The Reminder was announced as a nominee in eight categories in the upcoming Saskatchewan Weekly Newspapers Association (SWNA) Better Newspapers Competition (BNC) Awards.
The awards are given annually to newspapers covering Saskatchewan communities - winners will not be announced until May 9, but nominees in each category were announced March 20
As a paper, The Reminder has been nominated in three categories in the annual awards - one as a nominee for Best Front Page in its circulation class, another in the Best Editorial Page category in its circulation class and a third nomination as Best Overall in its circulation class.
The Reminder also received five individual nominations for its contributors, including a nomination in the Salute to Veterans category for its Remembrance Day special edition. The edition was written by Morley G. Naylor, edited by Eric Westhaver and laid out by Tracy Trydal and was printed in the Nov. 8, 2023 issue of The Reminder.
Reporter Westhaver received four nominations, including two for news stories written for the paper, one for editorial writing and one for photography. Westhaver was nominated in the Best Feature Story category for “Chainsaw carver finds ideas in the trees”, a piece that ran in the July 5, 2023 edition of the Reminder detailing the methods and inspiration for local carver Beaner Deans. Westhaver also received a nomination in the Editorial Writing Excellence category for a series of opinion columns, published each week on page 4 of The Reminder as “In Our Words”.
Westhaver also was nominated in the Best Hard News Photo category for a photo published on the front page of The Reminder’s Oct. 4 issue, showing marchers and RCMP officer Steve Brushett carrying an Every Child Matters banner at the front of a march down Main Street during the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation Sept. 30.
A fourth and final individual nomination for Westhaver came in the category of Best Habitat Conservation Writing for a story published August 16 called “New tours shed light on past of Beaver City”, showing efforts by local historians and wilderness advocates to bring people to the site of Beaver City. Beaver City, located at the southern end of Amisk Lake at the mouth of the Sturgeon Weir river, was the first permanent settlement created by settlers in the area in the early 20th century - the tours show the former town site while taking care to keep the ruins intact.
The Reminder was nominated in three categories in last year’s SWNA BNC awards.
The Reminder thanks the SWNA, its members and the competition’s judges for their consideration. We also would like to thank our readers and community for their continued support and the people we speak with each week for the privilege and honour of sharing their stories with the world at large.
