Published: November 20, 2009 08:45 am      

Thorns & Roses, Nov. 20

Roses

• To the Logansport Noon Kiwanis Club on its 90th birthday. Established in 1919 with 62 members, the club quickly grew to 106 in six months. Don Canaday, the immediate past president of Kiwanis International, spoke at the club’s recent celebration.



• To the Lewis Cass football team for recording yet another fine season in a long line of them. The Kings won their third sectional championship in a row and fourth in the last five. They also won a share of their second straight Mid-Indiana Conference title, their fourth in the last five years and fifth in the last seven. They fell just one point — and a mere one yard — short of their third consecutive regional title last week in a heartbreaking 54-53 loss in double overtime to Fort Wayne Luers.



• To Deputy Mayor Linda Klinck, who was honored by the Indiana Main Street program for her help in revitalizing downtown Logansport. Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman honored Klinck, who was nominated by Logan’s Landing, as one of six outstanding board members in Indiana’s Main Street associations. Indiana Main Street, run through the Office of Community and Rural Affairs, was established to provide economic revitalization and professional assistance to participating communities.



• To the Fuller Center for Housing, which is trying to establish a chapter in Logansport. The Fuller Center, a nonprofit, ecumenical Christian housing ministry, is seeking volunteers in its mission to renovate 10 houses a year to provide affordable homes for low-income families.



• To four area churches serving as collection points for Operation Christmas Child, the world’s largest Christmas project. Area residents are packing shoebox gifts for children in more than 100 countries suffering from natural disaster, war, terrorism, disease, famine and poverty. Logansport’s Miami Baptist Church and New Life Alliance Church, Royal Center United Methodist Church and First Presbyterian Church in Monticello are serving as collection sites. Last year, area residents donated 753 shoe boxes to the effort.



• To the five candidates who stepped forward last week to fill a vacancy on the Logansport Community School Board. Only one of the candidates can be appointed to fill the seat, but it’s great to see so many local residents expressing a willingness to take on such an important role in the lives of local children. The school board will meet Monday to name a new board member, but in our eyes, all of these candidates are already winners.



Thorns

• To the U.S. Postal Service on new rules that threaten a 55-year-old tradition in the small town of North Pole, Alaska. Local volunteers each year respond to letters addressed simply to “Santa Claus, North Pole,” but the Postal Service, prompted by a near miss with a sex offender in Maryland last year, has established new rules designed to make sure volunteers never see the home addresses of the families sending the letters. That means more work for the local post office, and the small office in North Pole says it simply doesn’t have the resources to meet the new requirements. And that means letters from thousands of youngsters might soon be headed to the shredder.