbers yet and hauled home fourteen first-place awards. All but one are going on to the national competition. Three people entered the At-Large contest as nonmembers and joined CPW/NFPW after winning first places for their entries.

Donna Bryson scored the most first places — five! Marilyn Saltzman and Kate Ruder each earned two firsts. Kathleen Spring won a first-place award but has elected not to compete at national. Nonmembers who took first places and joined NFPW so they could compete in the national contest are Amanda Rae Busch and Karrie Osborn. Buffy Gilfoil takes home an honorable mention.

Four writers from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory took home seven awards. Karen Petersen earned one first place, one second place and two third places. Also taking home a first-place award at NREL is Nika Durham, who entered as a nonmember and joined so she can compete at national alongside Karen.  Two other nonmembers at NREL, Rebecca Harris Sullivan and Caitlin Dorsey, won honorable mentions for online feature stories.

NFPW’s At-Large contest grew this year to nearly 200 entrants from New York, Oregon, Ohio, Colorado, New Hampshire, Washington, D.C., Massachusetts, North Carolina, New Jersey, Minnesota, Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, Maryland, Florida, South Dakota, Louisiana, Tennessee, Iowa, Kentucky and Washington, according to contest director Teri Ehresman.

HERE ARE THE COLORADO WINNERS:

Donna Bryson
First place: Arts and Entertainment
First place: Religion
First place: Social Issues
First place: In-depth Reporting
First place: Continuing Coverage or Unfolding News
Third place: Online feature story.

Marilyn Saltzman
First place: Autobiography or Memoir
First place: Personal Blog

Kate Ruder
First place: Specialty articles-education
First place: Specialty articles-physical health

Karen Petersen, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
First place:  Government or politics, “Old Ways Fuel Future Vision, Local Economy for Alaska Native Village”
Second place: Science or technology
Third place: Green/environmental story
Third place: Government/politics story. “Tribe Sees Big Payout, Bright Future in Solar Energy”

Kathleen Spring, Lyons Recorder
First place: Informational column
Second place: Newspaper edited by entrant  (Lyons Recorder)
Third place: Continuing coverage or unfolding news
Honorable mention: Informational Column
Honorable mention: Photographer/writer entry

Karrie Osborn
First place: Corporate or for-profit blog

Amanda Rae Busch
First place: General non-fiction for a cookbook

Nika Durham, NREL
First place: online feature

Rebecca Harris Sullivan, NREL
Honorable mention: online feature

Caitlin Dorsey, NREL
Honorable mention: online feature

Buffy Gilfoil
Honorable mention: personal blog, Taking Teaching From Onsite To Online

Editor’s Note: This story has been edited to add Buffy Gilfoil, due to an oversight by NFPW.