Highlights, lowlights from the week’s news
HIT » Most of the attention on the Camp Fire tragedy will forever be focused on the loss of life and homes, and that’s exactly the way it should be.
But it is worth remembering that many of the survivors also lost huge parts of their lives — personal property, memorabilia and proof of hard-won accomplishments that can never be replaced.
That’s why we’re giving our first “hit” today to a group of concerned citizens who stepped up with an immeasurable gift to some of our law enforcement officers.
Members of Chico’s Faith Community Group joined together to raise funds and work with vendor partners at Galls and Blackington, the largest U.S. manufacturer of badges, to replace the badges of Chico Police Department retirees that were lost in the fire.
Chico Police Chief Matt Madden was able to present nine former officers with replacement badges this week, badges which had been earned in their service with CPD. Fitting, since he helped spearhead the effort.
“I had nine retired folks out there that had lost all their memorabilia, and it just really bothered me,” Madden said. “So, through my contacts, through community members that I know, got them assembled, we’re able to raise the money and donations, (and) we got the company that makes the badges to donate them.”
You read right. Once Galls and Blackington found out why the replacement badges were being made, they donated them, which left enough money to purchase the shadow boxes that hold the badges.
The badges are incredibly meaningful for those who worked a lifetime in law enforcement. Our deepest thanks to Chief Madden and members of the faith community who were able to restore these badges to those who earned them.
MISS » One of the great traditions of American summers is spending a lot of time at the community pool, under the watchful eyes of your hard-working and well-trained lifeguard.
Scratch another tradition down the tubes.
A nationwide shortage of lifeguards could impact up to onehalf of all public pools in the United States this summer, according to the American Lifeguard Association.
Sadly, Sycamore Pool at OneMile Recreation Area in Bidwell Park appears to be among those. We were informed this week that lifeguards weren’t working because, well, there weren’t any available.
Wait. Nobody wants to be a lifeguard anymore? What in the name of Wendy Peffercorn is going on here?
HIT » Most of our closest professional sports teams (sorry, Sacramento) are in the Bay Area, and we’ve had an embarrassment of riches in the past five decades in terms of world championships.
But do you know which of those storied franchises has had the most successful run of championships?
Ladies and gentlemen, that would be your Golden State Warriors.
By finishing off the Boston Celtics in six games last week, the Warriors wrapped up their fourth championship in an eight-year period. That’s something no other Bay Area sports team had ever done — not even the 1980s-era 49ers, who needed nine years to win four Super Bowls.
That gives the Warriors five NBA titles since moving to the Bay Area. When you count titles won by the 49ers (five), A’s (four), Giants (three) and Raiders (three — yeah, we’re counting the one they won in Los Angeles, since LA stole the team from us), that makes 20 world championships since the A’s put the first one on the board in 1972.
Now, if the San Jose Sharks could just join the party …
MISS » Wayne Cook knew his time left on this earth was short after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. So did many of his friends.
That doesn’t make his death earlier this week any easier to take, but boy, did he give everybody a great lesson in how to live the final days of one’s life.
Cook, who spent years and millions of dollars restoring some of Chico’s most important historical buildings, spent the final months of his life finishing up perhaps his grandest project: The restoration of the Hotel Diamond and the grand-finale gold-leaf gilding onto the dome, or cupola, of the hotel.
Interviewed by E-R reporter Jennie Blevins just a couple of months before his death, Cook said the gilding “Will be something Chico will be proud of. It will be a shining beacon.”
He was right, but the true “shining beacon” for our downtown in recent years has been Cook himself. What an incredible series of gifts he left behind for our city.
We will “miss” him and we mourn his death. It is, however, comforting to know his life’s work will continue to help beautify downtown Chico.