John Walk

Communications specialist, Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health

Lancaster, PA.

I was blessed to have won the following awards in my previous career as a journalist: First place, Sports Feature (circ. 50K+), 2023 Keystone Awards / Second place, Sports Breaking News/Event Coverage (circ. 50K+), 2022 Keystone Awards / First place, Feature Story (circ. 50K+), 2021 Keystone Awards / Second place, Best Sports Feature, (circ. 50K+), 2020 Keystone Awards / First place, Features Beat Reporting (circ. 40,000-74,999), 2017 Keystone Awards / First place, Features Beat Reporting (circ. 40,000-74,999), 2016 Keystone Awards / Second place, sports feature reporting (circ. 15K-30K), 2015 Pa. Associated Press Managing Editors

John Walk

Communications specialist, Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health

Lancaster, PA.

Octorara football player lost both legs in tragic tractor wreck; here’s why he still hits the field
Octorara High School senior Mason Ellingsworth was 11 years old the first time he drove a tractor. “It was an old, manual tractor,” he recalled. Five years later, on the sunny Wednesday morning of June 1, Mason and a co-worker were riding inside the cab o
LancasterOnline
'Food is what I chose to control': Penn Manor varsity swimmer shares struggle with eating disorder
Avery Groff was a sophomore swimmer at Penn Manor High School when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down in-person classes and high school sports in March 2020. But she kept training on her own, competing in a club swim meet that July. “Before quarantine, I was
LancasterOnline
East Cocalico mother, family pushing forward 16 months after crash caused by drunken driver
Diane Berardi couldn’t believe her ears. Didn’t want to, actually. Somehow it had happened again. Somehow the scourge of drunken driving had hit her family once more. In 1987, she was struck by an impaired motorist, leaving her with a broken back, and spent a full decade in physical therapy. In 1991, her mother died from injuries suffered after a drunken driver struck the vehicle in which she was riding.
Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era
Sisterhood of the 'traveling bag of hats': Lancaster County cancer patients help each other cope
Good, a 1989 Warwick High School graduate and Manheim Township resident, went to A.C. Moore, looking for something to cover her head as she continued her battle with breast cancer. “I bought a bunch of bandanas and wore them like a pirate on my head,” Good said. “Then some friends bought me bandanas and hats, and scarves.”.
Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era
'Don't ever give up': Cedar Crest coach, son dedicate track and field season to late wife, mom
Near the end of each April, Cedar Crest High School track and field coach Rob Bare has a motivational tactic he employs before the annual Lebanon County meet. More than 100 Cedar Crest sprinters, jumpers, hurdlers, pole-vaulters and throwers gather inside the vast fieldhouse at the far end of the high school stadium.
Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era
Gift of life: 5 years after death of Annville-Cleona alum Elijah Setlock, his family meets one of his organ recipients
Bohdan Setlock knew as soon as he saw his middle child, Elijah Setlock, in Pittsburgh’s Allegheny General Hospital five years ago. “We’re not taking our baby home,” Setlock said to his wife, Amy. “He’s not coming home with us.” Elijah Setlock died that da
LancasterOnline
Hempfield alum defies the odds: Family helps him in recovery, regaining mobility after near-death experience
With his right hand, Devin Krautsack lifts a four-pronged metal cane and places it down a few inches ahead on his right side. His right foot steps forward without a problem. He follows with his left foot, leaning his weight on the cane. He forces his left hip forward and strains his left knee upward just enough for his foot to leave the ground and creep forward before returning to the floor in front of him.
Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era
Ephrata’s Brendan Holbritter makes amazing recovery after near-fatal head injury: 'We can be the inspiration'
On a warm spring Friday afternoon after school, Brendan Holbritter and a few of his teenage buddies had just finished up a game of 2-on-2 on a small basketball court at the tiny park in his Ephrata Township neighborhood. An invitation to join our Readers Panel to give us your feedback. We value your privacy and will not share any of your personal information with third parties.
Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era
'Us and horses and God' — Darby Conrad's path to the national rodeo championships
The farther south you go in the United States, the more popular rodeo becomes. Like the football, basketball or baseball teams we have in Pennsylvania, for instance, some high schools in Texas have their own rodeo teams, complete with a similar postseason akin to that of the league, district and state tournaments here.
Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era
Inspired by loss of father, Willow Street brother and sister make X Games history
On his motorcycle under the lights in Austin, Texas. This was the moment 27-year-old Cory Texter had been waiting for his whole life. On a Thursday night in June, he and Harley-Davidson Flat-Track racing were making their debuts at the X Games. The green light fired. The gate dropped. But Texter immediately popped a wheelie.
Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era
Manheim Township grad overcomes cancer, becomes para-cycling standout
On a deployment with the Air Force in 2008, Steve Kelly stepped out under a hot sun in Afghanistan, emerging from a room in a small apartment complex. Kelly, then a 45-year-old Air Force major, needed to speak to a nearby intelligence officer, so he took the steps, some in such poor condition that soldiers replaced them with sandbags.
Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era
Unique upbringing, work ethic led to stellar freshman campaign by Manheim Township's Crespo
His day began at 6:30 a.m., when the alarm clock went off in his bedroom of the fixer-upper home his grandparents bought only a couple years ago. He was out the door by 7:15 a.m., headed for a full day of classes at Manheim Township High School. Basketball practice soon followed from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era

About

John Walk

After graduating with a bachelor's degree in Journalism from Penn State University in 2010, John immediately went to work for The York (PA) Dispatch newspaper, covering City Hall for the first nine months of his career before transitioning to sports. Over the next five years, he covered just about every high school sport imaginable in the 20-plus team York-Adams League, in addition to serving as the beat reporter for NCAA D-III York College men's and women's basketball teams and the independent York Revolution baseball team.
John returned to his hometown of Lancaster, PA., in February 2015, when he began working for LNP|LancasterOnline. For the next eight years, John took on the beats of high school football, basketball and lacrosse in the 20-plus team Lancaster-Lebanon League. He transitioned to the news side as a features/profiles writer in April 2023.

John left Journalism in February 2025, starting a new chapter as a communications specialist for Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health.