Up and down el Rio Blanco: Remembering, congratulating

Please don’t forget to honor the memory of the lives of soldiers, given while defending and fighting for our freedoms, this Memorial Day weekend.
The local VFW post will be decorating the cemetery today at 4:45, in preparation for the Memorial Day weekend. Volunteers are welcome. Monday, come rain or shine, Memorial Day services will be held at Circle Park Bridge, where a wreath is thrown into the fast flowing White River. Meeker High School senior Alema Atoafa will sing the National Anthem, followed by a 21-gun salute. A ceremony where a wreath is placed on the Veteran’s Memorial in Highland Cemetery will follow the ceremony at Town Park.
Congratulations are in order for many in Rio Blanco County students.
Congrats to all the graduating seniors this year. Rangely held its high school graduation last Sunday and Meeker’s commencement ceremony is this coming Saturday. I still believe Rangely graduate Torie Slagle’s perfect attendance and all she accomplished by showing up everyday is incredible and commendable.
Congratulations to the dozen Rio Blanco County high school graduates who earned college degrees from Mesa State College. My alma mater (and a great local college in my humble opinion) soon will be even better, offering graduate degrees and changing its name to Colorado Mesa University. And congrats to all the other RBC high school graduates who earned college degrees or completed another year of higher education this spring.
Writing of local colleges, how ‘bout them Spartans? Colorado Northwestern Community College has the top-ranked two-year aviation program in the country. They, too, continue to grow and get better.
Congratulations to all the Rio Blanco County student/athletes who qualified for the state track meet and special congrats to the county’s latest state champion Kathryn Doll! Jeannie Jansen was the last Meeker trackster to win an individual state title. Jansen won the 300 meter hurdles in 1995.