Henrico Citizen earns 7 Virginia Press Association Awards
The Henrico Citizen earned seven awards for writing and photography in the Virginia Press Association’s 2025 News and Advertising Contest. Awards were presented during the VPA’s annual conference April 11 at The Virginian Hotel in Lynchburg.
The Citizen competed in the Online category against other online-only publications in the state.
Citizen Report for America Community Vitality Reporter Dina Weinstein earned three awards for articles she wrote during her first six months with the Citizen, while freelance photographer Dave Pearson earned four awards for photos he took at various events in the county last year.
The contest was judged by members of the South Carolina Press Association.
"Dina and Dave are incredibly deserving of the awards they earned, and we are proud to be able to feature their work in the Citizen," Publisher Tom Lappas said. "We define our community impact not through awards but through the work that we do each day for our community, but it's humbling when our staff receives recognition for that effort.
"These winning entries also show the importance of having real journalists and photojournalists who are active and out in the community – not just sitting behind a keyboard or computer screen. A chief goal of ours as a news organization is to help connect our community through information, and we live that each day by showing up in person and being present in the community to interact with the people who help drive it."
Of Weinstein’s second-place portfolio in the Health, Science and Environmental Writing category, a judge wrote: “Excellent deep dive shows the effects of government policy on local families.”
The entry included three articles:
• Weinstein’s deep dive into the impact in Henrico of cuts to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program; she visited several Henrico food pantries to speak with volunteers and people receiving food, including refugees and asylums whose access to SNAP benefits had been eliminated.
• an article about the annual Henrico County homicide vigil, through which she told the stories of a number of the victims and how their families and loved ones were attempting to cope with their losses.
• an article about the grand opening of a new crisis receiving center for addiction and behavioral health care, which explained the personal pain and struggles the founder has experienced in her own life.
Weinstein also earned a second-place award in the Feature Profile Writing category, for her article about a 103-year-old Henrico resident and World War II veteran she met at Henrico County’s annual centenarian event last year.
“A touching story of struggle and success with great quote selection and photo support,” a judge wrote of the entry.
Of Weinstein’s third-place feature writing portfolio collection, a judge wrote: “People-centered stories that exemplify what it means to be on the edge. Stories are engaging and well organized.”
The collection of three articles included the profile of the World War II veteran, as well as stories about:
• the Henrico Community Food Bank, how it began, how it has grown and how it seeks to help the community each week;
• the Henrico Christmas Mother program and how its behind-the-scenes effort help make then holidays brighter for children and adults in need.
Weinstein is employed by the Citizen through its second partnership with the national journalism service program Report for America, which helps place full-time journalists in newsrooms nationwide. The Citizen applied for her position – a community vitality reporting position to cover housing, health and transportation issues – after several years of feedback from readers indicated a strong desire for more coverage of those three issues.
When Weinstein arrived in July 2025, the Citizen became the first Virginia newsroom to have been accepted into the RFA program twice; Citizen government and education reoprter Liana Hardy previously spent two years covering education for the publication as a Report for America corps member.
Of Pearson’s photo “Sliding Away,” an image of a youngster’s excitement as he slid down an inflatable slide at the Henrico Juneteenth celebration last June (pictured above), a judge wrote that the “combination of colorful background and child's emotion and expression makes this a winner.”
The photo took second place in the Pictorial Photo category.
Pearson also won a second place award in the Sports News Photo category for a shot of a golfer urging a putt to drop during the Dominion Energy Charity Classic in Henrico County last October (pictured at the top of this article).
In the Picture Story or Essay category, which permitted entrants to submit a number of photos that told a story together, Pearson earned a third-place award for a series of eight photos (shown above) from the Richmond International Dance Festival at Henrico’s Deep Run Park last September.
One of those eight photos (featuring dancers dressed in all yellow) also earned a third-place award in the Feature Photo category. A judge termed it "an appealing photo aided by the use of color and framing."
The Citizen has earned a total of 279 awards for excellence in journalism since its founding in 2001.
