It’s been an exciting time at the Daily Inter Lake, as we rolled out our “Your Life Covered” marketing campaign, and there’s plenty of evidence that we’ve actually got Northwest Montana Covered.

Day after day, I receive letters and e-mails from our readers in Libby, Polson, Ronan, Eureka, Columbia Falls, Bigfork, Lakeside, Somers, Whitefish and of course Kalispell. Many of those are printed on our opinion page, and others are news tips and hat tips. We appreciate all of the correspondence and phone calls we receive, even when they are encouragements to do better!

For the past few weeks, I’ve also been sorting through entries from longtime subscribers to pick out the winners of our Reader Rewards Contest, and I’m happy to now announce the results.

The grand-prize winner is Creston subscriber Les Mahugh, who has been subscribing to the Inter Lake since 1945. That’s 68 years, and he remembers learning to read by looking at the paper in the late 1920s and early 1930s when his parents had a subscription and he was a youngster. So, in essence, Les has been a reader of the Inter Lake for at least 84 of the 124 years we have been publishing!

Congratulations, Les! For your loyalty, the Inter Lake proudly will reward you with either a one-year extension of your subscription or $200.

Other long-time readers who entered the contest had started their subscriptions in 1946 and 1947. Others like Robert Stahlberg of Columbia Falls told of reading the Inter Lake since the late 1950s or early 1960s, and we were able to locate several longtime subscribers in Lincoln County as well.

Arlie Burk of the Eureka area has been taking the Inter Lake for about 40 years ever since delivery was extended to Glen Lake. Mr. Burk also let us know he had been a carrier for the Inter Lake in the late 1940s. Over in the Libby area, Larry King has also been a subscriber for approximately 40 years. Charles Spilis, also of Libby, has been a subscriber since the early 1960s, but only moved to Libby about 10 years ago.

Frankly, there were many interesting stories, and we wanted to share as many with you as possible, so we are devoting part of the Montana Perspectives page this week to the recollections and reminiscences of our readers. We hope you enjoy them as much as we did.

Four other subscribers are also winners in the Reader Rewards Contest, and will each receive a $50 gift certificate to the restaurant of their choice. Those awards were made by me with an eye on finding the most engaging stories about the Inter Lake. Those winners are Bob Neitzling, Jerry Oftedahl and Howard Stockwell of Kalispell and Mary Tombrink Harris of Columbia Falls.

Congratulations to all, and thanks to everyone who participated.