Bigfork Eagle wins newspaper awards
The Bigfork Eagle staff received 26
awards in the Montana Newspaper Association’s 2010 Better Newspaper
Contest.
The Eagle was judged against other
weekly newspapers in the state with circulations of less than
1,500. The awards were announced at a banquet Saturday in Lewistown
at the newspaper association’s annual convention. The Wyoming Press
Association judged the 2010 contest.
The Eagle staff as a whole took first
place for Best Website and third place for Special Projects for a
special section on the Vikings football team’s state championship
run. The Eagle also received third-place awards in the design
category for Best Front Page and Best Sports Pages.
Managing Editor Jordan Dawson was
awarded first place for Best Feature Story-Personality for her
article on Bigfork resident Brigadier General Jimmy Cash.
For the third year in a row, Dawson
took first place for Best Sports Column.
She was also the first-place recipient
of The Mark Henckel Outdoors Award, for her story about Base Camp
Bigfork’s dog sledding adventures. The award is named after the
Billings Gazette outdoors editor who died last spring.
Additionally, Dawson was awarded
second-place and third-place honors for Best Sports Story for her
articles on the Viking football team’s semifinal and championship
games, respectively. She also took third place in Best Sports
Feature for her story on Bigfork twins Mallery and Travis Knoll and
Best Outdoor Activity Photo for her shot of a girl making giant
bubbles during Rockin’ for Ravenwood.
Former editor Jasmine Linabary, who
left the paper last month, earned a multitude of top honors
including Best Spot News Coverage for her story about a house fire
on Echo Lake. She also picked up first-place awards for Best
Feature Story-General for her article about the LEAP after-school
program, Best Feature Photo for her picture “Time to Play” of Swan
River School students at the Sweet Pickin’s Pumpkin Patch and Best
Photo Essay for her collection of photos from the local cherry
harvest.
Linabary was also given second-place
awards in Government Issues for her articles following the Bigfork
stormwater project, Agriculture Issues for her coverage of local
cherry growers, Education Issues for her articles regarding the
Bigfork School District’s budget, Environmental/Natural Resource
Issues for coverage of Bigfork High School science teacher Hans
Bodenhamer’s GIS work with students and Best Photo Essay for her
pictures from the Fourth of July.
She earned a third-place award for
Government Issues for her story about the Bigfork fire department
and ambulance joining together and Education Issues for her article
on the changing of guard at the superintendent position for Bigfork
schools. Linabary was also given an honorable mention in Best News
Photo for her picture “Up in Smoke” from the Echol Lake house
fire.
In Excellence Awards, Dawson placed
second, and Linabary was third, for General Writing Excellence,
which is a new category in the BNC this year. The Eagle earned the
third-place award for General Advertising Excellence.