The Surrey-North Delta Leader brought home two first-place awards and one third from the recent B.C. and Yukon Community Newspaper Association's Ma Murray Awards.
Journalist Boaz Joseph took first place in the Feature Photo category for his photograph of a hummingbird in flight, while assistant editor Sheila Reynolds won first place for her feature article on Eileen Mohan prior to the start of the Surrey Six trial last fall.
Joseph was also awarded third place for his photo essay featuring pictures taken during last year's Surrey Festival of Dance.
Leader staff were also winners in the Local Media Association's (LMA) 2013 Editorial Contest. Joseph won first place for Best News Photo for his shot of a firefighter holding an infant following a car accident, while Evan Seal's photo from Surrey Const. Adrian Oliver's funeral was given an honourable mention in the same category.
Joseph's triple-exposure photo from the Surrey Festival of Dance took second place for Best Feature Photo, and Kevin Diakiw's series of articles called Hard to Help, about the effects of mental illness, also received an honourable mention in the Best Continuing Coverage category.
The Leader also took first place for its coverage of the last provincial election, as well as winning third place overall in the Newspaper of the Year Contest for non-daily publications with a circulation over 37,500. The LMA is comprised of more than 2,000 newspapers in the U.S. and Canada.
Joseph's photo of the firefighter holding the baby also won third place in the national 2014 Canadian Community Newspaper Awards, while his dance photo essay won third place.