June 21, 2023

On Friday, June 9, the Catholic Media Association awarded the North Country Catholic a second-place award at its annual Catholic Media Conference in Baltimore, Maryland.

The award was in the category “Best Regular Column – Spiritual Life” for three of Editor Darcy Fargo’s columns from 2022, “Lessons from ‘Leon the Lobster,’” “Not a #BadCatholic” and “A flair for the dramatic.”

“Columns from the editor are most often dry,” the judges wrote for an entry in The Catholic Journalist, the Catholic Media Association’s publication. “But in this case, they are fun, interesting and inciteful. I could read about ‘Leon the Lobster’ repeatedly. In fact, I did. The North Country Catholic has a gem in Darcy Fargo, especially when reading about her “Darcy Drama and #Growing Catholic.”

Entries in the Best Regular Column category include three different articles. Judges focus on the overall effectiveness of the columns submitted. Both digital and print publications of all sizes compete in the category.

“I’m very honored to receive this award,” said Fargo. “It’s a blessing to share my faith with the Diocese of Ogdensburg through the pages of the North Country Catholic. It’s helped me grow my faith in ways I never imagined. Being recognized for that work is like a bonus gift.”

The North Country Catholic has garnered many accolades and awards from the Catholic Press Association in recent years, including an honorable mentions for vocations coverage in 2016; first place for a series, “God’s Mercy in God’s Country” and an honorable mention for best weekly paper under 25,000 circulation in 2017; a first place award in 2020 for a story, “Finding faith in a fortress,” and a third place for Fargo’s columns on the pandemic in 2021.