How do you know a story hit home?

When a reader cuts it out of the magazine, folds it up and puts it in their wallet — where it stays. For a decade.

A column about this powerful moment earned Ruralite magazine a national award of merit in the Best Column category from the National Electric Cooperatives Statewide Editors Association. A picture, Fair Animal Bonding, also took home the top award for Best Feature Photo.

Both of this year’s award-winning works were shared with Ruralite readers through “The Great Picture Hunt,” David LaBelle’s popular photography column produced by Pioneer Utility Resources for more than two decades.

Ruralite magazine, the flagship consumer-facing publication produced by Pioneer, reaches more than 362,000 households in Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, California and Montana. Members of the magazine editorial team received both awards on Sept. 25, during the Statewide Editors Association Institute in Louisville, Kentucky.

Stories Worth Saving

In 2012, David wrote about his favorite holiday in the column, Thanksgiving: The Best American Holiday of All.

“I love Thanksgiving,” wrote David. “I love the name, the concept and what it evokes in me. It is a beautiful word, the marriage of two unselfish words that create an even lovelier union. Like a string around my heart, Thanksgiving doesn’t highlight what I don’t have. Instead, it reminds me how much I do have and how blessed I am.”

When David heard the column was read, reread and saved by one reader for a decade, he was blown away.

His response, A Humbling Treasure, won a national award of merit for Best Column. He shared how he felt when he was told the reader, Alfred Arnoldus, carefully kept the column in his wallet. The Arnoldus’ read the column every Thanksgiving Day in Alfred’s memory.

“Like seeds carried by birds to faraway places, our words travel, and we seldom know the impact they might have on another’s life,” said David.

“What a heartfelt, memorable column! Love the poetic and thoughtful lead. It makes me want to read more,” a judge said.

One of David’s pictures, Fair Animal Bonding, took home the top award for Best Feature Photo.

“This photo captures a lot,” one judge shared. “The emotion of the boy hugging the goat is an emotional tearjerker … Even the goat, whose eyes are closed, seems to be emotional, connecting to the boy.”

Enjoy these stories? Get photography and storytelling insights every month in David’s Ruralite column, “The Great Picture Hunt.”

What’s SEA?

The association supports electric cooperative statewide consumer publications and the people who produce them through training and education activities. SEA represents 32 statewide magazines, including Ruralite, Currents, Louisiana Country and Florida Currents.

More than 360 stories and pictures were entered into the competition. Other winners include the Utility Pioneers at Arkansas Living, Colorado Country Life, Georgia Magazine, Illinois Country Living, Indiana Connection, Kentucky Living, North Dakota Living, Ohio Cooperative Living, Oklahoma Living, Penn Lines, Rural Missouri, Rural Montana, Texas Co-op Power, Today in Mississippi and Wisconsin Energy Cooperative News.

The annual awards are nicknamed the Willies, a tribute to the legendary cooperative mascot Willie Wiredhand. The awards honor excellence in publication design, writing, illustration, photography and website design. Learn more at sea.coop.