Thoma earns three awards

The annual Minnesota Newspaper Awards Banquet was held Thursday night, at which time the awards were handed out. In addition to the first place photography award won by Brian Jeremiason, The Mascot took three thirds as well — and writer Scott Thoma had a hand in all three of those.

His awards included:

•Sports Story. His account of the former Minneota "Red Eye" men's softball team and their tremendous success was honored by the state association.

•Social Issues Story: Thoma's account of Minneota American Legion Commander Jim Fink's drive to the state legislature to get a law changed so his Legion could collect money for a memorial from the Lyon County Board won the honor. Judges called it, "Concise and a little inspiring."

•Business Story: Thoma and Publisher Byron Higgin worked together for this third place story called, "Rebuilding Minneota." It was story of news businesses coming into the community despite the fact several others had closed up. The judges called it, "A good concept."

The story about Jim Fink was an unusual one. The Minneota American Legion Commander has been driven to establish a Veteran’s Memorial In Minneota.

In order to gain money from the Lyon County Board he had to get the Minnesota State Legislature to change a law.The third story getting an award was a story about Minneota getting new businesses to replace some the community had lost.

While Publisher Higgin provided some background, Thoma wrote the stories about each new individual business in an effort to give readers a profound sense Minneota was making attempts to rebuild its business community.