Congratulations to my fellow employees for their awards won at the Maine Press Association’s annual Better Newspaper Contest dinner in Bar Harbor on Saturday, Oct. 19.

Having been here at the Boothbay Register for 37 years, the total amount of awards received by the staff ranks up there with the most ever. Memories of Bill Harris, the late-great staff artist, carrying home three or four first-place plaques comes to mind, along with John Edwards, Robin Beck, Barbara Freeman and others winning plaques and/or certificates.

I wasn’t able to join the gang in Bar Harbor because I was being honored by the Midcoast Sports Hall of Fame at a ceremony at the Elks Club in Rockland. Thank you, Allan Crocker, an HOF board member, for nominating me as a “Legend” and for your wonderful introduction at the ceremony.

Congratulations, also, to the other former BRHS athletes who were inducted into the HOF on Saturday. Three members of the undefeated 1958 Seahawk football team, Alden Jordan, Ira Machon and Don Soler, were on hand as the HOF committee inducted the team. Not to be outdone, BRHS 1,000-point scorer Melissa Hodgdon, and track and field state champion Angel Tibbetts Ames were also inducted into the HOF. Congratulations to them.

The late Leigh Campbell, a graduate of Wiscasset High School, was also inducted as a “Legend.” He was the official scorer for the Bates College men’s basketball team for nearly 50 years and was recognized by the Maine Basketball Hall of Fame in 2019.

Saturday was a day of honors and a day of celebration.