Wendel Sloan, director of media relations, won second place in NMPW's statewide Communications Contest in the category of "Photo Essays" for "The Shoes of Graduation" in the Greyhound Gazette online campus newsletter.

Sloan, also a local Sunday columnist for the Clovis News-Journal and Portales News-Tribune, won first- and second-place awards for his columns.

He won first place for "Humor Columns."

"I was a hero in my own disaster" was about almost being a hero by putting out a fire he accidentally started by setting a computer bag on top of candles at a Lubbock apartment complex. "Dear friends, it's been a tough one" was his Christmas newsletter detailing his trying year – including getting kicked out of the Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge for a wearing a two-piece "brokini."

Sloan won second place for "General Columns."

"Memories of Jerry, a life changer" was about the love affair between ENMU professor Jean Ornellas, an opera singer, and her late husband, Jerry Ornellas, a construction project manager. "Plenty of stories to tell about father" was a tribute to Sloan's late carpenter father, Guy Sloan, and his practical jokes – including putting a mouse in his sandwich after a co-worker kept stealing them – and down-to-earth philosophy. When asked if he'd ever like to get in a car and just keep going, Guy replied simply, "You'd have to stop somewhere."