This photo from July 2020, taken by Carol Lollis, Gazette photo editor, won a first-place award in the Feature Photo category of the New England Newspaper & Press Association’s annual Better Newspaper Contest. In this photo, Beatriz Rivera swims with her son, Nathaniel Gomez, at the Leeds dam. Rivera explained that Nathaniel is autistic and that she has two other children, ages 2 and 4, whose day care had recently reopened. “I was so happy,” she said. “that I could bring Nathaniel here and have some mommy time.”
This photo from July 2020, taken by Carol Lollis, Gazette photo editor, won a first-place award in the Feature Photo category of the New England Newspaper & Press Association’s annual Better Newspaper Contest. In this photo, Beatriz Rivera swims with her son, Nathaniel Gomez, at the Leeds dam. Rivera explained that Nathaniel is autistic and that she has two other children, ages 2 and 4, whose day care had recently reopened. “I was so happy,” she said. “that I could bring Nathaniel here and have some mommy time.” Credit: STAFF FILE PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS

NORTHAMPTON — Several articles and photographs published in the Daily Hampshire Gazette in 2020, and a Valley Advocate cover in 2019, received recognition in the New England Newspaper & Press Association’s annual Better Newspaper Contest.

The Gazette collected three first-place awards, including articles by news reporter Greta Jochem and sports reporter Kyle Grabowski, and a photo taken by photo editor Carol Lollis. The winning Valley Advocate cover was designed by Jennifer Levesque.

Shawn Palmer, publisher of the Daily Hampshire Gazette, the Greenfield Recorder and Athol Daily News, congratulated the teams at the Gazette and Valley Advocate for the awards.

“What is most meaningful about the recognition we received this week is that our work was judged by our colleagues within the newspaper industry,” Palmer said.

“Our team is focused on bringing the residents of Hampshire County the news they need to be informed, engaged citizens,” Palmer added. “To have those efforts judged worthy of recognition by a group of your peers is high praise indeed.”

Managing Editor Dan Crowley also complimented the winners.

“It’s been a challenging year at times working in the pandemic so it’s nice to see some of our staff recognized for their hard work and talents,” Crowley said.

Jochem’s first-place award came in the General News category for “Digging for the truth: Roundabout project stirs archaeological hunt, lawsuit and public outcry,” a story published in June 2020 about the controversial project on North King Street that would disturb a Native American site estimated to be at least 8,000 years old.

Grabowski’s March 2020 profile of a Granby wrestler and artist, titled “A talent with pens & pins,” nabbed him the top award in the Sports Story category.

A photo of a mother and son embracing during a river swim in Northampton garnered Lollis a first-place award in the Feature Photo category.

The August 2019 Valley Advocate cover “Fifty Years from Now” earned Levesque the award in the Front Page category. It has a split photograph of the faces of Presidents Richard Nixon and Donald Trump covering other images from 1969 and 2019.

Lollis also received a third-place Feature Photo award for a photo titled “Car Talk” published in June 2020. Other awards went to features writer Steve Pfarrer, receiving a third-place award in History Reporting for his short history of the Gazette’s printing operation in July 2020, and former Gazette staff writer Dave Eisenstadter also took a third-place award in Health Reporting for an April 2020 story on the Empty Arms bereavement group that builds community through loss.

The Gazette’s sister paper, the Greenfield Recorder, also won 11 awards in the regional newspaper contest, including five first-place awards.

Scott Merzbach is a reporter covering local government and school news in Amherst and Hadley, as well as Hatfield, Leverett, Pelham and Shutesbury. He can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com or 413-585-5253.