As staff members left the banquet hall of a hotel in Short Pump on Saturday, they were justifiably proud of the awards they had won during the Virginia Press Association’s annual news and advertising awards program. The Tidewater News won 34 different awards for the work that appeared on the pages of this newspaper last year.

There were awards for writing, for photography and for design, covering the main categories of effort involved in putting together our newspaper and website. You can find a complete listing of the awards in a story that appears on Page 1 of today’s paper or online at www.thetidewaternews.com. We are proud of the hard work that was done to garner the honors and glad for the recognition by our peers.

But, we would be missing an important point if we allowed ourselves to dwell on the pride of the accomplishments. More important than the recognition or the certificates is the gratitude we feel for those of you who take time from your busy days to read this newspaper, both in print and online.

You inspire us to do our jobs well. You inspire us to write about hard topics. You encourage us to deal honestly and transparently with matters that are often very personal and sometimes very uncomfortable — and often those matters are just as personal and uncomfortable for us as they are for you. You hold us to high standards and give us the courage to hold ourselves to similarly high standards.

We don’t always achieve those standards. Sometimes our work isn’t as good as we would like. And sometimes we fail to handle tough situations with the grace we should display. But we’ve found that our readers have plenty of grace, and they generally give us another chance.

Western Tidewater is a fine community, and a fine community like this deserves a newspaper that takes its work seriously. We can promise you that we never forget this charge. And we never stop appreciating the fine people who continue to read and advertise in this newspaper.

So, thank you. We think you all deserve an award, as well.