Our personal bests Bangor Daily News staffers share favorite moments from 2007

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We could get all Dickensian and say it was the best of times, it was the worst of times, but at the Bangor Daily News, 2007 was mainly a year of transition. Change has a way of making people feel a little off-kilter, but we weathered it the only way we know how: We wrote – and edited – the heck out of it. The year took us to picturesque islands and foreign lands. It tested our courage, tried our patience, yet took our breath away with its beauty. And to top it all off, the Maine Press Association named the BDN one of its Newspapers of the Year (yeah, we’re pretty sure that would qualify under “best of times”). Now that 2007 is drawing to a close, we wanted to share some of our favorite moments with you, our loyal readers. Because without you, we’d really be off-kilter. And that’s no way to ring in the new year.

A record-setting year

Choosing one item from my column as the best of the year would be impossible because each item has its own very special meaning. Rather, the best of the year for me is that, once again, our readers have set a new record with their number of requests for information to appear in the Joni Averill column (more than 2,000 by the end of November), thus ensuring in 2007 the greater community that is all of us is communicating with each other, truly expressing our needs and wants, our hopes and dreams, our thanks and concerns.

– Joni Averill, columnist

Fair trade

The brightest part of my year as the BDN business reporter was covering the gubernatorial trade mission to South Korea and Japan. The 14 businesses that went along to find markets for their products were extraordinarily generous to me, providing detailed descriptions of their meetings with local distributors. Their stories were tangible: finding a niche for Cold River vodka in the bars of Seoul, or speaking to local fishermen in Tokyo about the demand for lobster. I had so much fun observing and photographing them as I wandered through the crowded streets, and I was so grateful for the opportunity to travel to Asia for the first time.

– Anne Ravana, business reporter

Best-dressed

The sisterhood of the traveling dress turned out to be one of my favorite stories I wrote in 2007. I charted the red and white cotton dress’s journey from the time it began in 1935 when it was created as part of a college home economics course project in Farmington. The dress spent many years in a closet in Bangor before being donated to a clothing museum in Island Falls. A vintage fashion company in Winthrop, Mass., acquired the dress in 2006 and it was sold online to a woman in Pikesville, Md., in 2007. There must be a million dress stories in the naked city.

– Ardeana Hamlin, By Hand columnist

Peak performance

Tops on my list has to be the day photographer John Clarke Russ and I climbed Mount Katahdin with Nelson Daigle. I’ve done my share of hiking. But compared to Daigle, who has been to the top of Katahdin 350-plus times and counting, I might as well be back in Cub Scouts. What was so special was hearing that, no matter how many times the 69-year-old walked through the same woods or got caught in a nasty storm miles from his car, Daigle never tired of the scenery or the experience. And it was nice to know that even after 350 trips up the mountain, Daigle still feels it in his legs every time – just like the rest of us. I know I did the next day. But, like Daigle, I can’t wait to get back there next year.

– Kevin Miller, environmental reporter

Table of plenty

It was a thrill last February to be named managing editor of the newspaper my grandparents, parents and I all began reading at young ages. But the highlight of my year came in October at the Maine Press Association Awards banquet at the Samoset resort in Rockport. Seated at a table surrounded by talented and dedicated members of the Bangor Daily News staff, I got to watch them individually recognized in front of dozens of their peers as they were called to the front of the room to receive MPA awards for their work. Then, just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, I got to walk to the front of the room and accept the plaque when it was announced that the Bangor Daily News had been named the best daily newspaper in Maine.

– Mike Dowd, Managing Editor

Joy of reading

As a copy editor at the BDN, I am lucky enough to get paid to read. While I am the envy of my family, reading for a living is a mixed blessing. Many of the stories I edit concern political gridlock, untimely deaths, destructive storms and assorted strife. Some stories are important but may be, well, uninspiring. So on that July 2007 night that I left work before midnight to join my family in line at the bookstore for J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” I got the chance to rediscover the magic of reading with the help of the world’s most famous boy wizard. As I exchanged phone calls with my sisters and mother through the night between chapters, I remembered what it was like to be a child discovering adventures only found by turning a page. Enjoying and sharing stories, at the BDN and on my own, made my year special.

– Judy Long, assistant copy desk supervisor

Young at art

This summer I wrote a feature about Yolanda Fusco, an 86-year-old artist and summer resident of Monhegan Island. … Looking at Yolanda’s work, I saw that her style had changed dramatically, from conventional portraiture to brilliant abstract art. She told me that she had developed macular degeneration and couldn’t see the center of the pictures anymore, but rather than give up, she started painting large abstract, colorful shapes, which she could see. It was that kind of spirit that drew me to want to do a story about her. Taking the 12-mile boat ride to Monhegan Island wasn’t bad, either. I had a wonderful interview, did my best on the story because she deserved it, and made a friend in the process.

