Community Kudos: the changing-of-the-guard edition

It will be 15 years since El Centro last had a public pool when its new aquatic center finally opens next summer. That seems like an incredibly long time to fill such an obvious need in a place “where the sun spends the winter,” but we’re here to hand out Community Kudos, so we’re not going to quibble.

And we can’t ignore that in the last few years the city has made meaningful strides in improving its public recreation offerings, as evidenced in the completion of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Sports Pavilion, the Conrad Harrison Youth Center and the Sidewinder Skatepark.

All of these projects have helped clean up the scenery along Adams Avenue between Fifth and Eighth streets, and the new aquatic center should help complete the job nicely. So we’re going to be waiting eagerly with our beach towels and sun screen in hand for the ribbon cutting.

The El Centro Chamber of Commerce held it 112th annual dinner meeting June 21. We want to wish good luck to Terri Rogers on her term as chamber president, and we want to congratulate Jaime Mata of Securitas USA for being named the chamber’s Ambassador of the Year. Also at that dinner, Mike Castro of Styles & Smiles Beauty Salon was named Citizen of the Year. It’s an understatement to say the award was well deserved. Castro is not only very active in the chamber, but also in a variety of community service activities, including Kiwanis and Lions.

Kudos to IVROP for celebrating the academic accomplishments of local foster youth at its annual graduation ceremony held June 22 in Heber. The simple fact is, foster youth are at high risk of quitting school and winding up making even worse choices from there. By acting as mentors and a cheering section for these students, Luis Torres and his team are helping fill a void in those young lives. They need that encouragement. If it changes the path of even one kid for the better, it’s worth the effort.

We also think kudos are in order for Brianna Jaime-Bruner and Kelly Ranasinghe for their efforts to start a mental illness peer support group. Its first meeting was held Tuesday at the LGBT Resource Center in El Centro. There are so many people suffering out there, and many of them are suffering in silence. Any point of access for them to find help and relief is both welcome and necessary.

We want to extend warm wishes and thanks to Imperial Valley Press Publisher Belinda Mills whose last day with us is today. She is headed back to Texas to be closer to her family. It had been tumultuous days for the IV Press in the year leading up to Mills’ hiring in April 2016. The newspaper been operating for several months without a full-time publisher and had stepped back largely from active participation in community events. Mills wasted no time upon arriving at the Press in plugging into the community and making sure the newspaper did the same. She was also known to roll up her sleeves and pitch in when the work that needed to be done exceeded the capacity of the available manpower. We thank her for her efforts here and wish her well in her future endeavors. We hope she keeps in touch.

The same goes for our departing Sports Editor Karina Lopez, who unfortunately for us was extended an opportunity she couldn’t refuse. Karina has shared several fond memories in her farewell column on today’s sports page, so we aren’t going to steal her thunder here. But we will say that she has been a valuable asset at this newspaper throughout her six years with us, and we thank her for all of her cheerful hard work. We won’t be able to replace her, only substitute for her.