ORCHID: To Roland and Rodger Wildman, 86-year-old twin brothers from Kinsman, for giving new and praiseworthy meaning to the practice of “horsing around.” The two octogenarians have been passionate equestrians since their toddler years, The duo’s horseback riding adventures have taken them to 14 states with thousands of galloping miles in them. We commend the brothers for the fine example they set for aging actively. Happy trails, gentlemen!

ORCHID: To SCOPE of Trumbull County and Mike Wilson, its executive director, for organizing a shoebox project to provide gifts of necessary home and hygiene products to senior citizens in need, as well as disabled or homebound residents in our midst. SCOPE has collected a wealth of such gifts over the past month that members of the Youngstown Area Altrusa Club have placed in shoeboxes to deliver to those in need. Though the holiday season generally accents gift-giving for children, older and needy individuals in our community will not be forgotten thanks to SCOPE’s compassionate efforts.

ONION: To motor vehicle drivers and passengers who are too lazy or too irresponsible to buckle up for safety on the road. In recent weeks, three fatal crashes in Trumbull County in Vienna, Bazetta and Howland shared one common and deadly denominator: None of the occupants were wearing seatbelts. Potentially avoidable deaths such as these reinforce the need for law enforcement officers throughout the Mahoning Valley to en force aggressively Ohio’s seat belt laws.

ORCHID: To Howmet Aerospace with its sprawling plant in Weathersfield for its meteoric growth this year. Its third-quarter revenue of a whopping $1.8 billion represents an 11% increase over 2023 levels. Net income for the company fared even better, skyrocketing from $188 million in 2023 to $322 million this year, a 71% increase. What’s more, continued growth in the aerospace industry is forecast throughout 2025, meaning Howmet’s operations will remain a vital cog in the Mahoning Valley for the foreseeable future.

ORCHID: To Mercy Health Youngstown and its partner Tennessee-based Liifepoint Rehabilitation for constructing and opening this week a new 66,000-square-foot, 72-bed rehabilitation hospital in Liberty Township. The state-of-the-art facility is designed to fill unmet needs in our region for acute inpatient rehabilitation. The new hospital not only improves the overall quality and accessibility of health care in the Valley, it also briings fringe benefits for the Liberty community. As township Trustee Arnie Clebone aptly put it, “Thiis facility serves as a model of what we can achieve in Liberty Township, demonstrating our commitment to quality (economic) development.”

ORCHID: To students and staff at Seaborn Elementary School in Weathersfield, Niles Intermediate School and Maplewood Elementary School serving Mecca, Greene and Johnston townships for ranking high among 3,500 elementary schools in Ohio in U.S. News and World Report’s new 2025 rankings of the top-performing schools in Ohio and the United States. The prestigious nationally recognized honors are icing on the cake for the schools that earned impressive A (4.5 stars) or A+ (5 stars out of 5) on recently released state report cards. The reaction to Seaborn’s high ranking from its Principal T.J. Koniowsky could well apply to all other top-performing schools: “Our kids and staff keep raising their games, which is a testament to the efforts of the teachers and the kids and the families that are very supportive of education.”

ONION: To the group of neo-Nazis who marched through a section of Columbus last weekend for spewing messages of racist hatred and waving swastika flags. It rises as yet the latest disgusting example of white supremacist events, which last year hit a new high of 283 in the U.S., according to the Anti-Defamation League. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine quickly condemned the demonstration in no uncertain terms: “There is no place in this state for hate, bigotry, antisemitism or violence, and we must denounce it whenever we see it.” Amen, governor.

ONION: To toymaker Mattel for its outrageous and inexcusable error on packaging for its special edition dolls based on characters from the newly released movie “Wicked.” A URL on the boxes that was intended to link users to the official “Wicked” movie site instead took them to a XXX adult pornography site. Though the company apologized for this egregious error, it could easily have been avoided had company employees carefully proofread and verified the accuracy of the URL.

editorial@tribtoday.com