Regional champs
Thumbs up to the Brownstown Central girls basketball team for winning the Greencastle Regional on Saturday, defeating Cardinal Ritter 54-40 and Heritage Christian 54-42. Members of the 26-3 Braves squad are seniors Halle Hehman, Ashley Schroer and Zoe Fountain; juniors Katherine Benter and Avery Koch; sophomores Zoe Stuckwisch, Andrea Bair, Hannah Stahl, Emma Klinge and Kelsey Wischmeier; and freshmen Kalee Borden, Maddy Hackman and Camryn Thompson. They advance to Saturday’s Jeffersonville Semistate, where they will play top-ranked Salem (24-3) at 1 p.m. for a spot in the Class 3A state finals game.
Changing the world
Thumbs up to the four student government officers at Seymour Middle School who came up with the idea of an anti-vaping club at the school. President Cohl Moore, Co-Vice Presidents Abby Mosley and Yuleimy Ruiz and Treasurer Blythe Brummette came up with the idea after attending the Youth Action Day on Jan. 27 at the Statehouse in Indianapolis. The club advocates banning the sale of flavor vaping liquids as a measure to help prevent youth illness and death due to vaping.
Confidence building
Thumbs up to siblings Maddie Reece and Damon Branaman, who took a suggestion from their mother and purchased carnations from the Medora Community Schools parent-teacher organization to give to girls in grades 3 to 7 at the school on Valentine’s Day. The pair then took it a step further and decided it would be nice to add tags with inspirational quotes on them to give the recipients more confidence. Damon is a fourth-grader at the school, while Maddie is a sixth-grader. Such a nice gesture.
Students of the Month
Thumbs up to Seymour Middle School January Students of the Month Lily Combs-Smith, Makenna Greenawalt, Rene Clemente-Cordoba, Jon Montiel, Adrien Dominguez, Seth Montgomery, Tyler Tormoehlen and Chloe Cooper. A similar thumbs up to Brownstown Central Community School Corp. Students of the Month eighth-grader E.J. Autry, second-grader Nathaniel Acton and senior Zach Thompson.
A related thumbs up to Brownstown Central High School senior Kelian East, who recently was named Brownstown Exchange Club Youth of the Month for January.
Helping with a cure
Thumbs up to everyone involved in the 48th annual Phi Beta Psi Cancer Dance on Feb. 1 at Pewter Hall, including Seymour High School senior Bridget Marshall, who was named queen, and the other queen candidates, Kati Curry, Laken Waskom, Katherine Snook, Peyton Levine and Allison O’Brien. The candidates raised $15,357.02 for cancer research.