Time for us to tip our hats. The Reminder has been nominated in six different categories in this year’s Saskatchewan Weekly Newspapers Association (SWNA) Better Newspapers Competition.
The Reminder itself was nominated for Best Editorial Page for its circulation class.
Reporter Eric Westhaver’s work was nominated in five different categories, covering tourism, government and education coverage, as well as feature writing and photography. Westhaver was nominated in the Best Feature Story category for “Behind Flin Flon’s queen of drag”, a story about Flin Flon drag queen Miss Bijoux and performer Alain Lachapelle that was printed in the paper’s June 30 issue. The story featured photography from both Westhaver and from photographer Noelle Drimmie.
Another nomination came in the Best Government Coverage category for “Thompson-based jab plan rolled out,” a story in the March 3 issue detailing the province’s “Vaxport” plan – a mostly-scuppered plan by the Manitoba government to vaccinate northerners against COVID-19 through flying groups of people to Thompson. A story about “Postcard from a Quarantined Miner”, a song and music video by Winnipeg-based music group Bluebloods that uses imagery of Flin Flon and its history, was nominated in the Best Tourism Story category.
The reporter was also nominated in the Best Education Coverage – K-12 category for “School opens new sensory room with community support,” an article in the Dec. 22, 2021 issue of The Reminder about the creation of a sensory room at Ruth Betts Community School and a substantial donation to the program by Pat and Dennis Hyndman.
Lastly, Westhaver was nominated in the Best Black and White Photo category for a photo in the August 4 edition of the revealing of a Star Attraction sign for the Flin Flon Station Museum – the photo shows a black sheet being removed from the sign with help from a child on an adult’s shoulders.
The Reminder also received six nominations in the 2020 Better Newspaper Competition Awards, as well as eight in the 2019 awards. The paper and its staff won twice both years.
The Reminder thanks SWNA and the competition’s judges for their consideration and thanks its readers and community for their support.
