Cheers

There are many reasons to offer up a cheer this week. Below are a few.

Cheers go out to:

— St. Anne’s students Audry Garcia, Leena Leyva, Lauren Cometa and Jacob Olmos who took third at the statewide Future City Competition.

— Granite Hills High School wrestling team that won the California Interscholastic Federation’s Central Section Fresno Lexus Team Academic Championship for having the highest cumulative grade point average for wrestlers.

—  Family HealthCare Network that just broke ground on a dental clinic in Porterville.

—  Downtown Porterville merchants Georgia Goode, Carrie Brinkley and Jennifer Shannon who have taken it upon themselves to unite merchants in the downtown area. Best of luck to them.

—  Tulare County Sheriff’s Department Lt. Keith Douglass who has been promoted to captain.

—  Janie Castro, who was named Woman of the Year, Alan Guire, who was named Man of the Year; Miguel Antonio Gutierrez with M & G Harvesting that was named Business of the Year, Maria Knutson who was given the Presidents Board Award, Lindsay Unified School District that was given the Kirby Award, Lindsay-Strathmore Coordinating Council that was named Organization of the year, Danny “Dano” Smith who was named Employee of the Year, Esperanza “Hope” Poteet, and Kathleen Rivas, who were both named Volunteer of the Year, and Valerie Jean Esparza who was named Youth of the Year at the annual Lindsay Chamber of Commerce banquet.

—  Talented Ayla Stackhouse who has added a CD and a music video to her resume.

—  Yvette Lemus who was named Student of the Year and Maria Gomez who was named Parent of the Year by the Migrant Education Region VIII.

—  Summit Charter Collegiate Academy Robot Riot team members who will be competing Saturday in the Robot Riot competition at Summer Charter Academy.

—  Strathmore High School girls soccer team that is among the nation’s leaders in scoring. Quite a feat for a small school.

— Kathee Brown and the Tulare County Department of Education that is providing nutritional education to area school children.

—  Juni Fisher, a Strathmore High graduate, who was recently honored as the West Music Association’s Entertainer of the Year and who will perform a concert Feb. 11 as a benefit for the Strathmore High School Chamber Winds Ensemble.

—  Team M wrestlers Diego Castillo, Jaden Castillo and Felix Rodriguez who all did very well at a recent wrestling tournament in Tulare.

—  Photographer Donnie Zimmerman who donated a large autographed photo of Bear Pascoe to his alma mater, Ducor Elementary School.

The Recorder wants to be sure good news and good deeds are recognized. If you know of some good news or a good deed that needs to be recognized in this column, call Editor Rick Elkins at 784-5000, ext. 1040, or e-mail it to him at relkins@portervillerecorder.com. You can also message him on Twitter.