It’s a Hat Trick — For Kaua‘i Wins Another Pa‘i Award

Léo Azambuja, editor in chief of For Kaua‘i Newspaper, is seen here holding the hardware for Second Best Editorial Opinion during the 32nd Pa‘i Awards presented by the Hawai‘i Publishers Association in Honolulu May 23. Photo by Nathan Eagle

For the third year in a row, For Kaua‘i Newspaper represented the island of Kaua‘i at the Hawai‘i Publishers Association’s annual luncheon in Honolulu May 23. Our monthly cultural and community newspaper came home from the 32^nd HPA Pa‘i Awards with the Second Best Editorial Opinion.

“Great narrative with global implications and local tie-ins,” the judges for the Pa‘i Award said of Editor in Chief Léo Azambuja’s editorial opinion published in October 2016.

Azambuja’s editorial, “Never Forget the Dodo,” calls for our readers to “stand up for conservation,” following the first time the World Conservation Congress organized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature was held in United States soil.

The congress was held in Honolulu, and Kaua‘i capitalized on it by hosting a simultaneous Kaua‘i Conservation Expo at the National Tropical Botanical Garden in Lawa‘i.

This year’s award also represented the third year straight that For Kaua‘i was the only Kaua‘i newspaper to bring home a Pa‘i Award. In 2015, For Kaua‘i won Second Best Editorial Opinion. In 2016, it won First and Second Best Editorial Opinion, as well as Second Best Enterprise Reporting with a breaking-news article on rapid ‘ohi‘a death, written by science writer Ruby Pap.

And there’s more to come. The Society of Professional Journalists, Hawai‘i Chapter, just notified us that For Kaua‘i won a couple prizes at this year’s SPJ Excellence in Journalism Awards.

Last year, For Kaua‘i brought home two finalist awards from the SPJ contest. We are attending their awards dinner in Honolulu June 30, when we’ll find out what we are bringing home this year.

Mahalo to our readers and advertisers for all your support!