The Betsie Current wins eight state awards and a regional grant to work with Gen Z

From Staff Reports

We have had a lot to celebrate recently. 

Back in April, The Betsie Current won eight awards in five different categories from the Michigan Press Association’s 2025 Better Newspaper Contest.

   • In the “Spot News” category, our editor/co-owner Aubrey Ann Parker won first place for “Disaster Averted – The importance of being prepared at Sleeping Bear Dunes.” The story is a play-by-play of 16-year-old Brody Patterson’s contributions to the rescue of two young men from Ohio who were suffering from heat stroke. Since “spot news” is defined as “immediate, real-time reporting of unexpected events as they occur from the scene,” this first-place win was a particular surprise to our team, because it is not often that The Betsie Current covers breaking news stories. Thanks to Russ Patterson, the boy-hero’s father, who called us with this story, so that we could tell it in our pages. (If you missed it, go to bit.ly/DuneScare online to read Parker’s award-winning spot news story.)

   • Our writers swept the “Opinion” category: first place went to Kendall Rose for “Leave The Lights On – An essay on neighbors and nostalgia,” second place went to Jess Piskor for “Once More Unto the Beech – Beach trees, passenger pigeons, and the struggle to survive in Northern Michigan,” third place went to Tim Mulherin for “Northern Michigan Chaos Theory – An essay advocating for appreciative adaptation.” (If you missed these award-winning opinion pieces, go to bit.ly/HweenLights online to read Rose’s entry; go to bit.ly/PPigeons to read Piskor’s; go to bit.ly/NMChaos to read Mulherin’s.)

   • In the “Feature Story” category, Bree McGregor won second place for “Soaring High – Green Point Flyers sustain local tradition of motorless flight,” while Aubrey Ann Parker won honorable mention for “Have You Seen This Fish – Help needed to locate the 40s Fish.” (If you missed these stories when they published in our pages, go to bit.ly/GPFlyers online to read McGregor’s award-winning feature story or bit.ly/40sFish for Parker’s.)

   • In the “Business News” category, Keith Schneider won honorable mention for his profile of Honor Grocery: “Small Town Grocery – Outsized community role.” (If you missed it, go to bit.ly/HonorMarket online to read Schneider’s award-winning business news story.)

   • In the “Special Section” category, The Betsie Current won first place for our “Special September Issue.” Since September 2021, we have dedicated the entire September issue to first-person narratives of difficult topics: suicide, sobriety, miscarriage, adoption, depression, OCD, PTSD, ADHD, and more. This marks the second year that we have won first place in this category. This year’s award-winning contributors included Bear Howe writing about transracial adoption, Christina Ryan-Stoltz reflecting on the 10-year anniversary of her son’s death by suicide, and Emily Stoddard’s melodic essay that links attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) with Disney’s “Fantasia” film. (If you missed it, or want a refresher, go to bit.ly/TBC-2024-14 online to read our award-winning special issue.)

Also worth mentioning: the Glen Arbor Sun—our Leelanau County-based semi-sister publication—won 18 awards in 11 different categories. This included one piece that we re-published in our pages: Jacob Wheeler won second place for “Saving Cherries, Saving Farms” in the “Agricultural News” category.

Additionally, the Glen Arbor Sun was named “local news media publication” of the year, with The Betsie Current coming in second place for that honor, and Crain’s Grand Rapids Business coming in third.

This marks only the second time that The Betsie Current has ever submitted for the Michigan Press Association awards in our 15 years of publishing—we went from winning two awards last year to eight this year.

Then in May, we—along with our friends at the Glen Arbor Sun—were awarded a $6,300 grant for a joint project to begin working with aspiring young journalists and influencers during the summer of 2026. 

“Meeting Young Journalists Where They Are” is an innovative way to collaborate with high school- and college-aged Northern Michiganders, who will be paid to produce compelling and topical local news in their rural communities through online video platforms.

“In journalism, we often talk about rural ‘news deserts’ and how people living in communities without adequate access to local reporting and storytelling become less engaged in civic life and less trusting of institutions—from government, to schools, to hospitals,” says Jacob Wheeler, Sun editor. “We worry that teenagers and young adults are also turning away from news and civic engagement. That’s why we’re trying to ‘meet young journalists where they are’ and appeal to their sense of storytelling, through mediums that speak to their generation.”  

This project will be funded by Press Forward Northern Michigan, hosted by the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation, which is giving out a total of $50,000 to six projects with a goal of supporting news operations across rural communities that spark innovation, build trust, and expand access to local news and information.

Do you know a young person between the ages of 15 and 23 in Leelanau or Benzie county who would be interested in participating in this innovative project? Would you like more information sent to you about this project? Fill out the form at https://bit.ly/YouthJournalists online. A grant from Press Forward Northern Michigan will pay young journalists per video.
Featured Photo Caption: Kendall Rose’s “Leaving the Lights On” essay won first place in the “opinion” category of the 2025 Better Newspaper Contest from the Michigan Press Association.