Russ, ML Chandler pledge additional $16k to student reporting contest

Oct. 21, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Russ, ML Chandler pledge additional $16k to student reporting contest

Students will have at least two more opportunities to submit their work for consideration in the Chandler Award for Student Writer of the year in Religion. Russ and ML Chandler recently pledged an additional $16,000 to fund the contest through 2011.

The award, having just completed its ninth year, recognizes excellence in writing and reporting skills for the religion beat at the collegiate level and carries a first-place prize of $600 and a trip to RNA's Annual Conference.

With this most recent gift, the Chandlers will have contributed more than $51,000 to RELIGION | NEWSWRITERS—the largest amount given by individual donors in the organization’s history.

Russ Chandler is a longtime member of RNA, beginning his religion reporting career in the 1960s. He worked for a number of newspapers before joining the LA Times’ staff, from where he eventually retired in 1991. ML also carries a journalism background, having freelanced for a number of years and written a book, “After Your Child Divorces.”

The Chandlers live in Sonora, Calif., and remain active participants in RELIGION | NEWSWRITERS. Each year, they travel to RNA’s Annual Conference to greet the winners of the student contest and personally hand out the Chandler Contest prizes at the annual awards ceremony.

Several winners of the Chandler Award have gone on to pursue careers in religion reporting, including St. Louis Post-Dispatch religion reporter Tim Townsend and Chicago Tribune’s Manya Brachear.

The deadline for the next Chandler Award is May 1, 2010. Winners will be announced Sept. 25, 2010, at RNA’s Annual Conference in Denver.