Onward, upward

Good time to be in a small town

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I’ve lived in small communities most of my life and I’m not sure there’s a better time to be part of a small town than during the holiday season.

It just always beings a tear to my eyes when you consider all that takes place – especially in a community like West Liberty. Local residents may be getting used to it by now, but it’s truly remarkable how many donations during the holidays arise thanks to local residents, businesses and organizations.

From the Voluntary Action Council, West Liberty Aquarius Club, Rotary of West Liberty, West Liberty Lions Club, the West Liberty Ministerial Association and local churches and likely others I’m failing to remember, the holidays are pretty great for a lot of local families that otherwise might not have much of a Christmas.

Between finding gifts for Christmas morning unwrapping for 190 youths in the area to providing nourishment of a turkey with all the fixings and more for a family, the community goes above and beyond to make it happen annually – even during a (hopefully) once in a lifetime pandemic.

It wasn’t always that way, I’m sure, and there are a lot of different stories about when and how things got started, but I can bet there were churches and organizations behind every phase of development. If anyone knows the history, please drop us a note.

This community takes care of their own and we should all be very proud of that because there are a lot of communities where things like this don’t happen, despite the fact there are record numbers of people in need visiting food pantries across the nation, some for the very first time because of this crazy pandemic.

We all are getting a great present this Christmas from the pharmaceutical companies in the fact many of them have already developed a vaccine that is 95 percent effective. I’m no expert not can I tell you what to do, but I think you’d be foolish not to take it. Let’s face it, we take our flu shot every year without hesitation. It may be a while before we get it, but in the meanwhile, we all just have to be patient – our turn will come.

It seems like the government has really put some thought into who should get the vaccine first and I’ve pretty much agreed with most of the order except maybe politicians getting it before the general public, even though they’re trying to show it’s harmless. I can’t emphasize enough how important I think it will be to get teachers vaccinated and get our schools back to a normal flow of live classroom learning.

West Liberty will likely host a Muscatine County vaccination center and the health department is working closely with the school district to make that a reality, so watch for more news on that as things progress and we get our share of vaccines.

So, with this being Christmas, we hope you enjoy today’s edition and I’m so grateful to be able to work in a community as kind-hearted as West Liberty. From my family to yours, Feliz Navidad!!!

Onward, upward.

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