Denise Webb has been selected as the Peninsula Daily News Employee of the Year for 2011.
Webb, the front-desk receptionist at the newspaper’s Port Angeles headquarters, was picked in a vote by the PDN’s department heads.
She received the award at the newspaper’s annual holiday party for its employees in Port Angeles, Sequim and Port Townsend.
The PDN has 63 full-time and part-time employees in Jefferson and Clallam counties.
“Loyal, gracious and honest, eternally optimistic and caring, Denise greets every person who walks through our door with an easy smile and a super-positive, warm attitude,” said John Brewer, PDN publisher and editor.
“She also handles our Money Tree program for PDN readers and, at her own initiative, created a special spreadsheet to keep track of the money-saving coupons.”
Other 2011 PDN award winners:
n Carrier of the Year, “honoring the best of those individuals who brave wind, rain, ice, sleet, snow, loose dogs, roaming elk and bear to get our subscribers a dry and on-time newspaper Sunday through Friday” — Amber Bellamy, who delivers Route 352 from Clallam Bay to Neah Bay.
Bellamy, who drives about 58,000 miles a year on her route, was cited by Circulation Director Michelle Lynn for her “perserverance, reliability, resourcefulness, great customer service and great attitude”
n Advertising Ace of the Year — Jenifer Clark, an advertising sales representative whose territory includes Sequim, Port Townsend and Jefferson County.
She is the first three-time winner of this award. She also won it in 2006 and 2010.
Clark was lauded by Advertising Director Steve Perry for increasing sales in her territory and working closely with her customers.
“Her tenacity, passion and enthusiasm for the job are a credit to her dedication to the Peninsula Daily News,” said Perry.
n News Staffer of the Year — Tom Callis, a reporter whose beat includes crime and fires, the courts and Port Angeles City Hall, the Elwha River dam removals and Clallam County businesses.
Callis was selected for “doing his job with accuracy, fairness, attention to deadline and an eagerness to inform the reader,” said Executive Editor Rex Wilson.
n Edward Barton Webster Spirit Award — Zeller Westabrook, a PDN news assistant for almost 20 years who handles everything from the weekly employee newsletter to news briefs to material for the daily “Peninsula Lookback” history column.
“This year’s recipient of the Spirit Award has, without question, the kind of dedication to the PDN that one would expect for such an honor,” said Brewer.
“Zeller embodies and dignifies the spirit of E.B. Webster.”
The Spirit award is named after the man who founded the Port Angeles Evening News — predecessor to today’s PDN — on April 10, 1916.
The author of four books, businessman, well-known naturalist, editor and publisher, Webster relished people, and it was said that the twinkle in his eye could be seen in the words he set in print.
An ardent early-day environmentalist and supporter of the North Olympic Peninsula, his writings were instrumental in influencing President Franklin D. Roosevelt to establish Olympic National Park.
When Webster died in 1936, William Welsh, managing editor of the Evening News, wrote that “the community mourns a man who left it far better than he found it.”
