As the days remaining in 2012 wind to a close, thumbs up to the first responders and plow drivers who spent Wednesday and early Thursday morning responding to scores of traffic accidents and keeping the roads as clear as possible during Winter Storm Euclid. Two fatal accidents on Wednesday provide a somber reminder of the need for plow drivers to work double time during storms to make travel safe in Chautauqua County and for the first responders who rush out in harsh weather when it would be much easier to sit in one's living room, sipping hot chocolate.
Thumbs up to Christmas parties with a purpose. Recently the Thule Lodge hosted its annual Swedish Christmas festival, the Dopp I Gryta, or the dipping of the bread. The lodge's party also included ham, korv, Swedish meatballs, scalloped potatoes, cheese, pickled beets, pickled herring, cucumbers and many kinds of cookies - all the tasty reminders of holidays in Sweden. Meanwhile, the Frewsburg Lions Club used its Christmas party to present a $600 check to the Martz Observatory - a welcome gift indeed for one of Frewsburg's gems.
Thumbs up to yet another area youth trying to make a difference in his hometown. Patrick Nelson of Bemus Point was recently honored as the latest Eagle Scout from Boy Scout Troop 137. The beneficiary of Nelson's efforts was the Bemus Point Library, which received a new walkway and information center through Nelson's Eagle Scout project.