DAR says thank you to the community

The Daily American Republic has a big thank you to give our community.

Thank you for being the kind of community that pulls together in hard times.

Thank you to all of the selfless people who give of their time and talents to make us better.

Thank you to everyone who saw a need in 2020 and stepped up to find a solution, rather than creating more hardship for those who were already struggling.

We want to say thank you because we were able in 2020 to report on all of that good news. We were able to report on the strength of our community at a time when it faced struggles we could never have imagined before March 2020.

This month, the Daily American Republic will receive four first place awards in Missouri’s Better Newspaper Contest, and one third place recognition.

The work that we were able to do was only made possible because of the community that we live in and the good people who lift others up when times are hard.

The DAR will receive first place for Best News or Feature Special Section for “United,” our 2020 Progress edition that focused on how this area came together to face a worldwide pandemic with frontline health care workers who showed up every day to new and more difficult challenges, volunteers making homemade masks at their sewing tables and new efforts to ensure those facing financial hardship had enough support.

The DAR will receive first place for Best COVID-19 Coverage, a recognition which looked at three editions, March 27, March 28 and April 1, as we reported on the area’s first COVID patients and how local officials and health care workers were responding.

The DAR will receive two first place awards for Best Sports News Story or Package and Best Sports Feature Photograph. These recognize “The time has come,” a feature story by Scott Borkgren and Brian Rosener on the retirement of Three Rivers College Coach and legend Gene Bess, and Borkgren’s photograph for “Joy and Pain for the Mules.”

Finally the DAR will receive third place in Best Military Story, “A Christmas Miracle,” which I wrote about the belongings of a fallen Vietnam veteran being returned to his family decades later.

These projects reflect the hard work of all of the Daily American Republic and Butler County Publishing family. More than that, they reflect, I believe, the passion and dedication we have for the work we do to keep our community informed, as well as the concern we have for our friends and neighbors.

We hope you will help us celebrate not only these recognitions, but the caring community that we live in.

Donna Farley is the editor of the Daily American Republic.