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Six podium finishes for The Reminder in Sask. newspaper awards

Time for us to tip our hats - The Reminder is up for another batch of Saskatchewan newspaper awards.
awards
These photos - one of the May 22 Co-op cardlock truck fire, the other of slo-pitch player Alex Quaal hitting a ball - are two of a package of photos shot by Reminder reporter Eric Westhaver. The Reminder has been nominated for six different awards in the Saskatchewan Weekly Newspapers Association (SWNA) Better Newspapers Competition, including a Photographer of the Year nomination for Westhaver. - FILE PHOTOS

Time for us to tip our hats - The Reminder is up for another batch of Saskatchewan newspaper awards.

The Reminder had top-three finishes in six categories in the recently announced Saskatchewan Weekly Newspapers Association (SWNA) Better Newspapers Competition. While category winners have not yet been announced, top-three finishers have been made known.

The Reminder is among the top three finishers in the Salute to Veterans category for the paper’s Remembrance Day special section, which was released Nov. 4. The section was compiled mainly by volunteer Morley Naylor and worked on by Sharon Kirkup, Shannon Thompson, Tracy Trydal, Eric Westhaver and other members of the Reminder team.

Westhaver is in consideration for five individual awards, including four for writing and one for photography. Westhaver is one of three candidates for the group’s Photographer of the Year award, with five photos selected by The Reminder being sent for competition judges’ consideration. Those photos include images of a large fire near the Co-op cardlock facility at Timber Lane last May, from the Drag Queen Mermaid event last July, photos from last summer’s Canada Day parade, an image of slo-pitch player Alex Quaal hitting a softball and a photo showing a socially-distanced Halloween snack chute on Hemlock Drive.

The Reminder reporter is nominated for Best Educational Coverage for a story in the paper’s April 8 edition, detailing three students from Pelican Narrows - Lavinia Beatty, Charmaine Ballantyne and Charlemayne McCallum - studying in the early childhood education program at Northlands College in Creighton. Westhaver is also nominated for Best Habitat Conservation Writing for a piece in the May 13 issue about the Mother’s Day for Mother Earth litter pickup campaign.

Westhaver earned nominations in two health-related categories. The reporter has been nominated in the Best Health/Health Care Story category for a story about Flin Flonner Richard Rebelo’s fundraising campaign for cystic fibrosis and his fight for necessary medication to be approved. The Rebelo story was printed in The Reminder’s Oct. 28 issue.

In addition, Westhaver is also nominated for Best Health/Health Care Series for two articles, printed in the July 29 and August 5 issues of The Reminder, about the life and death of former Flin Flon teacher and political figure Clarence Pettersen, medical assistance in dying (MAID) and the response from his family. Pettersen died in 2018 after choosing MAID after being diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Last year, The Reminder received eight top-three finishes and two category wins in the SWNA Better Newspapers Competition. The paper’s pair of wins included a win in Best Habitat Conservation Writing for former reporter Cassidy Dankochik, as well as a win in Best Saskatchewan Recreational Story for Westhaver. As a border community, The Reminder has historically taken part in provincial newspaper competitions in both Manitoba and Saskatchewan - the Manitoba competition, held by the Manitoba Community Newspaper Association (MCNA), has not yet been announced.

The Reminder would like to thank SWNA and the judges for this year's competition for their consideration and each one of our readers, subscribers, advertisers and other backers for their continued support.

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