ORCHID: To the 165 people who participated in the Polar Plunge last week to raise $29,730 for Special Olympics. Participants plunged into frigid Mosquito Creek Reservoir.
ORCHID: To Spotlight Dance Studio founder and director ShaRonda Camille McQueen for opening her facility and providing her services to more than 300 children, and to the local block watch that pays attention to the kids walking to and from the classes.
ORCHID: To the 100-some students from 16 schols who participated in the Mahoning Valley Minitarue Bridge Building Competition at Youngstown State Univresity. The group promotes an awerness of civil engiineering as a career choice for students and alalows students to apply their knowledge to a reasl-world application.
ORCHID: To Rebekah Stanhope, 13, of Joseph Badger Middle School, for winning the 22nd annual Tribune Chronicle Spelling Bee. Stanhope will head to Washington, D.C., to compete in the 2013 Scripps National Spelling Bee in May.
ORCHID: To Trumbull County Family Court for providing the startup money that allowed the Solace Center to reopen. The center provides supervised visitation and exchange programs for families.
ONION: To the Trumbull County Board of Health for attempting to select a new member with a secret ballot. Trumbull County Common Pleas Court Judge Andrew Logan struck down the practice the day before the vote took place.
ORCHID: To senators from northern Ohio who managed to amend the state legislature's Turnpike bill to mandate that 90 percent of the revenue from a bond be spent within 75 miles of the highway.
ORCHID: To John F. Kennedy High School instructor Terry Armstrong for having his students study the business side of the shale industry. As potentially one of the most significant developments in the Mahoning Valley in a century, and with the potential to provide an array of career opportunities for young people, every school should provide extensive instruction on how oil and natural gas development impact locally and worldwide.