“Ah shucks,” said the sheepish lion to the Wizard of Oz upon receiving his badge of courage, “I’m speechless.” 
While not speechless, we are certainly honored. Our OZ was the annual New England Newspaper Press Association awards convention held in Boston this past Friday and Saturday during which we took home 18 awards at the Addison Independent. Of those 18, an unprecedented (for us) eight were for first, six seconds, and four thirds.
Independent political columnist Eric Davis and sports columnist Karl Lindholm each took top honors among New England’s largest non-daily newspapers and magazines. Reporter John Flowers won first in the crime and courts category, while reporter Andy Kirkaldy won in education reporting, and Trent Campbell was first with a general news photo. The entire staff won for producing the best Local Election Coverage of our Town Meeting Day preview and Town Meeting Day reporting last year (our second year in a row), while the online web team won for Best Overall Website.
Our sister magazine Vermont Sports, which we produce at the Addison Independent offices, won seven awards, including two firsts; while our sister paper in Brandon, The Reporter, won three awards, including a first place for editor Lee Kahrs’ general news story on the life of a student-football-star turned heroin addict and his recovery. Our other sister paper, the Mountain Times in Killington, won four awards in advertising.
Significantly, the Addison Independent also won first for General Excellence among New England’s largest weeklies — the highest honor of the year at NENPA’s 2016 convention.
We’re thrilled. And grateful to the hard work of our terrific staff here at the Addison Independent, but also of the Addison County business community and all of our loyal readers who help support this independently-owned newspaper.
In these changing times in the ways we get all get the news that holds our communities together, we want you — our readers and advertisers — to know that all of us are working hard to provide our readers with great writing, accurate reporting, catchy advertising (we took five advertising awards), fabulous photography and thoughtful commentary that provides a basis for being better informed citizens. Because it is when citizens are well informed that they are able and willing to make our communities stronger and better places to live. That’s the real reward and what we strive to do day-in and day-out. It’s the motivation that makes the hard work worthwhile.
Angelo S. Lynn