Members of the Cortland Elementary School Student Enrichment Team volunteer their time cleaning up outside Cortland Christian Church on Tuesday for Jackson County United Way’s annual Day of Caring. Owen Newkirk, left, and Paige Runge help clean up the church grounds.
Lori McDonald | The Tribune
Caring community
Thumbs up to the more than 300 youth and adult volunteers who helped complete 62 projects Tuesday during Jackson County United Way’s 26th annual Day of Caring. The volunteers fanned out across the county, working to address some of the community’s needs from major projects such as cleaning curbs and sidewalks in downtown Seymour and resetting tombstones at Freetown Cemetery to visiting the homes of people without the means to tackle some home improvement projects.
Super Bowl winners
Thumbs up to the Immanuel Lutheran School’s English Academic Super Bowl team that recently won the school’s first state title in that competition. Members of the team, coached by Sandra Franke and Sue Sims, are Evan Abbott, Emory Helton, Sam Dyer, Lauren Brown and Devin Love.
Collegiate success
Thumbs up to the two Jackson County athletes who recently received collegiate honors for their impact on and off the field. The first is former Trinity Lutheran High School softball player Genesis Munoz. The Franklin College freshman recently was named to the All-Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference first team. The second is Cortney VanLiew, who has been named the winner of Florida Gulf Coast University’s Kavanagh Eagle Scholar-Athlete Award and received the Ms. FGCU award for the most school spirit. VanLiew, who attended Immanuel Lutheran School in Seymour through eighth grade and then attended Columbus East High School, played five years of volleyball at the university and just wrapped up her third year of beach volleyball at the school.
Leveraging their futures
Thumbs up to Brownstown Central High School DECA members Chesney Johnson, Samantha Kellogg and Taylor Loudermilk who recently earned some of the organization’s highest honors at the annual International Career Development Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. Kellogg, a junior, and Johnson, a senior, received certificates of excellence/competency in the school-based enterprise food operation event, while Loudermilk, a senior, was presented a certificate of excellence/competency in quick service restaurant management. DECA student members can leverage their experience in the organization to become academically prepared, community-oriented, professionally responsible, experienced leaders.