MANITOULIN – Your community newspaper has done it again! On Friday, April 23, The Manitoulin Expositor nabbed three Ontario Community Newspapers Association (OCNA) Better Newspapers Competition awards.
The Expositor took first place honours for the Community Service Award for its annual Harvest Glory Days inter-community decorating friendly autumn competition.
“What a wonderful way to engage the entire community in a feel-good exercise during a year of upheaval,” wrote judge Jackie Jardine, editor of the Pictou Advance. “The fact that the program has grown every year since its inception is a testament to the value readers place on it. There is not a person, business or organization that does not have access to participating and this inclusivity is admirable, particularly during a worldwide health pandemic. It clearly takes a lot of work photographing and judging the event and that work stands out! The dedication to the print paper as well as the social media sites is commendable. Congratulations on a job executed wonderfully!”
Manitoulin Expositor publisher Alicia McCutcheon noted that, although the Harvest Glory Days initiative has been operating for eight years each fall drawing communities together through themed outdoor decorating, “this was the only time we had thought of making the program a contender for the Community Service Award. We entered it this year because of the substantial new entries, Island-wide. It is a response to the pandemic, I believe.”
In the Original Ad category, The Expositor’s very own Kendra Edwards placed first for her ‘Harvest to Share: Indigenous Food Access Initiative’ full-page ad.
“Very nice, A great idea. Very clean layout,” the judge, Tim Welsh, himself a graphic designer and vice-president and management director of Fuelcontent Canada, was succinct in his praise for Ms. Edwards.
In the Best News Photo category, reporter Warren Schlote took second place for his photo of a Wiikwemkoong elder staring down a car during a peaceful protest in solidarity of the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs on Highway 17, just outside of Espanola, in March of last year.
“Very topical in that place and time,” judge Wendy Elliot of the Valley Journal Advertiser in Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia wrote. “Strong photos on the page and that last one says so much.”
“Once again, the depth and breadth of Expositor staffer skills and talents are on display at the provincial awards,” said Ms. McCutcheon. “I’m very proud of Kendra and Warren whose names are undoubtedly now familiar to their colleagues from their times on the podium.”
“I’m also so pleased that we have been acknowledged for Harvest Glory Days, which has truly been a labour of love for my father, Rick McCutcheon, who set out with an idea in mind to transform Manitoulin into an autumnal wonderland and has succeeded wholeheartedly,” Ms. McCutcheon continued. “Our many thanks to the Island homes and businesses who make each year’s event even better than the year before.”
