Don’t let anyone tell you there’s little good going on in our community.
Just a quick glance through Thursday’s edition of the Neosho Daily News will prove that theory wrong.
On page 1, there were two examples of neighbors helping neighbors. After a car crashed through the lobby of Workman’s convenience store, friends and regular customers came to the store to help pick up the pieces. Friends, family members, regular customers and even our own John Ford were there until 9 p.m. that night trying to make sure the store would be safe for the overnight hours.
That’s a great example of neighbors helping neighbors.
Also on page 1, reporter Amye Buckley had a great article on Johnathon Dragoo, a volunteer firefighters for the Seneca City Fire Department.
Dragoo is one in a line of family members who have responded to a fire alarm, following in the bootsteps of his father, grandfather and uncle.
I hope you have enjoyed Amye’s series on the volunteer firefighters this fall. We have to give credit to Andy Nimmo, Neosho resident and fire chief of the Redings Mill Fire Department, who contacted me about giving these volunteers their due with paper and ink.
Andy, it was a great idea, and has turned into a great series of feature stories on some very deserving folks.
Another feel-good story could be found on the School Zone Thursday, featuring a Neosho High School student who volunteers his time helping teach drama skills to students at Neosho Middle School.
Aaron Kocurek is an example of the good acts of kindness and the spirit of volunteerism that does exist in our student body of today.
Too often, we are quick to give teen-agers a bad rap, but they also deserve our praise, especially when they do acts in our community that go above and beyond getting good grades or making headlines with achievements in athletics or extra-curricular activities. So, to Aaron Kocurek and other students like him, keep up the good work.
And finally, kudos to the volunteers of the Hickory Creek Stream Team, who are organizing another creek cleanup this Saturday, from noon until about 3 p.m.
Those folks are volunteering their time so you and I can enjoy a beautiful, clean Hickory Creek. They are planning to spend their Saturday afternoon picking up trash, clearing debris and doing what else needs to be done to improve our local environment.
And they would love more volunteers, and welcome anyone who is willing to come out Saturday for the final cleanup day of the season. They will be meeting at the baseball field pavilion near the walk-over bridge at Morse Park.
So, on this cloudy, gray, cold Friday, I thought maybe these examples of neighbors helping neighbors would help brighten your day.
Rick Rogers is the publisher of the Daily News. E-mail him at rrogers@neoshodailynews.com.
