Lexington (KY) Herald-Leader
Ever wonder about those body-painted sports fans? The Herald-Leader did, and profiled University of Kentucky basketball fans who paint themselves.

The Truth (Elkhart, IN)
Avocations and hobbies are fertile ground for ordinary people stories if you look for them. The Truth found a good story in the amateur acting and directing of community theater.

San Gabriel (CA) Valley Newspapers
Ordinary people celebrate milestones in their lives. This is the story about a father who spent a month to track down the barber who gave him is first haircut in 1966 so that his son could get his first trim by the same man.

Tampa Tribune
Like San Gabriel Valley and Wilmington, Tampa recognized that there were good ordinary people stories in the routine “firsts” of life, so it created an occasional series it called “Big Moments” that profiled those firsts. It included people getting their braces off, first glasses, first dates, first day on the job.

The Charlotte Observer
While Tampa made an occasional series out of “first,” the Observer did it as a week-long special. They kicked it off with a Sunday centerpiece, then ran stories each day throughout the week. Included in the week were first haircut, first home, first puppy, first dance, first job, first hearing aid, first day without a cigarette, first Little League tryout, first Seder, first day in assisted living, first state championship.

This family has been in the neighborhood for years.

Capital Times (Madison, WI)
We’ve all visited stores where a pet is on watch. The Times saw a story in this everyday occurrence so published a story-photo package. It proved so popular with readers, that the paper turned it into a recurring photo feature.

The Beaver County Times (Beaver, PA)
Coal is everywhere in Pennsylvania, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t more coal stories to be told. The Times found this story about a one-man coal yard operating on the site of the sealed mine the owner’s father had owned and worked in the ‘40s and ‘50s.

Raleigh News and Observer
Newspapers cover high school sports regularly, but often overlook other organized school activities. The News and Observer followed a high school symphonic band as the young musicians prepared for the performance of their lives at the prestigious Midwest Clinic in Chicago. From awkward first rehearsals to the clinic where the played the “Star Spangled Banner” for the first time after Sept. 11.

Los Angeles Times
We don’t like to admit it, but there is a collective newsroom sensibility that often colors the way we tell stories and which stories we tell. Gun owners often are portrayed in the media as extremists. The editors of the LA Times Magazine thought it would be interesting to profile some of the everyday people who go about their lives quietly and just happen to own guns.

The Dallas Morning News
Ordinary people live in neighborhoods that are changing. The Morning News showed the change through the eyes of one family, getting at the nuances of how an immigrant family keeps its traditions and language but also takes on some American values — and how they change a neighborhood.

Minneapolis Star-Tribune
Writers and photographers explored what it’s like to be a kid in Minnesota. They found kids showing a pig at a fair, teasing a sister, dreaming of the future. They ran three one the first Sunday and then one each day for the rest of the week.