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Yellowknifer wins big at award show Three first-place finishes at Alberta Weekly Newspapers Association's annual gala
NNSL staff
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, June 19, 2013
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Yellowknifer had a strong showing at the 2012 Alberta Weekly Newspapers Association (AWNA) awards in Edmonton earlier this month.
Not only did Yellowknifer rank third place in its division for Best Overall newspaper, our team of writers and editors claimed three first-place trophies, winning the Excellence in Education Writing prize, Best Feature Story by a Local Writer, and Best Editorial Page in its division.
Reporter Laura Busch took the Excellence in Education Writing prize for her Jan. 20, 2012 story "Public rally saves Parker and Bowden." The article captures the high-stakes drama that unfolded at a Catholic school board meeting, which hundreds of people attended after getting word that the board intended to terminate two of its most senior school district employees, superintendent Claudia Parker and Johnnie Bowden, assistant superintendent of learning. The protesters demanded the board reverse its decision, with Busch writing, "Tempers flared, passionate words were spoken and tears were shed in the St. Joseph School gymnasium Wednesday night. At the end of it all, the will of the people prevailed."
The Best Feature Story by a Local Writer went to reporter Svjetlana Mlinarevic for her commemorative piece, "Camp of the cannibal," which recalls bush pilot Marten Hartwell's incredible will to survive after crashing his plane in the remote wilderness north of Yellowknife in November 1972. Judges write: "Forty years ago, a 'mercy flight' aircraft with four people aboard cartwheeled into an Arctic hillside ... This feature-retrospective follows up with what happened afterward, a final segment in a sensational story."
Yellowknifer also claimed the runner-up prize for the Sports Writing Award with Jesse Winter's article, "Yellowknifer swims the distance," about Chrissy Taylor's attempt to swim across the North Arm of Great Slave Lake.
The Alberta Weekly Newspaper Association is made up of more than 120 newspapers in Alberta and the Northwest Territories, now in its 93rd year of existence.
The awards recognize work published during the 2012 calendar year.
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