Diamonds to the United Way and its longevity

Diamonds to the United Way of Wyoming Valley’s launch of its 103rd campaign. The fact that this event has happened so many times may make yet another campaign sound a bit dull, but there are two big reasons to praise it: First, the longevity shows how valuable and valued the agency’s work has been for so long, and second, it shows that the local United Way always learned to adapt to changing times, staying relevant and useful. The most recent shift was to helping at-risk children through a wide range of programs, all geared to assure they succeed in their early years to improve odds for lifelong achievement which, in turn, should help break the generational cycle of poverty for many. It is a long-view approach, but then, as the number of campaigns shows, this is an agency well suited to do just that.

Coal to us for mistakenly implying in last week’s Diamonds and Coal editorial that a recent motor vehicle/bicycle accident may have been a hit and run. The editorial noted all details were not in and was intended to focus more broadly on the problem rather than on that specific incident, but the wording was still poorly chosen. We ran a correction, but we also promise to be more careful in the future.

Diamonds to Tracey Selingo for earning the 2024 Athena Award, and to the people behind the honor started in 1985 as a way to highlight women who demonstrate not only professional expertise in their field, but do so in ways that both serve as role models for others and serve the community. Selingo was a central force behind “Fork Over Love,” launched during the COVID-19 pandemic to connect independent restaurants struggling to stay open with those finding it hard to put food on the table. “It helped to feed empowerment, team work and re-strengthen many of the bonds that were broken,” Pam Masi of Cosenza Italian Restaurant wrote in an email explaining why Selingo deserved the honor. An accomplished professional, Selingo used her years of experience to fashion a solutions for a community problem, and rightly earned the award.

Coal to a string of reports this week that collectively make the world look like a sad place, even though we always have a lot of good to celebrate. A Bear Creek Township man pleaded guilty to online child solicitation, caught when he arrived at a location believing he was meeting a 15-year-old girl. A Plymouth man admitted firing at least 10 shots from a hand gun at a rival — who didn’t help the situation by arming himself with a pellet gun — with most of the shots apparently fired after the rival retreated to a car and sped away. An inmate at the State Correctional Institution at Dallas was charged with assaulting a corrections officer. And perhaps most depressing in this list of bad news, Kingston Police captured a man wanted for raping a child in Philadelphia. To most, none of these comes close to being the “crime of the century” or even “crime of the year,” but seeing them all in our pages in a matter of days is bound to dampen any week. And each likely could have been avoided with common sense, clearer heads and the self-awareness to seek professional help.