ORCHID: To the Howland Township Trustees and members of the township’s park board, school board and Rotary Club for their rock-solid collaborative effort to revitalize Richard E. Orwig Park in the heart of the community on East Market Street. That partnership raised more than $50,000 to finance a variety of impressive improvements to the park that include new lighting, new trees, landscaping, picnic tables, water fountain updates, gazebo repairs, new grass, benches, water filling station for people and a water station for dogs. It is a most fitting tribute to the Orwig family in memory and honor of their beloved patriarch Richard, who devoted more than 50 years of his life serving the township as a school board member, township trustee and co-founder of the Howland Athletic Club.

ORCHID: To Trumbull County Common Pleas Court Judge Cynthia Westcott Rice for her recent success in graduating two members of her Women’s Therapeutic Docket. Rice launched the specialized court docket to support women facing charges related to drug abuse, drunken driving and other mental-health-related nonviolent crimes. The docket requires extensive intervention with its members to address trauma and substance abuse recovery as well as to get counseling and learn life skills. The program is a win-win for the participants, who redirect their lives toward positive behaviors, and for the community’s safety as most graduates successfully divorce themselves from lives of addiction and crime.

ORCHID: To Newton Falls Schools Superintendent Andreas Johansson for launching an innovative Path Finders Adventure Series for students in seventh through 12th grades that can go far toward improving the health of students’ bodies and minds. The monthly adventures began with a 4.5-mile hike on the wildlife-filled Hiram College field. Other events include a STEM forum in October, an executive chef workshop to prepare a Thanksgiving meal, aerial yoga and a hip-hop class in January. The monthly adventures are designed to help students explore potential career choices in their formative years. The many corporate sponsors financing the program deserve orchids as well for without their support, the program and its high potential for success would not have been possible.

ONION: To U.S. Secretary of Defense (or Secretary of War, as he prefers) Pete Hegseth for issuing chilling new restrictions on press freedom in coverage of the nation’s military news inside the Pentagon. A memo released late last week demands that journalists pledge not to gather any information – including unclassified documents — that has not been authorized for release or risk revocation of their press passes. It is a further crackdown on press freedom after Hegseth announced in May that reporters would no longer be permitted to roam the halls of the Pentagon freely. We join others in the national news media in protesting these restrictions and fighting them as they represent a direct assault on First Amendment rights.

ORCHID: To the approximately 400 participants in the St. Vincent de Paul Northeast Ohio Council’s Steps of Hope fundraising walk in Warren last weekend. Thousands of dollars were raised to fight poverty and provide needed safety-net services to the most vulnerable in our community. St. Vincent de Paul, appropriately named after “The Apostle of Charity,” has been providing such services in Trumbull County since 1930. Last year alone, it provided 1,043,543 services, 118,00 free meals and provided direct assistance to 9,466 individuals. That is a track record of which all of its supportive walkers can rightfully be proud.

ORCHID: To Corey Brozina, associate professor and associate director of the Youngstown State University Rayen School of Engineering, for winning his fourth National Science Foundation grant. The recently announced $320,000 grant will be used to research integrating artificial intelligence into engineering education. It is just the newest feather in the multi-feathered cap of Brozina, who has secured an amazing $1.6 million in NSF funding, including the largest NSF grant in YSU history in 2020. Considering that only 12% of NSF applications nationwide are approved, the engineering school official clearly has the right stuff to successfully secure external funding for public research.

ORCHID: To Antonio Alejandro of Liberty, a 2024 Miami University graduate, for his initiative in joining the Peace Corps. The 64-year-old program launched by executive order of former President John F. Kennedy, trains and deploys American volunteers to communities in partner countries around the world. Alejandro will be stationed for two years in Paraguay, where he will serve as a community environmental promoter. Alejandro’s giving spirit is nothing new. He spent 10 months in the AmeriCorps Forest Corps program providing assistance in wildfire management and reforestation. We’re confident Alejandro will represent the Valley well in carrying on the proud tradition of the Peace Corps in promoting world peace and friendship.