• Cathy Resmer ©️ Seven Days
• Sr. Lois (left) and Sr. Christopher, Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm, drove from New York's Hudson Valley to watch the eclipse at Perkins Pier in Burlington.

Shortly after I started writing for Seven Days in 2001, publisher Paula Routly took me out for lunch. I had asked for the meeting, hoping for some career advice. As a fledgling freelance writer, I wanted nothing more than a full-time job at Paula's then-6-year-old newspaper.

There were no staff writers at Seven Days back then; Paula and her cofounder, Pamela Polston, wrote most of every issue, with help from a few freelancers like me — and must-read political columnist Peter Freyne.

Over vegetarian fare at Zabby & Elf's Stone Soup in Burlington, Paula ruled out hiring me anytime soon but encouraged me to keep freelancing and honing my skills. I don't remember much about our conversation, but I recall my answer when Paula asked what I wanted: "To be part of a team of award-winning writers," I said.

The solitary act of writing has its charms, but I craved camaraderie, too, and the chance to learn from talented and experienced colleagues and to make an impact greater than I could on my own. Also: a steady paycheck. That thankfully arrived in 2005, when I became Seven Days staff writer No. 2.

Fast-forward nearly 20 years and we employ more than a dozen full-time journalists. Now deputy publisher, I ventured to the Westin hotel in Waltham, Mass., as Seven Days' sole representative at the 2024 New England Newspaper & Press Association conference. During the awards dinner — which recognized work published between August 1, 2022, and July 31, 2023 — our editorial and design teams scooped up 18 first-place prizes. Or, rather, I did, and I hauled them all back to the office, along with 13 certificates for second and third place. See the opposite page for a list of the first-place winners.

They include Colin Flanders, Kevin McCallum and Ken Picard. Some got more than one — Colin, Steve Goldstein and senior multimedia producer Eva Sollberger, the last of whom picked up awards for Best News Video, Best Feature Video and Best Entertainment Video.

Two of our group reporting projects received top honors: "On the Road: What Route 100 Says About Vermont," a series of travelogues that won Best Human Interest Feature, and our July 12 package "'Historic and Catastrophic,'" our first cover story about last summer's flood. The latter won twice — for Best Spot News Story and Best Photo Series.

There's nothing to celebrate about a natural disaster, but it was gratifying to receive this recognition from our colleagues at NENPA. None of us who were involved in that issue of Seven Days will forget the way we scrambled and pivoted on a Monday to put a flood story on the cover of Wednesday's paper.

Managing that tight turnaround inspired us to try it again for this week's solar eclipse. We had a little more time to prepare, knowing the path of totality far in advance. Deputy news editor Sasha Goldstein dispatched a dozen reporters — including his dad, Steve — to locations that seemed promising. Art director Diane Sullivan sent four local photographers in search of eclipse shots; Eva filmed from the banks of the Winooski River and crowdsourced videos from spectators.

Pulling it all together on deadline was a bit of a sprint. We had barely 24 hours after the main event to write, edit, design and proofread the pages.

But the timing turned out to be perfect: Totality exceeded all of our expectations, and everyone was jazzed about documenting it. Around 2:30 p.m., I wandered down to Perkins Pier on the Burlington waterfront, a block from our office. I wasn't on assignment, but I couldn't help chatting up strangers, including an eclipse chaser and his wife who traveled here from the Philippines and a pair of habit-wearing Carmelite nuns — Sr. Lois and Sr. Christopher — who drove up from the Hudson Valley. I took their photos and typed their quotes into the notes app on my iPhone.

Seeing my photos in our eclipse slideshow was a thrill. I savored the coverage assembled by our skilled journalists, photographers and designers. Hope you do, too. Just having this record of it is worth more than any award.