Community Kudos: the cap-and-gown edition
With only days to go, the competition and jostling for position is getting fierce. No, we’re not talking about Election Day. We’re talking about the crush in local shopping aisles for graduation cards.
Vincent Memorial High School got high school graduation ceremonies underway with its commencement held last Friday at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Calexico. Desert Oasis High School held its ceremony Thursday. Seniors for Central and Southwest made the march last night.
Congratulations to everyone who has donned a cap and gown recently or who will in the days to come. Just remember that it’s just a beginning and not an end. The real work is always still ahead.
Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the milestones along the way. For instance, we imagine the Southwest High School girls’ softball team is still soaring high after winning the CIF San Diego Section Division III championship last Saturday. Congratulations to all the players and to Coach Stephanie Niebla. This was the third Southwest squad Niebla had led to section finals over the years but the first to grab the brass ring. Here’s a scary thought for the competition: The Eagles are losing only two players to graduation.
Which is still one more player than the Brawley softball team is losing that finished as CIF-SDS Division II runner-up last weekend. The Brawley girls stand an excellent chance of clearing that final hurdle to the title next season. Even so, they deserve a tip of the cap for a fine season this year.
We also want to offer a shout-out to the Imperial Valley Regional Occupational Program for last week’s Stars Education Awards ceremony held at the county Department of Social Services. The annual event celebrates the academic achievements of area foster kids. Students in foster care generally don’t have a strong support system and frequently bounce around between homes, so they often struggle in school. The fact IVROP makes it a point to let these kids know their accomplishments matter strikes us as commendable.
We also want to commend the City of Holtville and the American Legion & Auxiliary Bradley-Keffer Post 138 for putting together a well-organized and meaningful ceremony last Monday for Memorial Day. There may have been similar ceremonies held elsewhere in the Valley, but if there were, we didn’t see any mention of them, so at the very least, they were woefully under-promoted. Holtville put together an event that was both worthy of attention and a fitting tribute its fallen servicemen since World War I.
It’s been more than four years since Medardo Montaño sustained a severe head injury in a car bomb explosion during while his Army National Guard was deployed in Afghanistan. Recently he was formally presented the Purple Heart in a ceremony up in Long Beach.
We covered Montaño’s return home four years ago, and our Vincent Osuna recently brought us up to date. Montaño’s injuries have taken a toll, including causing him to give up his job as a correctional officer in Yuma a couple of years ago. But he hasn’t given up. He’s currently enrolled in Imperial Valley College’s automotive program and hopes one day to operate his own auto shop.
We’re rooting for Montaño to continue to heal and for him to get an opportunity to realize his dream successfully. At the very least, we all owe him our thanks.