Coyote cleans up in Wenatchee

La Conner Weekly News photographer and retired truck driver Don Coyote was named a contest winner six times at the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association’s awards dinner in Wenatchee.

After the announcer kept calling out “the winner is Don Coyote!” somebody walked past the table where I was cheering and quipped, “What’s with you guys? Can’t you leave any awards for someone else to win?”

La Conner Weekly News didn’t have the biggest haul of honors Friday night, but we added 13 more Better Newspaper Contest awards to our collection.

Coyote took three first place awards and actually swept the color pictorial photo category, scooping up all three places.

The newspaper also swept the general interest column category, with Mel Damski claiming first and Mickey Bambrick taking second and third.

Also earning honors were Sue Phillips, Cindy Vest, Nicole Jennings, and the editor who is writing this story.

Here’s what we won for:

Don Coyote: First Place Color Pictorial for a photo of a barn under a moody sky that ran March 9, 2016; First Place Color Feature Photo for a picture of two Anacortes kids, Conner and Kennedy McKerring, standing in a field of tulips that ran April 1, 2015; First Place General News initially awarded for “Special Seating,” a photo of commodes lined up along the boardwalk while a local restaurant was being renovated — that photo, published Dec. 2, 2015, went back into the judging hopper to compete against photos submitted by much larger newspapers and still came out third overall.

Coyote also took second and third in Color Pictorial and a second in Color Feature Photo, for a total of six awards. Two of his winning photos are reprinted on the back page.

Nicole Jennings: First Place in Best General Feature Story for “Feeling terror every time I leave the house,” published on Nov. 18, 2015, days after the Paris terror attacks and written while Nicole was living in Europe. Nicole is now a journalist with the Issaquah-Sammamish Reporter.

Sandy Stokes: First Place Best Education Story for “An agonizing decision for voters” published Jan. 20, 2016 about an upcoming school levy election in the wake of the Great Wolf Lodge decision.

Mel Damski: First Place in Best General Interest Column for “If I ran the Zoo.” Damski, who is a film director, moved the judges with his account of the life of Rachel Damski, his late mother and holocaust survivor.

Mickey Bambrick: Second and Third places in Best General Interest Column for “Life on the Ridge” and “Nuggets from Norway.” This marks the sixth year in a row that Bambrick has won awards for her newspaper work, which has included her two weekly columns as well as photos and news stories.

Sue Phillips: Initially First Place in Best Topical Column for her Plant Lady gardening column. Like one of Coyote’s entries, it was put back into the judging hopper to compete against columns from much larger papers and still emerged Second Place overall. Sue now lives in Winthrop and Lake Havasu and has retired from newspapering.

Cindy Vest: Second Place in Multiple Advertiser Ad, for “The best presents are right here in town,” the Christmas advertising page that ran Dec. 16, 2015. Vest’s advertising design has won awards in this contest every year since 2007.

The Washington Better Newspaper Contest drew 2,201 entries this year from 59 participating newspapers from throughout the state. Awards were presented across four categories based on the size of the newspapers’ circulation.

La Conner is in the smallest category – papers with circulation of 2,500 or less.