The Northern Light wins 29 WNPA awards

By Stefanie Donahue

The Washington Newspaper Publishers Association (WNPA) honored The Northern Light with 29 awards during its 131st annual meeting on October 11 to 13 in Yakima.

A panel of judges from the Wisconsin Newspaper Association considered 1,146 submissions in the news category from 62 newspapers, in addition to hundreds more for advertising, sales, photography, website and general excellence categories.

Published by locally-owned Point Roberts Press Inc., The Northern Light competed with higher circulation, mostly-paid newspapers.

This year, six awards were given to The Northern Light’s editorial staff.

In the Business News Story category, reporter Oliver Lazenby won first place for the article titled, ‘Umpqua Bank to close local company’s account for confusion over hemp,’ which highlighted the bank’s refusal to work with Blaine-based company Rawganique due to its association with the hemp-growing industry. Reporter Stefanie Donahue took second place in the same category for the article titled, ‘Blaine coffee roasters are brewing up more than just a cup of Joe,’ about the opening of Blaine-based, Barnyard Coffee.

Publisher and managing editor Pat Grubb received first place in the Editorial category for his editorial titled, ‘What are they Hiding.’ The piece was written in condemnation of the 145 state legislators – including 42nd Legislative District senator Doug Ericksen and representatives Vincent Buys and Luanne Van Werven – who voted in favor of a bill that would effectively reduce access to public records.

In the Education Story category, reporter Oliver Lazenby won first place for the article titled, ‘Community grapples with youth mental health crisis,’ which drew on statistics from a survey conducted by the Blaine school district.

The Northern Light contributors Alyssa Evans and Amy Pollard took  first and second in the Personality Profile, Short category for the articles titled, ‘Blaine grad bound for naval academy’ and ‘Custer resident wins Ms. Wheelchair Washington 2017,’ respectively.

Contributing photographers also took home four awards, including Janell Kortlever with second place in the Sports Photo, Black and White category for her photo of high school seniors Isaiah Russ and Dalton Mouw and Walter Selden with second place in the Color Pictoral category for his photo of Fourth of July fireworks. Taking third place in the same category was Grubb for his photo of the super blood blue moon. Co-publisher Louise Mugar, along with contributors Debbie Harger and Karmen Terris, won third place in the Color Photo Essay category for their collection of photos from the Fourth of July Celebration in Blaine.

In the advertising category, The Northern Light took home 18 awards, including first place in the Smaller than Half-Page Ad, Color category for a Big Al’s Diner ad created by Molly Ernst and Ruth Lauman; third place in the Most Original Idea category for a Semiahmoo Resort ad created by Lauman and Mugar; and third place in the Humor in Advertising category for a Bare Buns Fun Run ad created by Doug De Visser and Catherine Darkenwald. In the website category, the Mount Baker Experience website won third place.

The Northern Light office manager Jeanie Luna received special recognition, winning the prestigious Dixie Lee Bradley award for her years of outstanding service.

“All of what we’ve gone through as a company, starting basically from scratch, scaling up, introducing new accounting and CRM software systems, she’s been there and done it for us,” Grubb said.