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.