We beamed with pride and excitement when we found out that we had won top honors at the International Parenting Media Association’s (PMA) Editorial and Design Awards Competition, which recognizes regional family publications for excellence in journalism, photography, and design.

Sonoma Family Life beat out stiff competition to win Best Profile for “Have Zoo, Will Travel,” Bob Padecky’s piece about local educator Bonnie Cromwell.

“This could have been an ordinary story, but the writer did a superb job of finding interesting and surprising details that made the story engaging and fun. This is the kind of story that gets passed around a lot,” the judges said.

We also won Best Use of Multimedia for our implementation of Augmented Reality in the article “Best Beaches.” In addition, we were recognized for the articles “Pertussis Protection,” “Wintertime Family Hikes for Little Ones, Too!,” and “3 Great Gardens.”

“We’re thrilled that we won top honors for our writing and use of multimedia,” says Sharon Gowan, founder and publisher Sonoma Family Life.

PMA represents more than 100 magazines from across the U.S., Australia, and Canada. There were 630 entries in this year’s contest, which was coordinated by Daryl Moen of the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism. A panel of judges, all of whom have significant professional experience, chose the winners in each category.

“The purpose of the PMA awards competition is to encourage a high level of journalistic performance and service to communities by recognizing editorial excellence and outstanding visual presentation in parenting publications,” says PMA Executive Director C. James Dowden.

“We’re truly a local publication, and often compete against publications that are part of large national media companies, so the competition is fierce. It’s great that our wonderful local staff has been recognized internationally for their work, and, most importantly, that we’re providing top-quality coverage to our loyal local readers,” says Gowan.    ¶