Each Friday, The Gazette salutes those who make Emporia and the surrounding area a better place to live and work. Give these folks a pat on the back ...
THE FOLKS at Natasha’s, Wheat State Pizza and Monarch Tattoo, who banded together to raise money for Brandon Ayers’ medical expenses. Don’t forget the DeWayn Bros., the Highwater String Band and Elexa Dawson & The Hitchikers, who provided the music, and the many merchants who donated goods for the auction and raffle. The event raised $4,700.
F The Lyon County Commission, which managed to bring in a 2008 budget with a mill-levy increase less than half as big as earlier estimates.
F Madison High School’s football juggernaut, which scored enough points in its opening game to make a successful season for most high school teams. The Bulldogs shut out Centre High School 48-0.
F The volunteers of the Lyon County Sheriff’s Senior Patrol who serve their neighbors and give their time to expand law enforcement in the county.
F The county residents who served on the jury in the trial of Raul Magallanez Jr. The demanding trial lasted several weeks and the jurors were required to consider a great amount of testimony. They did their job well.
F The Emporia State University Hornets football team, which started its season with a victory, beating Western State of Colorado 7-3.
F The motorcyclists of the Patriot Guard, who once again gathered to shield mourners at a military funeral. When Sgt. Michael Lee Chenoweth was buried at Reading this week, the members of the Guard, many of them veterans themselves, stood with quiet dignity, holding American flags, between the funeral party and demonstrators from Topeka’s Westboro Baptist Church.
F The family of the late Bill McNutt, who dedicated a comfortable reading area in his honor Saturday at the Emporia Public Library. McNutt, who died in 1979, was a regular visitor at the library to read the national newspapers.
F The Emporia High School volleyball team, which began its season Tuesday with a 2-1 record at the Washburn Rural Invitational.