Daily Herald honored for foreclosure series

A four-day series about foreclosures in the suburbs took top honors Saturday at the Illinois Woman's Press Association Mate E. Palmer contest.

Daily Herald Business Writer Anna Marie Kukec and Real Estate Writer Deborah Donovan were awarded first place in the special series category for the "The Dream Foreclosed," published in November.

The judges said it was an "outstanding series because it was driven by the faces and voices of those losing their homes and the numbers and details that documented the tragedy."

The honor, presented at the association's annual awards luncheon in Chicago, automatically enters the series into the National Federation of Press Women's Communications contest.

The series focused on suburban families facing foreclosure and how others can get help. It also included interactive graphics, including one on the legal process by graphic designer Tim Broderick. The series remains online at www.dailyherald.com.

The series also has been honored recently for "meritorious achievement" by the Chicago Bar Association's Herman Kogan Media Awards and was a finalist for public service in the Chicago Headline Club's Lisagor Awards.

In addition, Kukec won a first-place award in the business writing category for two articles: "Artificial Grass Roots," which ran in February 2007, and "Offering More than the Curtains," which ran in July 2007. Kukec also won a third-place in feature writing for a story called "Personal Side of Technology," which ran in August 2007.

The IWPA, an affiliate of the National Federation of Press Women, is a professional organization for journalists in print, broadcast and other communication fields.

Mate E. Palmer was an active IWPA member and ninth president from 1907 to 1909. When she died in 1939, she bequeathed $500 to someone who, in turn, gave that money to IWPA to establish a writing contest in Palmer's memory.