Award Winning Writer / Columnist / Photojournalist
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Award Winning Writer / Columnist / Photojournalist
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KCK resident nets national award
Award-winning story brings about change in casino's treatment of Hispanics By REBECCA SHELTON/of The Kansan A local woman and former Kansan reporter has won top awards from the National Association of Hispanic Publications. Kerri Fivecoat-Campbell took first place for her investigative report about a man from Mexico who was asked to produce a green card before he was allowed to collect winnings at a local casino. Her story was a factor in the casino changing their policy in asking for identification from Hispanics. She also won second place for a story about the last days of a woman dying in the hospital, and second place for a column about a KCK man who was chastised by neighbors for flying a Hispanic flag without an American flag in his large Christmas light display. This is the first award she has ever won awards for her writing. "I was really shocked," said Campbell. "I even started crying." Campbell wrote the story for the Kansas City Hispanic News as a free-lance writer. She has worked for this publication for about two years. Her story, accompanied by the Spanish translation, has been reprinted with permission from the KCHN. Growing up in the Turner area, Campbell said she came to understand issues in the Hispanic community. "But they're the same issues as anybody else," she said. Joe Arce, publisher of the 6-year-old KCHN, said his newspaper took a total of five awards this year, with three of them by Campbell. When asked why Arce hires non-Hispanics, he recalled the time a young white man, with blonde hair and blue eyes applied for a job. At one point, the young man asked a question. "You do realize I'm not Hispanic? he asked. "Yes," answered Arce. "But can you edit?" When asked why he hired non-Hispanics, Arce said, "What I look for is talent and a passion for in-depth reporting. You don't have to be a certain race to do that." Discrimination is not his favorite subject, said Arce, but these stories must be told. He said if not for the man coming forward with his problem, there would be no story to tell, no award to win. And if the story must be told, "Then we will do it." Campbell started writing when she was 10. She wrote a novel about her family in a prairie settling. She worked on it for two years, and then charged her family and friends $1 each to read it. Her mother was an accomplished writer in high school and taught her the importance of writing at an early age. She said she had excellent and inspiring teachers at Kansas City Kansas Community College and St. Mary College. After college, she worked in collections at Citicorp making $40,000. When that job was eliminated, she told her husband she wanted to go into free-lance writing. He said she was crazy. Since then, she has free-lanced for many newspapers and magazines in the metro area. She is also an adjunct professor in the writing department at Johnson County Community College. She is working on a true crime anthology and has been working on a book recounting the story of "Scruffy," the dog killed in KCK with the culprits sent to prison. Last year, Campbell worked as a reporter for The Kansan, covering police and city government. She returned to free-lance writing, even though it been a tough way to make a living. Summer is always slow as ad sales go down, but after Sept. 11, it never picked up again. And as a free-lancer, the awards are particularly important because many press associations do not accept free-lance submissions. "We don't get a lot of recognition," said Campbell. "It was special and I felt honored."
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