Community Kudos: The Opening Day edition
Today is Opening Day of the 2018 Major League Baseball season. For some like our editor, who hails from a place, St. Louis, that fancies itself to be one of the best baseball towns in America, this is something of a religious holiday. For Padres fans, it’s just Thursday. For veterans of the Vietnam War, it is the very first National Vietnam War Veterans Day, designated as such by a presidential proclamation from Donald Trump.
That proclamation reads, in part: “We vow to never again confuse personal disapproval of war with prejudice against those who honorably were the uniform of our Armed Forces. With conviction, our Nation pledges our enduring respect, our continuing care, and our everlasting commitment to all Vietnam veterans.”
All we can add to that is, Thank you and kudos, ladies and gentlemen, for your service.
Kudos also to El Centro’s De Anza Magnet School for being one of 22 schools statewide to be name a School to Watch. This is more than a state honor; it is a national one designated for schools judged “academically excellent, developmentally responsive and socially equitable,” as our own Vincent Osuna reported last week.
There are roughly 1,300 middle schools in the state of California. Only 125 of them have achieved this designation. Those select few include all of the middle schools within the El Centro Elementary School District at one point or another.
So there are a lot of kudos to go around in this case.
The same holds true of organizers, vendors and sponsors of the first-ever Imperial Valley Ag Expo. Organizers Jodi and J Rollins rolled the dice and put together something new to honor our local agriculture industry. Ultimately, it’s up the Valley itself whether this event generates enough continued interest to last, but we do think it deserves a second look.
While we’re at it, we’re going to give a little plug for ourselves. Imperial Valley Press recently learned we’re finalists in three categories in the California News Publishers Association annual California Journalism Awards. We were in the top five in our class (dailies with 35,000 circulation and under) for editorial commentary, front page layout and design, and special section (for our popular High School Football Preview). Winners will be announced April 14.
It’s too soon for kudos, so we’re going to say good luck to El Centro’s Jody Criman. The recent Department of Corrections retiree is embarking Friday on a 2,650-mile hike of the Pacific Crest Trail, which runs the length of the U.S. West Coast. It promises to be a challenging and interesting adventure, and we look forward to hearing from him along the way.