REGIONAL NEWS ROUNDUP: Clearwater Valley students rewarded for saving lives

Stories in this Regional News Roundup are excerpted from weekly newspapers from around the region. This is part two, with part one having appeared in Saturday’s Tribune.

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KOOSKIA — On Dec. 17, all Clearwater Valley students gathered for an assembly to honor two students — David Davis and Cameron Whitcomb — with the Good Samaritan Award, which recognizes kids for being good citizens and samaritans.

According to Clearwater Valley High School secretary Loretta Childers, students are often punished for bad behavior, but why not reward the students who have good behavior? This is where the idea of the award came from.

Davis and Whitcomb were presented the award in front of the student body by teacher Vinnie Martinez, who explained why these students deserved them.

Davis, a senior, was rewarded for helping a junior high student who fell unconscious in the hallway one day during school. According to Martinez, everyone else ignored this situation and kept walking, but Davis knew he needed to show care and concern for the student.

“He felt he needed to do this because no one else stepped up to help,” Martinez said.

Whitcomb, a junior, was rewarded for helping a member of the community in a time of need. He was driving to school one day and noticed a vehicle in the river and knew he needed to help and assess the situation. According to Martinez, Whitcomb wanted to help because he knew it was the right thing to do, and that if he was ever in that situation, he would want someone to help him.

— Evelyn Ward, The Clearwater Progress (Kamiah), Thursday

Idaho County GOP meets for Lincoln Day

GREENCREEK — Highlighting the annual Lincoln Day dinner last week, nearly 103-year-old Margarete Fallat briefly spoke of her love for this country, coming from an experience of living under totalitarian regimes during the Second World War.

“You cannot imagine how it feels to speak your mind, and you don’t get arrested or killed,” she said. “I’m the most happiest person to be in a country like this, and I appreciate it with all my heart and soul, and every night before I go to sleep I pray for this country because I know what it is to live under communism, socialism, Nazism.

“And one thing I have to say that is to my benefit,” she said, “I did one thing right, and that is I outlived Hitler.”

The Feb. 9 event, at the Greencreek Community Hall, was sponsored by the Idaho County Republican Central Committee (ICRCC), as a fundraiser for organizational events, notably the statewide March 2 GOP Presidential Caucus.

“We can’t be resting on our laurels,” said ICRCC chairperson Vincent Rundhaug. “We have to be vigilant. The left-leaning folks out there are really striving hard to undermine our caucus. They’re trying to get out the idea you don’t need to go and vote, but that’s the opposite: We need to show everybody our numbers, we need to turn out more than ever.”

Registered Republicans will be receiving mailed information detailing how to participate in next month’s caucus, a privately funded event put on by the Idaho GOP. Rundhaug said Idaho County Republicans will be able to participate in seven locations in Riggins, White Bird, Grangeville, Cottonwood, Kooskia, Elk City and Caribel.

— David Rauzi, Idaho County Free Press (Grangeville), Wednesday