Letters to the editor
We are somebody
To the Editor:
They say you learn something new every day. Do you want to know what I learned the other day? I learned that in the Marion community and at Marion High School, I am a "nobody," along with everyone else not involved in athletics.
At least this is how most feel. Am I wrong? Take a good look at yourself. Can you honestly say that you give a flying toot about the gold medals won every week at forensics? Or do you honestly care about the sweat and tears put into every MHS production? No, you don't.
You care what the final score was at the home football game last week.
Therefore, those MMS staff members are correct — students not involved in athletics are throwing their lives away.
Before you, as a community member decide whether or not I am a nobody, please consider this.
This year, the MHS Singers were invited to sing for Kansas Music Educators Association. This event is far bigger than state football or state basketball. Performing at KMEA is like being on "Oprah," you are a celebrity once you've been invited.
On Feb. 25, the Marion High School Singers will be given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and we will lay everything on the line, proving that even though our tuxes are very old and fragile, we will do what we do best.
If you haven't caught on, we ARE somebody. We are somebody who kids look up to and say "someday I want to sing at basketball games, just like Derek."
So now that you know who I am, judge me. It is what Marion thrives on, judging others without giving them the chance to prove themselves any different.
If you could only learn to accept change and get to know the students a little better this might be the community that everyone claims it to be.
Derek Vetter
Florence
Still time to donate
To the Editor:
I would like to share with you how the residents in Hope and surrounding area have given generously this holiday season to hurting and needy children around the world. The local drop-off site for Operation Christmas Child, Rosebank Church, collected more than 270 shoe box Christmas gifts.
The gift boxes were filled with small toys, hygiene items, school supplies, and personal notes. These gifts along with more than seven million shoe box gifts will be hand-delivered to children in more than 90 countries. For many children, this will be the first Christmas gift they have received.
On behalf of Operation Christmas Child, I want to express our sincere thanks to all the local residents, churches, and groups who packed shoe box gifts, to the volunteers who helped with the collection, and to Rosebank Church for hosting the collection. Through their partnership in service, the shoe box gifts will be a source of joy and hope in the life of a child this Christmas season.
Though the Hope drop-off location is closed until November 2006, there still is time to send a gift-filled shoe box to a child overseas. Gifts are received year-round at Samaritan's Purse, 801 Bamboo Road, Boone NC 28607. For information on packing a shoe box gift, go online to www.samaritanspurse.org or call 1-800-353-5949.
Dorothy Broce, volunteer
Dara Brensing, manager
Operation Christmas Child
Thanks
To The Editor:
St. Luke Hospital Auxiliary Shoppe has been in operation more than six weeks. It has been more successful than we ever could have dreamed. This only could have been done with the support of this community. To those who have donated and those who have purchased — thank you.
There are those who must be singled out, for without them this shop never would have happened.
They are Dick and Evelyn Bredemeier, Bill and Joanne Fitzpatrick, Robert and Penny Marler, Rosse Case, Harlow and Edith Warneke, Joyce Richmond, David and Brenda McGinness, Don and Mary Alice Jolley, Homer and Jean McKellips, Callie Peterson, Bob Brookens, Kermit Dirksen, Dwight and Helen Beckham, Marion Presbyterian Church, Duckwall's, Marion Manufacturing, Country Dreams, and last but not least, Wayne Reno.
There is a saying that "it takes a village to raise a child." It took this community to open this shop. Thank you.
Judy Reno, president
St. Luke Hospital Auxiliary
