Nora Yarborough and Jillian Rienas resting the palms of the hands on each other’s freshly shaven heads at the annual St. Baldrick’s Fundraiser in Romeo.
BY LARRY SOBCZAK
EDITOR
The Record walked away with seven awards from the Michigan Press Association’s (MPA) annual “Better Newspapers Contest.”
The 153 year-old organization announced the awards at the beginning of its annual convention in Dearborn last week.
The entries were picked from the MPA’s 320 member newspapers across the state.
Receiving first place in its class in government and education news was an article titled “Recall campaign ignited” which was published on Aug. 1, 2018, the first day of the year-long contest.
The article was written by Stacy Sobotka with background information provided by Larry Sobczak.
The article delved into the public’s reaction to an announcement by Bruce Township Clerk Susan Brockmann, who said she planned to resign as clerk, along with Bruce Township Supervisor Richard Corey’s announcement that he intended to appoint Brockmann to a newly created position of township manager at the same salary she was collecting as clerk.
Receiving first place for a feature photo titled “Best Friends” by longtime freelance photographer and Washington Township resident Mike Nicley.
The photo shows nine year-olds Nora Yarborough and Jillian Rienas resting the palms of the hands on each other’s freshly shaven heads at the annual St. Baldrick’s Fundraiser in Romeo.
Nicley, who also serves as the treasurer of Washington Township, has been contributing primarily feature and sports photos to The Record since its founding in 2015 and its predecessor, The Romeo Observer, before that.
Creative Director Lyn Baxter received three awards for her newspaper and special section designs.
She received second place in Best Page or Pages for her design of the 2018 Armada Fair pages which were published in August of that year.
She also won third place in best newspaper design for the July 24-30, 2019 edition.
Baxter received an honorable mention in the special section category for her design of the 2018 Autumn/Winter Events and Adventures Guide.
Sobczak won third place in business and agriculture news for an article titled “Government shutdown worries vineyard owners.”
The article which was published Jan. 23, 2019 chronicled how the shutdown of the federal government was impacting Youngblood Vineyard in Ray Township.
The judges also gave honorable mention to a photo story by Andrea Rose Meldrum titled “Birds say spring is around the corner” which was published Feb. 13, 2019.
All of the award winning articles, photos and layouts can be viewed at www.myrecordnewspaper.com.
