By Judy Clabes
NKyTribune editor
Soon after my beloved colleagues, the late Mike Farrell and Gene Clabes, and I founded the NKyTribune in 2015, we set forward some important guiding principles for our nonprofit public service online newspaper. Those principles had to do with a commitment to foundational, ethical journalistic practices, a deep commitment to the place we called home (filling a void left by the sad demise of The Kentucky Post), a promise of community caring engagement, and an abiding interest in celebrating — in myriad ways — the good people who make Northern Kentucky the special place it is.
On the latter point, though built on the others, our annual NewsMaker Awards program came into being. Each year for the past eight years we have celebrated extraordinary Northern Kentuckians with our beautiful custom NewsMaker Awards, and 2025 is no exception. The exceptionalism, as always, lies in the lives of the winners who do more than their share to make NKY exceptional as well.
Our honorees this year are Fernando Figueroa, president of Gateway Community & Technical College; Tony Lamb, CEO and founder of Kona Ice; Patricia Nortmann, vice president/site administrator of Covington, St. Elizabeth Healthcare, Jeanne Schroer, president and CEO of The Catalytic Fund, Cady Short-Thompson, president of Northern Kentucky University; and Wilbert Ziegler, president and CEO of the R.C. Durr Foundation and founding partner of Ziegler & Schneider law firm.
Honestly, the titles of these amazing people just reflect their day jobs, as important as they are, but the titles tell only a bit about the contributions they make to improve the everyday lives of Northern Kentuckians — in so many ways. We’ll be telling you their bigger stories starting next Monday in the NKyTribune.
And we’ll be celebrating them at a reception with coffee and breakfast bites at the new Wenzel Distilling event center on Madison Avenue in Covington on November 20, 8:30-10:30 a.m. Plan to drop in and meet the winners and share a cup of coffee (or tea) and thank them for all they do. It’s free, thanks to our sponsors.
Which brings me to the other heroes of this story. Our sponsors.
Because the NKYTribune is a nonprofit and depends on sponsor and reader funding to keep the lights on, the computers buzzing, and our growing body of talented reporters, writers, and editors at work, we can’t say enough about how much they mean to the community as well.
From the beginning, the Tribune has been blessed by the overwhelming and unflinching support of our sponsors who share our belief that NKY is enriched by a committed source of reliable news and features from an independent, professional news source.
That support inspires us, and our gratitude knows no bounds.
The NewsMakers awards program is our only dedicated fundraiser each year, so these sponsors make an extra effort to provide funding that, for us, is icing on the cake. In this chaotic year, they have stepped up spectacularly. All of us owe them a debit of gratitude. You will see them highlighted in the banner/sliders at the top of the NKyTribune homepage through the end of the year, as a reminder of how important they are to us — and to you.
And as an extra ‘thank you’ from us — here they are again:
Please join us in celebrating our NewsMakers and the sponsors who make this program — and the NKyTribune — possible.
Tomorrow: All about our NewsMatch campaign, back for another year — and the effort to encourage individual donations to nonprofit news.