ORCHID: To the Youngstown Community Food Center and Mode Mobile for sponsoring a special holiday giveaway of hundreds of pounds of food and about 500 smartphones at the center days before Christmas. The community food center, which has served as a lifeline for many Valley residents, distributed an abundance of free poultry, produce, ice cream, fresh fruit, English muffins, frozen vegetables, cheesecake and other items. For its part, Mode Mobile donated $275,000 to the nonprofit group, part of which financed the smartphones that were distributed during the event. The bountiful food giveaway no doubt brightened Christmas for hundreds and the smartphone gifts certainly will prove invaluable to the recipients throughout the new year.

ORCHID: To Joe and Pam Kerola, longstanding supporters of Youngstown State University, for pledging $750,000 to the Kilcawley: Centered on the Future campaign. Their significant and generous community-minded contribution will support the renovation and modernization of Kilcawley Center, the heart of student life at the university. Kerola, a member of the YSU Board of Trustees, aptly underscored the importance of the $43 million campaign: “Kilcawley Center is more than just a building; it is a place where students come together, learn, and build connections that last a lifetime. We hope this contribution will help make Kilcawley an even more dynamic space for current and future generations of students.”

ORCHID: To Trumbull County Common Pleas Court Judge Andrew D. Logan for his three decades of service on the bench. Logan, who retired at the start of the new year, can look back at his tenure with great pride. He oversaw many needed physical improvements and renovations to the county’s stately courthouse. Most notably, however, he was the driving force behind implementation of the county’s drug court that has grown to be one of the most successful in the state in rehabilitating nonviolent drug offenders and providing them with a fresh and promising start in life. His many successful re-election victories illustrate just how much the residents of the county valued his leadership as well. To be sure, his successor Sarah Kovoor, a former assistant county prosecutor and longtime private-practice attorney, has some mighty big shoes to fill.

ONION: To the growing ranks of conniving scammers who pose as representatives of reputable companies to rip off unsuspecting consumers. A recent incident in Boardman is a perfect case in point. A woman was scammed out of more than $1,200 last month after a phony representative of AT&T contacted her about an iPhone and Bluetooth headset being ordered for her by someone who had hacked into her account. Once the phone arrived, a man posing as a FedEx worker, complete with a FedEx logo emblazoned on his shirt, said the delivery was in error and retrieved the phone. Though she lost the phone to the scammer, the bill for it remained on her account. Boardman Police Chief Todd Werth and representatives of FedEX said the sleazy scam has become more popular this year around the Valley and the country. Fortunately, in this case, police appre0hended two key suspects in the scam. If found guilty, they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law to set an example for other would-be corporate swindlers.

ORCHID: To the American Heart Association and the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce for providing 500 schools in the state with cardiopulmonary resuscitation training and resources. The recently announced project is designed to ensure students know how to respond to a cardiac emergency. We urge all school systems in the Mahoning Valley to take advantage of this potentially life-saving opportunity.

ONION: To the Ohio General Assembly for once again failing to take decisive action on the status of the death penalty in Ohio in the 2023-24 session. State senators and representatives had several bills offering options from abolishing capital punishment altogether to permitting alternatives to lethal injections as the ultimate punishment for capital criminals. Once again, the bills for the most part languished without making it to the full body for final votes. In effect, that means those bills are killed and the entire excruciatingly slow process must start anew in 2025 with reintroduction of the legislation. That lack of will to take resolute action is yet another slap in the face to surviving family members and friends of the victims of murders and other capital crimes, many of whom have been waiting for decades for closure and justice.