The Lake Report has been honoured with five first-place awards in the Ontario Community Newspapers Association’s annual Better Newspapers Competition.

In all, The Lake Report was singled out for 17 awards – which, for the third year in a row, is more than any newspaper in the province. The award winners were unveiled Friday.

The newspaper and its website, niagaranow.com, placed second in four competition categories, third in two and received six honourable mentions.

In provincial and national competitions since 2020, The Lake Report has now won 61 awards, more than any other publication.

The Better Newspapers Competition is adjudicated by independent industry experts, many from other provinces.

The competition was for stories, photos and advertising published between Oct. 1, 2021, and Sept. 30, 2022.

For the second year in a row, The Lake Report won Best Front Page (under 10,000 circulation).

The award is for the July 28, 2022, edition, which featured items about two men stranded for hours on a disabled Sea-Doo in Lake Ontario, the labour shortages plaguing NOTL businesses, a new distillery opening in St. Davids, plans to recruit another nurse practitioner to town, and a column about using robotic cats to help seniors with dementia.

An online video featuring the 2022 return of the Bunny Trail and Easter egg hunt won Best Breaking News Video.

Advertising campaigns created by The Lake Report also were singled out for three first-place awards.

The Upper Canada Food Guide, a Jan. 13 and Jan. 20, 2022,  project promoting restaurant take-out meals amid the pandemic, was judged Best Feature/Unit Pages.

The campaign created for Caughill Automotive, promoting owner Wally Dingman’s expert advice for customers, was named Best Creative Ad.

Richard Harley and Kevin MacLean won first for Best In-House Promotion, a May 5, 2022, four-page commemorative section celebrating everyone behind the paper’s 11 provincial awards and featuring a congratulatory ad from realtor Nancy Bailey of Engel & Volkers.

Second-place prizes went to:

• Dave Van De Laar, runner-up for Photographer of the Year award. His shots of last year’s Bunny Trail Easter egg hunt, a Canada goose “running” on water prior to takeoff, an exhausted Sean Wright emerging from Lake Ontario after his swim for the Terry Fox Run and an airborne Niagara Thunderhawks lacrosse player scoring a goal were all entered in the competition.
• Richard Harley, Best News Story, for his March 10, 2022, story about Teresa Wong, a mother of three who fled Hong Kong for NOTL with two of her children after the Communist regimes crackdown on democracy.

• Former reporter Evan Saunders, for Online Special Initiative, for a March 15, 2022, story about how 10 per cent of all homes in NOTL are short-term rentals, with an online interactive map showing the address and location of each one.
• Richard Harley and Nicholas Rothwell for Multimedia Online/Best Online Experience for a Story, for their Oct. 27, 2021, feature and video, A Short Cut to Mushrooms, about foraging for fungi.

Third-place awards went to:

• Jill Troyer, Best Rural Story, for her 13, 2022, story on the icewine harvest during the -21C temperatures of the polar vortex.
• A full-page ad on Sept. 22, 2022,promoting World News Day, outlined some of the stories and features that would never have been reported if The Lake Report did not exist. It was third for  Best In-house Promotion.

The Lake Report’s six honourable mentions were awarded to:

• Richard Harley, Best Editorial, for his Jan. 27, 2022, piece, “Close maskless school now,” after The Lake Report’s investigation of a rogue independent “pod school” that was violating COVID protocols.
• Evan Saunders, Education Writing, for his Oct. 7, 2021, story, “Working with troubled youth critical for Indigenous culture, elder says.”
• Evan Saunders, Health and Wellness, for his March 10, 2022, storyon how 10-year-old Maya Webster convinced the Ontario government to cover the cost of glucose monitors for thousands with diabetes.
• High school student Maddy Gordon, an intern reporter, for Best Guest/Freelance Column, for her April 28, 2022, guest editorial, “Sexual assault rally a chance to be heard,” about gaps in the District School Board of Niagara’s curriculum on consent and sexual assault – and how some people reacted badly to a student rally on the subject.
• Richard Harley, Best Use of Colour, for a back page Caughill Automotive adpromoting winter tire switchovers.
• The Lake Report team, Best Community Website, for our newly revamped news site, niagaranow.com.