Congratulations to Bobcats team on thrilling win

BOUQUETS>> To the Broadmoor Bobcats on their victory over the Lake County coaches this week.

And this one was a thriller. With just 30 seconds left in the game, the coaches had a one-point lead. But the Bobcats bounced back and the gym erupted into cheers as #2 Adam Maoyard sunk the game-winning shot for Broadmoor.

“It’s a really big game,” said Theresa Wetzel, Lake County Board of DD/Deepwood’s marketing manager, concerning the Broadmoor versus coaches match-up.

She added that the games the Bobcats play against other local teams help form friendships during the season. “And then at the big game against the coaches, the coaches really start to know our players.”

It was the fourth year for Madison boys’ basketball head coach Nick Gustin taking part in the game.

“It’s a fantastic thing that Broadmoor does for the kids,” Gustin said during halftime.

After Broadmoor claimed the win this year, the crowd burst into cheers as the players celebrated.

We echo those cheers. Well done, Bobcats. BOUQUETS>> To Adam Cook of Euclid, founder of Operation S.T.A.T., a non-profit organization whose purpose is to help heal the spirits of hospitalized veterans.

The organization had an accidental beginning, tracing its roots to a motorcycle run.

That run ended up at the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center.

“I had no idea what a VA hospital was,” Cook said. “They sent us to the spinal care/acute care on the sixth floor. When we got on the floor, it was a huge shell shock to all of us.”

That first trip, Cook said, they spent about three hours just visiting with the veterans.

Cook promised they would be back and headed home to brainstorm.

That brainstorming and subsequent visits led to Operation Standing Tall for American Troops began.

Now in addition to visiting veterans at VA hospitals and their homes in Ohio and Pennsylvania, the group brings them to special events such as the Lake County Captains Veterans Appreciation Night in Eastlake and the Fairport Harbor Mardi Gras.

Recently they hosted a bake sale and Dine to Donate event at Applebee’s in Mentor.

Staci Jacob of Andover, one of the volunteers, joined the organization because she wanted to give to the group who had given something to her father.

“My father was a veteran in the VA hospital. One of Adam’s people came in,” Jacob said. “I want to pay back veterans for what they do for us.”

We salute the veterans and those who are working hard to express their gratitude. BRICKBATS>> To Joseph P. Gray, Jr.; Malcolm Gibson; Samuel Gibson; Mark Evans; Westley Siggers; Raqwan Ofield; Paul Bell; Larry Jackson; Ricky Jackson; Brendan Craig; Aaron Crosby; Chino Massey; Shondell Mack; Lejon Kidd, Jr.; Da’eon Gray; Aminah Colvin; Shanita Jennings; Leanna Nabulsi; George Salem; Jeffrey Auvil; William Bloomfield; and Christina Gordenier.

The 22 were indicted on federal charges stemming from a drug trafficking ring that sold heroin, fentanyl and other drugs to more than 300 customers in Northeast Ohio.

U.S. District Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio Justin Herdman was joined in a news conference March 13 at Euclid City Hall by Euclid Police Chief Scott Meyers, Mayor Kirsten Holzheimer Gail and DEA Assistant Special Agent in Charge Keith Martin among others.

The arrests were a result of a seven-month-long investigation

According to officials, the suspects allegedly focused on selling drugs to customers on the east side of Cleveland as well as Euclid and Lake County.

“There was no consideration of human life, it was all for profit,” Martin said.

Drugs sold included heroin, fentanyl, fentanyl analogs such as carfentanil and acetylfentanyl, crack cocaine and powder cocaine. The heroin sold by the group generally mixed with fentanyl, fentanyl analogues or a combination of them.

“To the residents of Euclid, I want to assure you your police department is working diligently to make our city a safe place to all to live in, visit,” Meyers said. “Many of your calls to police reporting drug activity were instrumental to this investigation.”

Herdman called the opioid epidemic a “seemingly endless mass casualty event.”

“People are battling addiction and they need to understand the heroin they are putting into their bodies is not heroin and the cocaine they are buying off the street is not cocaine,” he said. “They should assume these drugs they are purchasing contain fentanyl and possibly deadly analogues like carfentanil. There’s a place for treatment. Hopefully these arrests serve as a wakeup call for drug users to get the help that they need.”

When will dealers learn?