Cheers to volunteers who make the holiday season a little brighter

Nov. 30—Thumbs up to community volunteers across the area who have spent countless hours organizing parades, decorating contests, and other events to celebrate the season and make Christmas brighter for residents.

Organizing such events takes volunteers who are dedicated to their communities and foster creative spirits.

Thumbs up also to area businesses and organizations that have provided numerous prizes and other rewards for the various contests and events that are often part of the community celebrations.

It takes business owners and managers who have a generous community spirit to enhance holiday events.

----Thumbs up to West Virginia for providing two national Christmas trees for the U.S. Capitol. Both were harvested from Monongahela National Forest.

The Capitol Christmas Tree, known as "The People's Tree," lights up the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol and is selected from a different national forest each year, a tradition that began in 1970 when Monongahela National Forest provided the first tree on behalf of the Forest Service. Monongahela National Forest also provided the tree in 1976.

Hosted by West Virginia's congressional delegation, the lighting ceremony for the 63-foot Norway spruce was conducted Nov. 28.

The U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree will be lit from sundown until 11 p.m. every evening until Jan. 1.

Also from West Virginia, the National Christmas Tree is located in front of the White House.

The 40-foot Norway spruce is now planted on the White House Ellipse, known as President's Park.

The National Christmas Tree lighting is an annual White House holiday tradition that features a countdown and musical performances. Conducted Nov. 30, this year's event included performers Dionne Warwick and St. Vincent.

----Thumbs up to Welch Community Hospital, recognized by Becker's Hospital Review as one of 11 West Virginia hospitals for excellent nurse communication. The list was compiled in each state using Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The nurse communication star rating combines data from three HCAHPS survey questions and summarizes how well patients feel that their nurses explained things clearly, listened carefully to the patient, and treated the patient with courtesy and respect.

By Mary Catherine Brooks

of The Wyoming County Report

for The Register-Herald

----Given the history of the governance of this state, it should come as no surprise to anyone that the West Virginia First Foundation, charged with directing hundreds of millions of dollars from opioid litigation settlements, decided at its first meeting to go into executive session — i.e., a discussion behind closed doors where the public is not welcome — to design, get this, its policies toward transparency.

You can't make this stuff up, folks.

Matt Harvey, chairman of the foundation board and a prosecuting attorney out of Jefferson County, said, in essence, that the board wants to be as transparent as possible with the public and to create appropriate policies to ensure that openness. And with that the board, in an online telephone call, booted all reporters and members of the public from the conversation.

Yeah. Sure. They want to be an open book with how they are spending those dollars. But, apparently, not just yet. That's a big thumbs down.

----Thumbs up to the Raleigh County School Board for taking a stab at solving its bus driver shortage. We'll soon see if paying candidates during training will pay off in the long run, but for now it seems like a logical step to take.

Keep in mind that training can take anywhere from four to six weeks, and for a recruit who is trying to put some bread on the dinner table, that is a long dry stretch to endure without some money rolling in. Now, prospective drivers will be paid $15 an hour during those weeks of training.

As reported by Josephine E. Moore of The Register-Herald, Raleigh Schools has suffered from a bus driver shortage since the beginning of the school year, causing the cancellation of bus routes and jeopardizing some children's ability to attend school regularly.

So, yes, this was necessary and prudent.

By J. Damon Cain, editor of The Register-Herald