– George Chappell, Midcoast reporter

Nurturing the family tree

Here are three bests for those interested in genealogy: The best membership for someone working on a family tree is the Maine Genealogical Society. It’s just $20 a year in the United States, including the quarterly journal and newsletter, sent to MGS, P.O. Box 221, Farmington, ME 04938. Add $5 for first-class postage. The best publisher of books of interest to Maine genealogists is Picton Press in Rockport, which has a great Web site at www.pictonpress.com. The best TV ad is the CitiCard commercial that shows a young man and his dad traveling to Norway to visit their roots. After taking in the sights and the food, and buying matching sweaters, they go to the hall of records and find out that their family is – Swedish! So they whip out the credit card and head for Sweden.

– Roxanne Saucier, editor of The Weekly, Family Ties columnist

A diamond day

After months and months of being on “diamond watch” as it was termed by BDN executive editor Mark Woodward, the wait finally ended when I was able to walk into the newsroom in September sporting a sparkly bauble on my left ring finger. My significant other – better known to most readers as The Man on the Couch in Friday’s Reality Bytes column – popped the question and my feet still haven’t touched the ground. The best part is that I didn’t realize how many people were waiting for us to finally make it official until sources I deal with on a regular basis noticed the new addition to my finger and immediately offered their congratulations. It definitely was a year to remember.

– Aimee Dolloff, city reporter, Reality Bytes columnist

Living history

Being a bit of an adrenaline junkie, I’d have to say the most memorable event of the last work year was the near-implosion of Penn National Gaming Inc.’s gaming and hotel complex, located within view of many of the window here at 491 Main St. Though it’s a sure bet none of the key players involved would see it this way, the Legislature’s move to increase the state’s take from Penn’s slot machines – and the company’s response of temporarily pulling the plug on the project – made for some good theater, journalistically speaking. This nail-biter had it all: conflict, high drama and big money, with a $131 million investment at stake.

– Dawn Gagnon, Bangor City Hall reporter

Authentic heroes

One of the most thrilling moments of my year ? of all my years, really ? was watching Bick and Susan Murchison greet Scott and Nancy Valente for the first time since the Murchisons rescued Robert Valente from the freezing waters of Chamberlain Lake on Memorial Day. It was a privilege to see that moment of joy and healing that came when the Murchisons, two unassuming and authentic heroes, bonded so beautifully with the wounded, courageous man whose life they had saved.

– Nick Sambides, Katahdin area reporter

Silken threads

I have a great job, and I adore pretty much everyone I’ve ever interviewed. That said, when I met Michael Shyka, a fashion designer who handpaints swaths of silk, it was the winter of our discontent. After living for years in Miami, Shyka returned to Maine to be closer to his family. He wasn’t feeling well, and he was freezing, to boot. I was going through a rough time, and I’m pretty sure my first visit to his studio was on the coldest day of the year. He was a little reluctant about being interviewed, but when I walked in and saw his work – florals, stripes and chinoiserie patterns steeped in the sunny colors of south Florida – I knew I had to write about him. I promised that if he shared his story with me, we’d help each other out of our respective funks. Over the course of several months, and several visits to his studio, we became friends. Some days, we didn’t talk, really – instead, we just listened to disco. By the time spring finally arrived, our moods had improved and I was able to write one of my favorite stories of the year.

– Kristen Andresen, feature writer, ShopGirl columnist

Community spirit

After covering the January 2004 closing of the Eastern Fine Paper Co. mill in Brewer, and three years of subsequent stories about displaced workers and what could be done with the contaminated 41-acre riverfront site, it was a great pleasure to write a story in June that Cianbro Corp. of Pittsfield would take over the site and provide 500 or more good paying jobs to local residents. Yeah!

– Nok-Noi Ricker, Brewer area reporter

In the big leagues

One of my favorite memories from 2007 comes from the Boston Red Sox spring training camp in Fort Myers, Fla. On one particular day, the tables were turned and I became the person answering questions instead of asking them. Two Japanese media crews ? one newspaper, the other radio ? wanted my take on newly signed international free agent and Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka. Then again, all of its attendant ?Dice-K? mania made this Sox spring session even more memorable than usual. You never knew what you were going to see from day to day, including a costumed mascot that looked like a pumped-up Duck that escaped from an ultimate fighting cage match to the ever-present Japanese media horde that followed Matsuzaka like a cloud of black flies.

– Andrew Neff, sports reporter

Projects with heart

I have had the privilege of working on several special projects this year, including some that involved other departments of the newspaper. I especially enjoyed coordinating and completing packages that helped our schools meet state curriculum requirements, while simultaneously drawing young readers into the newspaper. One such project was Newspapers in Education’s five-day spread on the history of shipbuilding in Maine. Graphics editor Eric Zelz had the great idea of making the entire project into a poster that readers could piece together a day at a time, a fun format that presented us with daily challenges. Although we only touched on some of the highlights of Maine’s 400-year history of shipbuilding, I really came to appreciate the museums and other groups in Maine whose passion is state history. Another project that incorporated many people’s ideas was the Ethnic Bangor series we recently published. I find myself in awe of and inspired by the incredible talent, creativity and fortitude of the people who work here every day to make the best newspaper they can.

– Julie Murchison Harris, editor at large and religion editor