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The South Carolina Press Association recognized members of the Fort Jackson Leader staff for their work during 2020. The Leader staff members received five awards during the SCPA’s 2020 news contest.
The staff participated in a contest that garnered 3,270 entries from newspapers from across the Palmetto State.
Alexandra Shea took second place in the Large Weeklies: Lifestyle Features category for her article, “Mythbusted: Pets can’t spread COVID-19.”
Robert Timmons took second place in the Combined Large and Mid-sized Weeklies General News Photo and the Large Weeklies Photo Series or Photo Story categories for his pictures from Garrison Command Sgt. Maj. Algrish Williams receiving the colors from Garrison Commander Col. Wes Hankins during his assumption of responsibility ceremony.
Volunteers Saskia Gabriel and Tori Evans took first and second place respectively in the Combined Large and Mid-sized Weeklies Feature Photo Category. Gabriel took first place with her picture of a 2nd Battalion, 60th Infantry Regiment trainee holding her laundry bag as she waited for introduction to her drill sergeants.
These wins are indicative of Fort Jackson Public Affairs personnel’s tireless day-in and day-out efforts, said Timmons, the post’s command information officer.
“It’s all a team effort,” Timmons said. “As a whole we are committed to telling the Army story and letting the Fort Jackson community understand more about the commander’s priorities. If it wasn’t for their work and volunteers like Evans and Gabriel we wouldn’t be able to even think of accomplishing it.”
“Makes me feel like what we are writing really matters,” Shea said. “It’s easy to forget that words matter when you get caught up in the day-to-day craziness. This award reminds me of that. I’m also super proud of everyone who won. We have great writers and photographers who work and volunteer at the FJ Leader.
“Oh wow that’s amazing,” Gabriel said of her win. She profusely thanked the Fort Jackson Public Affairs Office for “for giving me a platform to share my work.”
Evans and Gabriel are two of many volunteer photographers who document the battalions’ training cycle. These volunteer efforts bring training home to the Families.
“I graduated from BCT years ago and do not have photos to show my Family,” Evans said. “Volunteers aren't just documenting the experience, but are providing keepsakes for the Soldiers and their Families.
When Gabriel goes on a shoot she looked for a way to show the humanity of her subjects.
“I always wanted to show a different side of basic training,” she said, “I focus a lot on the trainee’s emotions. I want people to look at my photos and see how trainees felt during their time training at Fort Jackson.”
Evans agreed.
“I am capturing training as a whole, but by focusing on the particular emotion you really get absorbed into the story being told,” said Evans, the wife of 1st Battalion, 61st Infantry Regiment Commander, Lt. Col. Jered Evans.
Evans’ and Gabriel’s photos had previously been included in the Army’s Best Photos of 2020 feature.
Shea, currently deployed with the 108th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment, wrote her article to debunk misinformation about the COVID-19 virus.
She wrote in the April 2020 article that:
The amount of misinformation spreading across social media sites has risen exponentially during the COVID-19 pandemic. One topic raising concerns is the question of pets and whether they can be infected by the 2019 novel coronavirus.
“Coronaviruses are not new and have been around for a long time,” said Capt. Amanda Jeffries, Public Health Activity-Fort Gordon, Fort Jackson Branch. “The version that we are dealing with, COVID-19, is a novel version of the coronavirus. It’s one that affects humans and not our dogs or cats.”
Jeffries operates the Fort Jackson veterinarian office along with a small staff of Soldiers and civilians. While the current 2019 novel coronavirus is spreading among human populations globally, she dispelled the myth that pets are spreading the virus because they are infected.
“It’s not true,” she said. “There is no true evidence out there that dogs and cats can transmit it to humans.”
The SCPA wrote on their website that, “These results show that despite the challenges of COVID-19, S.C. newspaper journalists worked tirelessly over the past year to produce incredibly impactful journalism.”
| Date Taken: | 03.03.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 03.03.2021 16:22 |
| Story ID: | 390503 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 30 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Leader gathers 5 SCPA awards, by Josephine Carlson, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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