Comforting

Thumbs-up to everyone who contributed to the “Whatif … you could help a child?” project. The on-going project, organized by three local consultants with Usborne Books & More, Peggy Stark, Linda Kamman and Shane Bode, raised enough to purchase 210 sets of Michelle Nelson-Schmidt’s book, “Jonathan James and the Whatif Monster” and a plush toy monster to supplement the book. The books and toy will be used by the Jackson County Guardian Ad Litem/Court Appointed Special Advocates program to comfort children going through difficult times in their lives.

Congressional celebration

Thumbs-up to Indiana Conservation Officer Blake Everhart, who recently received congressional recognition for helping rescue two people lost in a cave in Lawrence County. Everhart, a Seymour High School graduate still living in Jackson County, received the award from Ninth District Congressman Trey Hollingsworth during a ceremony at Bedford.

Commended

Thumbs-up to Trinity Lutheran High School senior Rachel Onken, who recently was named a commended student in the 2018 National Merit Scholarship Program for her performance on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. Onken is among nearly 34,000 commended students in the country, who placed among the top 50,000 scorers of more than 1.6 million students who entered the 2018 competition by taking the 2016 PSAT/NMSQT.

Making a comeback

Thumbs-up to a recent decision by Special Olympics Indiana officials to reorganize the Special Olympics Indiana-Jackson County chapter. The nonprofit organization provides year-round sports training and athletics competition in more than 20 Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, has been missed here.

Dumped

Thumbs-down to those who dump trash on the property of other people instead of disposing of it properly.

Noisy

Thumb-down to those who feel the need to play their music as loud as possible into the wee hours of the morning.