TPA honors Collyn Wright with Mayborn Award

Texas Press Association honored Collyn Wright, editor of the Menard News and Messenger, with the Frank W. Mayborn Award for Community Service. Wright accepted the award at the recent TPA Convention & Trade Show in Dallas.

The honor is presented annually to a newspaper executive who contributed most significantly to society during the past year, exhibiting outstanding and exemplary leadership to the community and reflecting credit upon the newspaper business.

Outgoing TPA President Lisa Chappell presented the award during the recent TPA Convention and Trade Show in Dallas.

In addition to handling the demands of serving as the newspaper’s editor, Wright is a community leader who continuously tackles anything asked of her to keep the community moving forward.

She has served for several years as a City Council Alderman while observing the line that separates Councilwoman and Newspaperwoman. When there are hot topics within the city, she is one of the easiest members of the city council to find, so she takes a lot of the brunt when citizens are fired up. She diffuses and handles situations fairly and honestly.

Wright is equally dedicated to her role on the Menard County Appraisal Review Board. She commits hours upon hours to training and research to stay informed each year when harried taxpayers arrive to protest their property taxes. She is knowledgeable, professional and approachable even when the Board does not side with the taxpayer.

Before joining the Menard News in 2018, Wright served as executive director of the Menard Boys & Girls Club. A new assignment at the paper did not prevent her from continuously helping with fundraising, grant-writing, and general answers to club staff members on “How do we do this?!”

Wright and her daughter volunteer each year for the Menard County Youth and Livestock Show activities including food, arts, crafts, photography and more.

She helps with the Party at the Presidio, an annual fundraiser for the local library. She serves on the board of Menard Youth Initiative, which has built a playground, covered tuition for kids in need, and holds a helicopter Easter egg drop.

Each year, the Mayborn Foundation donates a $3,000 scholarship to an outstanding senior journalism student at the university of the award recipient’s choice. This year, Wright says, the scholarship will go to Texas Tech University.