STATE — Livermore Falls Advertiser staff writer Pam Harnden received a first place journalism award Saturday, Oct. 14, during the annual Maine Press Association’s conference.

Harnden won for her article about the Regional School Unit 73 board of directors decisions to keep two controversial books in the Spruce Mountain High School library. Some residents had appealed an earlier decision by a review committee recommending that “Gender Queer: A Memoir” and “White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism” be allowed to stay.

The award was in a new category in the MPA’s 2023 Better Newspaper Contest: Coverage of minority community issues. The award description noted in part, “One story that heightens awareness of a minority community – spanning race, sexual orientation, gender, ethnicity – and challenges faced.”

The Kid’s Edition page [which had been printed each week in The Franklin Journal and Livermore Falls Advertiser] received a second place award in the best young reader engagement idea category for the Advertiser Democrat, the western Maine weekly newspaper in Norway responsible for developing the page.

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