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This week's good things: Remembering veterans, a wonderful nurse practitioner and amazing athletes

Intelligencer Journal - 6/29/2021

THE ISSUE: It’s Monday, the day we take a few moments to highlight the good news in Lancaster County. Some of these items are welcome developments on the economic front or for neighborhoods across the county. Others are local stories of achievement, perseverance, compassion and creativity that represent welcome points of light as we return to everyday life and the state of the pandemic lessens. All of this news deserves a brighter spotlight.

Red Rose Blue Star Moms are doing tremendous work to help remember United States veterans of long ago.

As LNP | LancasterOnline’s Kellen Stepler detailed in the June 23 edition, the group has found and identified more than 1,200 headstones of veterans at Lancaster Cemetery. Some date to the Revolutionary War or the Civil War.

“Identifying, marking, restoring and cleaning veterans’ gravesites at the cemetery is a challenging task,” Stepler wrote.

And the Red Rose Blue Star Moms are leading the way. To that end, the group held a fundraiser this past weekend at the cemetery. In addition to raising money for restoration projects, the scavenger hunt aimed to be educational and fun — and to raise awareness about local history and the hard work it takes to preserve it.

“It brings awareness of who is buried within Lancaster Cemetery,” Lisa Colon, president of Red Rose Blue Star Moms, told Stepler. “People can see the work that we have before us, the work that we’ve done and why we need to raise funds.”

Indeed, the cemetery has quite a history. Among those buried there are Union Gen. John F. Reynolds, who was killed during the Battle of Gettysburg.

We are impressed by the depth of work it has taken Red Rose Blue Star Moms to maintain the memory of those buried at Lancaster Cemetery. The process began in the summer of 2019, Stepler noted, as members “combed through handwritten cemetery records written in bound leather books” and cross-referenced that information with maps to find gravesites.

It could sometimes take a half-hour just to find one headstone.

“Making it more difficult ... there are some veterans buried there that did not want recognition as a military member for personal reasons, so their headstone has no military medallion,” Stepler reported. “In those cases, the volunteers need a descendant’s permission to proceed with the grave repair.”

The process can include both genealogy puzzles (with some assists from the Daughters of the American Revolution) and the prospect of wrangling paperwork through Veterans Affairs.

All of it is important work.

“We have a duty as residents to remember those that have fought for our freedom,” Colon said.

Especially as the Fourth of July approaches, we can all agree on that point.

In other good news:

— Applause is due for Linda Gort, who was profiled on the front page of the June 24 edition by LNP | LancasterOnline’s Ashley Stalnecker.

The 70-year-old Gort, who works as a nurse practitioner at Union Community Care, has received the Catalyst for Change award from Domestic Violence Services, a Community Action Partnership Lancaster program.

Since 1996, Gort “has placed an emphasis on families, specifically women and children,” Stalnecker wrote.

“She is a champion for women, children and families who are experienced complex needs or their needs are falling through the cracks,” said Alisa Jones, president and CEO at Union Community Care. “Linda has the ability to see problems but, even more importantly, she has the ability to bring people together to solve those complex problems.”

That’s a vital talent. We are fortunate to have people like Gort among us in our community.

“She accepts and respects people where they are in life and strives to make that life better,” Nancy Marshall wrote in her email nominating Gort for the award. “Whether that means health care education, food, a book for a child, a meal, or one of her smiles, Linda can be counted on to reach out and assist that person where they are in life.”

There’s much more that can be said in praise of Gort, who has a compassionate and refreshing perspective on life. For that, we highly recommend that you read Stalnecker’s profile.

— Dating to spring 2020, four full high school sports seasons have been affected one way or another by the COVID-19 pandemic.

We don’t write enough about how student-athletes have persevered through these difficult times. So we want to take a moment to congratulate LNP | LancasterOnline’s Female Athlete of the Year and Male Athlete of the Year, who were profiled in the Sunday edition on June 20.

“Like pretty much every other athlete in the Lancaster-Lebanon League at the end of last summer, Cocalico’s Hannah Custer wasn’t quite sure what she was stepping into,” LNP | LancasterOnline’s Jeff Reinhart wrote of the Female Athlete of the Year.

Custer overcame the uncertainty, the necessary restrictions and other obstacles to have an amazing senior year.

“She dominated in three sports, earning all-star honors in field hockey, basketball and lacrosse, serving as team captain for all three teams, while putting up jump-off-the-page stats and providing leadership skills aplenty while doing so,” Reinhart wrote.

Custer’s lacrosse numbers were especially stellar, as she scored a single-season Cocalico record of 138 goals.

“Being a senior, I was going to give it everything I’ve got, because I wasn’t ever going to play high school sports again for Cocalico,” Custer said.

There’s no doubt she achieved that goal.

Meanwhile, the Male Athlete of the Year is Elco High School’s Braden Bohannon.

“Bohannon won the award for his versatility,” LNP | LancasterOnline’s Mike Gross wrote. “He is a classic three-sport athlete — football, basketball, baseball — of the type old-timers claim no longer exist.”

In football, Bohannon led the L-L League in rushing — while playing quarterback. That’s no small feat.

We congratulate Custer, Bohannon and all of the local high school athletes who overcame unprecedented obstacles during the past school year. They’re all winners.

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Crédito: THE LNP | LANCASTERONLINE EDITORIAL BOARD