Boys’ Life honored with prestigious publishing award

Scouts know every issue of Boys’ Life is full of fascinating features. Publishing industry leaders recognize that, too.

Boys’ Life won a Maggie Award and was named a finalist in three other award categories.

The annual Maggie Awards, presented by the Western Publishing Association and B2B Media, are the country’s longest reigning awards program in the publishing and media industries. This year marked the 67th installment of the awards, which are judged by industry peers and publishing executives. Some of the other 500 brands competing for awards included Variety, Sierra and PCWorld.

Senior Editor Aaron Derr’s story “It’s Our Duty to Help Others” in the March 2018 issue of Boys’ Life earned a Maggie Award as the best magazine news story of the year. The story featured Scouts doing their part to rebuild their communities after three devastating hurricanes in 2017. Read the award-winning story here.

“When disasters like this strike, it’s an opportunity for Scouts to make a real impact in their community,” Derr says. “I had the honor of speaking with dozens of youth and adults who could have been doing a million other things, but instead decided to spend their time picking up trash, serving food, collecting items, and otherwise spending time with their fellow citizens who had lost so much. Just talking to them was personally very inspiring.”

That issue also was a finalist in the “Best Publication” category.

The August 2018 issue was nominated in the “Best Special Issue” category. That issue specialized in summer reading featuring “The Gentleman and the Tiger,” “And So Then I...,” “The Nebula Secret,” “Buffalo Smoke” and “Danny’s Big Win.” You can read and listen to these stories and more great fiction here. Boys’ Life helps start your youth on the path to becoming lifelong readers.

In November’s issue, the “Breaking into Backpacking” story, written by Derr, highlighted a Venturing crew’s trek into the Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri. It was a finalist for “Best Feature Article.” You can read that story here.

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About Michael Freeman 432 Articles
Michael Freeman, an Eagle Scout, is an associate editor of Scout Life and Scouting magazines.