Ramona Home Journal Scoops Six Awards from San Diego Press Club

Ramona Home Journal staffers Ernie Barrera and Ruth Lepper, and publishers Carol and Darrel Kinney proudly display the awards their publication received from the San Diego Press Club. Photo by jennifer jenkin

By Esther Willard

Ramona Home Journal and Julian Journal writers walked away with six “Excellence in Journalism” honors on Oct. 27 at the San Diego Press Club’s 32nd annual awards ceremony.

Writers Johnny McDonald won three awards, Ruth Lepper, two, and Ernie Barrera, one.

“I’ve been in this business for more than a half century and still find it nice to be recognized for achievement,” MacDonald said.

“Matching your talent against others in comparable categories can offer rich rewards as it did for me at the San Diego Press Club Journalism Banquet. In this case it was a 2nd place and a pair of 3rds.”

“Were particularly happy for the Ramona Home Journal publishers, Carol and Darrel Kinney, who have given us freedom to explore a variety of subjects.

They deserve the credit and should be recognized for formatting one of the finest non-daily’s in the county.”

“You might say in our lengthy writing career we’ve done it all, but eight years ago we found a comfortable fit here. We just kicked off the shoes and let the computer do the rest.”

McDonald’s story, “Duke Snider — I Wouldn’t Trade Those Days for Anything,” earned a second-place award in the Sports category. He also won honorable mentions for “Craig Noel: 60 Seasons at the Globe” in Arts & Entertainment and “Shidner Never Shied from Challenges” in the Features category.

Lepper’s awards were in the Reviews category for Arts & Entertainment. “Steel Magnolias: Heartwarming Play” was a second-place winner and “A Musical Trip Travels Route 66” received honorable mention.

“I’m very pleased the awards were for my reviews of local plays,” Lepper said. “I review plays all over the county, but ‘Steel Magnolias’ was a Julian Theatre Company production by Scott and Debbie Kinney and “Route 66” was a musical at Ramona Mainstage Theatre.”

Barrera won honorable mention in the Health & Medicine category for his story, “County Warns of Red Fire Ants.”

“I was honored to win an award from the San Diego Press Club and even more honored to be working with such a great group of professionals at the Ramona Home Journal and Julian Journal,” Barrera said. “Community publications are the venue folks have to get quality, in-depth coverage of local issues and a richer sense of where we live. It’s important work and the folks of the Ramona Home Journal do that work with style and seriousness of purpose.”

The San Diego Press Club competition is one of the largest in the nation, garnering more than 1,000 entries in 16 categories.

“This year’s event highlighted the wide variety of talent and coverage by San Diego’s news media at every level, in every type of medium,” said Robert Griswold, president of San Diego Press Club.

Representing the Journal at the ceremony at Shelter Pointe Hotel & Marina in San Diego, in addition to Lepper and Barrera, were publishers Carol and Darrel Kinney, Jennifer and Bill Jenkin, Darwyn Lepper and Sandee Staufenbeil.

“Carol and I feel the real winners from the San Diego Press Club Awards are the readers. Our writers give a great effort to provide quality journalism to our community. It was an honor to see them given the recognition for their work.” said Darrel Kinney.

This is the second year Ramona Home Journal has won awards from San Diego Press Club. In 2003, Lepper won second place for a story on Tom Griffin, the late publisher of the Orange Book Directories in Ramona, and Ken Woodward received honorable mention for a history column on Halloween.