It was just a month ago that our Cheers and Jeers column ran in this space. One would think there would not be enough items to warrant another one so soon.

But there is, trust me.

A Cheer goes out to the Main Street Quilting Society, a group that meets together and also works separately making quilts for veterans.

They call it Quilts of Valor and this year they made and distributed 89 quilts to our local veterans. That is quite an accomplishment, and they deserve a big thank you, not just from the vets who get the quilts, but from all of us.

A Jeer goes out to our government for the handling of withdrawing U.S. forces from Afghanistan. After 20 years of being there, suddenly withdrawing and letting the Taliban take over seems wrong. Perhaps being there in the first place was also wrong, but that is a different question.

Seeing the troops suddenly pulled out and crowds of Afghans storming the airport trying to flee the country sure looked a lot like the fall of South Vietnam in the 1970s. In fact, the similarities seem amazingly familiar to those of us who have now lived through both of those events.

A Cheer goes out to those 21 responders in the Wells area who are credited with saving a woman’s life recently. They were given awards for going above and beyond to save her life. She is very grateful, and the rest of us are too, for all of those who are on call to help when help is needed.

A Cheer goes out to the Barnes family from North Minneapolis and Lakeville who all got up early one day and traveled to Blue Earth because they wanted to help out at the Veterans Memorial Breakfast at the Faribault County Fair.

The family included young kids who quietly pitched in and helped out at the breakfast. They should be an inspiration to all of us of what helping out others really means.

Another Cheer goes to a group of Sunday School kids at Our Saviors Lutheran Church in Winnebago who raised $1,000 at a fundraiser and donated it to the city for the operation of the pool.

A Cheer goes to the Blue Earth Area School Board and the Blue Earth City Council for seeing a need and trying to do something about it. The tennis courts in Blue Earth are in sad shape and the school and city are trying to work together to not just try and fix the current one, but instead build an all-new set of courts.

We hope they can accomplish it, as it is something that has been needed for some time. An additional Cheer goes to Brenda Smith and the youth basketball group for seeing a need for a basketball court and instead of just complaining about it, they have been raising funds and support to see that it gets done.

A Jeer, again, to those folks who just won’t get a COVID-19 vaccination. It seems this coronavirus and its variants will remain a threat until just about everyone gets a shot. There has not really been any good reason not to get the vaccination, and now the government is even giving out a hundred bucks to do so.

A Jeer also has to go out to the people who drop off all kinds of junk and trash at the rural recycling center in Blue Earth. And, to those who also dump junk along rural township roads.

According to some reports, this has long been a problem, but is getting worse it seems.

A Cheer and a hearty congratulations to BEA football coach Randy Kuechenmeister for being named Coach of the Year – for the second time in the last couple of years. It is a very well-deserved honor.

The long-time BEA coach received the honor recently, being named the Class AA Coach of the Year for the 2020 season by the Minnesota Football Coaches Association.

Another Cheer and note of congratulations goes out to all those who have worked hard on fixing up, remodeling and beautifying Riverside Town and Country Golf Club just in time for its 100th anniversary.

It is a wonderful amenity to have for the communities of Blue Earth and Winnebago, and quite an honor to be one of the very oldest nine-hole courses in the state.

One last Jeer and that once again goes to Mother Nature. The heat, humidity and lack of rain has taken a toll on area crops, lawns, gardens and people.

Although, there are those folks who think the Jeer goes to all of us and not Mother Nature, since they feel we created Climate Change and have brought all of these bad weather conditions on ourselves.

So there you have it, another bunch of Cheers and Jeers. And as usual, there is one more Cheer to give out, and that is to our readers, advertisers and supporters of the Faribault County Register.

Thanks for reading us.