DAVENPORT- The staff of Courier Communications won the 2008 Lee Enterprises Lee Spirit Award for outstanding commitment to the company, Mary Junck, chairman, president and CEO of Lee Enterprises, announced Friday.

Every year, Lee Enterprises honors some newspapers within the corporation with Lee President's Awards for 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." Those events were the immigration raid May 12 on Agriprocessors in Postville, the devastating tornado May 25 and extensive flooding June 9-11 across Northeast Iowa.

Lee officials noted 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 citation also notes the news department was forced to set up shop at Hawkeye Community College and the printing was done in Cedar Rapids.

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