The Reminder has added a few more honours to our long list of awards and accolades.
The paper and its employees were honoured Dec. 2 at the Manitoba Community Newspapers Association (MCNA) Better Newspapers Competition awards in Winnipeg, receiving four first-place honours and three other podium finishes.
The awards covered stories and newspapers published in 2021. Reporter Eric Westhaver attended the event to accept the honours for the paper.
The Reminder received first place honours in the Best in Class and Best Layout and Design categories in the paper’s circulation class. The paper received a third-place honour in the Best Front Page category as well, also in the circulation class. The Reminder has now won the Best in Class award in its circulation class seven times in the past eight years, having won it every year since 2015 except for 2017.
For the third straight year, Westhaver received the award for Best Columnist for his weekly column entitled “In Our Words”. The column is found on page 4 of each edition of The Reminder. Westhaver also won the Columnist of the Year award and Editorial Writing Excellence award in the Saskatchewan Weekly Newspaper Association (SWNA) Better Newspapers Competition earlier this year.
Westhaver also won the Best Feature Story category for the fourth consecutive year for “Behind Flin Flon’s queen of drag,” a story in the June 30, 2021 issue of The Reminder about Alain Lachapelle, his drag alter-ego Miss Bijoux and the burgeoning scene of northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan drag performance.
Westhaver also finished second in the Best Sports Category for “#WePlayForCaleb - how Creighton football rallied around a teammate in need”, a story in the Oct. 27, 2021 issue about the late Creighton Kodiak football player Caleb Janzen, his battle with cancer and how his teammates and classmates banded together to support him and his family.
In the Best Spot News Photo category, Westhaver finished third for a photo taken July 15, 2021 and printed July 21, 2021 of a water bomber flying near Neso Lake to put out a wildfire near Highway 10.
Last year, The Reminder and its employees were honoured with four first-place finishes and 11 total podiums at the MCNA’s awards, covering work from 2020. The Reminder was also nominated for three awards from the SWNA earlier this year, winning two.
During the period, The Reminder was staffed by publisher Gord Brewerton, reporter Westhaver, sales representative Sharon Kirkup, office manager Shannon Thompson and layout technician Tracy Trydal, as well as delivery personnel, contributors and freelancers.
As a newspaper that covers communities in both Manitoba and Saskatchewan and as a member of both MCNA and SWNA, The Reminder is eligible to apply for annual awards from both organizations.
The Reminder thanks the MCNA, 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.
