Surprise embodies spirit of Christmas

BOUQUETS>> To all those who came together to surprise a deployed military family in Eastlake with “the best Christmas ever.” “This is where we show our Christmas spirit and caring for each other,” said Eastlake Councilman Michael Zuren.

Mayors Dennis Morley of Eastlake and Rich Regovich of Willowick joined the Eastlake Economic Development Committee and members of the community to present the Rau-Elle Wilkins family with Christmas cheer.

Rau-Elle Wilkins Sr. just returned from a deployment to Puerto Rico. He and his wife Noire Whitehead and their children — 7-year-old Skylar and 4-year-old twins Rau-Elle Jr. and Israel — were selected by ECDC for the Christmas morning surprise.

“This was the greatest experience I have ever had. I thank my wife for accepting while I was away,” Wilkins said. “I thank you guys for definitely going above what I was expecting, I never expected anything like this.”

The family was surprised with lots of Christmas presents provided by Asa Cox of Century 21 Realty and a full Christmas dinner provided by Fire Chief Todd Whittington.

“This is the best Christmas I have ever had and to be able to enjoy this with the kids and with family,” Whitehead said.

“You guys are like are extended family now. And we thank you guys. We didn’t expect this, something so simple made the day so enjoyable.”

What a thrill to witness the spirit of Christmas — community coming together to brighten the lives of others — in our midst.

BOUQUETS» To the group of Lake and Geauga high school students who will be spending part of their holiday break giving back.

It’s all part of the Appalachia Service Project.

The students and chaperones will head to Jonesville, Virginia, on Jan. 1 for a fiveday trip. The goal for students: to apply critical thinking skills and develop a better understanding of how to overcome challenges and obstacles and engage in service that will aid in their development of social justice and civic responsibility.

The project was spearheaded by Wickliffe Superintendent Joseph Spiccia and Director of Strategic Innovation Julie Ramos as part of an initiative called SALES, which stands for Service and Leadership Engagement for Students.

The mission of SALES is to provide an educational experience for high school students that allows them to explore local issues that impact them and their community, as well as how these issues fit into the larger context of the state of Ohio, said Ramos.

“The work we’ve done thus far has been really enjoyable and the students are really working hard,” Spiccia said.

“What’s fun for me, is to watch how easy it is for kids to get along very quickly. So, we bring together about 40 kids who don’t know each other and within an hour they are just communicating and sharing.”

In addition to making the trip to Virginia, the students were divided into groups to develop and implement a service-learning project in their community and gain knowledge of community agencies available to assist local families that may be in need of donations or volunteers.

Six students from Harvey High School in Painesville and one from Perry High School teamed on a local service project in connection with the Lake County Alcohol, Drug Addiction, and Mental Health Services Board.

Nell Rapport, who is the business teacher at Harvey, said the students made purple beaded bracelets to raise money and awareness about the heroin and opiate crisis in Lake County.

“I’m so proud of these students,” she said. “I’ve seen so much leadership in them. They are volunteering to go to Virginia in the middle of winter, just to help others.”

We applaud these students and all those who made the trip possible.

BRICKBATS» To those responsible for Ohio’s largest city seeing a record number of homicides in 2017.

Columbus logged its 140th homicide this week, passing the previous high of 139 logged in 1991.

In 2016, there were 106 homicides in the state capital.

We agree with Sgt. Dave Sicilian, of the police division’s homicide unit, who said the tallying isn’t as important as the lives lost, the families affected and the actions that can be taken to prevent further deaths.

Reporting lower-level crimes such as thefts, property damage and illegal use of weapons can give police a chance to intervene before those situations escalate into deadly encounters, he said.

We join him in urging residents in all communities to come forward if they see circumstances that might lead to violence.