Pilot wins 22 awards

The Whitefish Pilot took home 22 awards during the annual Montana Newspaper Association awards banquet Saturday in Lewistown.

Included in the awards haul were seven first-place honors.

Pilot reporter Daniel McKay won second place in education coverage for his story about Whitefish schools training for an emergency situation. He also earned second place in the Mark Henckel Outdoor Writing contest. He took third place for best sports feature story and third place in lifestyle coverage.

Pilot editor Heidi Desch won first place for best continuing news coverage for a series of stories about the affordable housing crisis in Whitefish. She also earned first place in lifestyle coverage for a story about the original yetis of the Whitefish Winter Carnival.

She earned second place for best news story, best continuing news coverage, best enterprise journalism, and best page layout and design.

Former editor Matt Baldwin won a handful of awards for his work last year at the Pilot before moving to the Daily Interlake. He earned first place in best sports feature, best news photo and best feature photo. He also earned second place in the breaking news story, third in the Mark Henckel Outdoor Writing Award category and third in best enterprise journalism.

The staff earned a first place award for best page layout and design.

The team of Pilot advertising director Kirk Fritz and graphic artist Jessica Harmon earned a handful of awards for their work creating advertisements. They earned first and second place in the Best Sponsor Page category; second and third place in the best ad to sell or promote merchandise category; and third place in the best image building advertisement category.

The Pilot competes in the Division 3 category for weekly papers in the state with a circulation between 2,000 and 4,500.