DAVENPORT - The entire staff of Courier Communications won the2008 Lee Enterprieses Lee Spirirt Award for outstanding personal commitment to the company, Mary Junck, chairman, president and CEO of Lee Enterprises announced Friday.

Every year, Lee Enterprises honors some of its newspapers in its Lee President's Awards for outstanding achievement in news coverage, innovative advertising programs and employee spirit.

There are 53 markets of various sizes in Lee Enterprises, including The Courier of Waterloo and Cedar Falls.

This year, Courier Communications was the sole winner of the Lee Spirit Award. The paper was honored for "extraordinary spirit and performance during '40 days and 40 nights' of coverage of print and online of three of the largest news stories the community has ever seen - the May 12 ICE raid on Agriprocessors in Postville, the May 25 killer tornado and the June 9-11 floods.

Lee officials noted that two Courier employees lost their homes in the tornado and the grandmother of another was killed. Six staff members were victims of flooding.

"Even though The Courier's building itself had to be evacuated, along with all of downtown Waterloo during the flooding, intensive coverage and timely delivery continued without interruption," the award states. The news department was forced to set up shop at Hawkeye Community College, and printing was done out of Cedar Rapids.

Five Lee papers - Arizona Daily Star, North County Times on Escondido, Calif., St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Suburban Journals of Greater St. Louis and The Daily Herald of Provo, Utah, all earned Excellence in News awards.