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I know you think it is time for some Cheers and Jeers

By Chuck Hunt - Editor | Nov 6, 2022

I know some of you may think it was just a couple of weeks ago that Cheers and Jeers were featured in this column, but it actually has been a while.

And, besides, that last column was almost all Jeers, and very few Cheers. I must have been a little cranky the day it was written. OK, there are those who say I am always cranky, and maybe just a wee bit snarky as well.

So, I am going to try and make this one all Cheers and no Jeers. Although, knowing me as well as I do, a Jeer is bound to sneak its way onto the list.

The first Cheer goes out to Brenda Smith and all the others who saw a need and took care of it. They went out and raised around $60,000 to build an outdoor basketball court at the Blue Earth Area Elementary School.

And, wow, what a court it is. If you have not seen it, go and take a look. From the blue surface to the awesome baskets and rims – not to mention the lights – it is quite the nice set up.

So, a job well done Cheer goes out to all of those who were involved or who donated to the project.

The group of neighbors in the Frost area who gathered together to help Scott Legried get his crop in get our next big Cheer.

Scott had been severely injured in a vehicle accident and could not get all the harvesting done by himself. So, his neighbors and friends stepped in and did it for him.

It is not the first time that has happened in our county. In fact it happened a couple times here this year, and has often been reported on in years past.

Makes you glad, and proud, to live in a rural, caring community.

A Cheer goes out to the Blue Earth Area Schools and their willingness to have Frankie the dog attend school and interact with the students. From all accounts, Frankie is doing a great job with helping some students who need a friend.

Besides, how often can the local newspaper have a chance to interview a dog?

Another Cheer goes out to the Women of Worth Committee and their Expo that was held on Saturday, Nov. 5. This is not the first time they have been Cheered in this column, and won’t be the last. Their work to raise money and to help women who are in bad situations is something that we all should support and say thanks to them for doing this work.

Here is another Cheer we are going to send out. This one goes to the BE Welcoming group and their Day of the Dead Festival. This whole idea of making our community welcoming to everyone, whether they are a new or long-time resident or a visitor, whether they have different skin color, beliefs, heritage, life style or even if they like different kinds of foods than we do, shows we need to embrace everyone in the community.

It takes some hard work and effort to accomplish this, and I am glad someone is doing that. However, we all need to do our own part in welcoming people to our area, too.

A second Cheer goes to the BEA Schools for creating a new Community Engagement Coordinator. I have to admit I was a bit skeptical of the idea at first, but Brenda Millmann has embraced the job and is coming up with many ideas to engage the school and community to work together in many areas ­­- and have fun doing it.

This next Cheer is a little bit different. But a Cheer goes out to the people at a County Board meeting who disagreed on whether voting machines should be used, or ballots be counted by hand. The Cheer is for the fact that the County Board allowed both sides to give their views and they did so in a civil manner. No shouting, no personal insults. In the end they agreed to disagree.

The rest of the country needs to take note of that.

A Cheer to the community of Winnebago and their revealing of the new Freedom Rock on Oct. 15. Once again, some were a bit skeptical of the idea, but in the end, artist Ray “Bubba” Sorensen II did a great job and the Rock is a nice addition to the town and the county and depicts the thanks we all feel to the men and women who served in the military.

One final Cheer goes out to two Blue Earth Area tennis players, Addison Armstrong and Olivia Dutton, and their hard work to both get to the State Tennis Tournament as singles players. It is unusual for two players from the same team to make it. They were excellent representatives of our school and area towns.

There you go. Not a single Jeer. Although it would have been tempting to send a Jeer to the person who would actually steal an American flag from someone. (See letter to the editor elsewhere on this page.)