A little bit about a lot of things:

• Shocked, floored.....and yes, speechless.

That pretty well sums up my immediate reaction to being named a Paul Harris Fellow by the Gustine Rotary Club during the Gustine Chamber dinner and dance Saturday evening.

Although I am not a Rotarian, I have been around Rotary and Rotary members long enough to have a deep appreciation of the organization and the mission it serves. The Paul Harris Fellow, Rotary International’s highest award, is not one bestowed lightly and I am greatly honored and humbled that our Rotarian friends in Gustine thought me deserving of the recognition.

A number of people very important to me are Paul Harris Fellows. Among them are INDEX Publisher Susan Mattos (who has put up with me for more than 20 years as we have worked together to produce community newspapers, week in and week out) and the late Velma Stephens of Gustine, a beloved Rotarian who personified the ideals of Rotary and cherished the distinction of becoming a Paul Harris Fellow.

That’s pretty good company to keep.

Of course, almost everybody at our table Saturday was in on the surprise – but I had no clue until the Rotarians started their presentation.

As much as I appreciate the recognition, what we do at Mattos Newspapers each week is the collective result of many people’s hard work and a shared dedication to doing the best job possible in serving our communities.

Those at our table Saturday included my wife Kathy, Susan Mattos, her daughter Toni Butero with husband Vince and 5-month-old son Sam (who is already a regular around our offices), Chris Cline,  his wife Vanessa, and Jody Freitas.

Kathy has become a member of our team, being supportive of everything that goes hand-in-hand with  working at a community newspaper - and offering valuable insight and perspective when I’m wrestling with how to best approach a story. We’ve had some 3 a.m. conversations that allowed me to sleep well the rest of the night....but probably kept her tossing and turning until the alarm sounded to signal the start of a new day!

I am very appreciative of the Paul Harris Fellow, and a simple “thank you” seems inadequate to express my thoughts on receiving such a meaningful recognition.

It is an honor accepted with great gratitude.

• Our thoughts and prayers continue to go out to Zeb Parreira and his family.

Parreira is undergoing therapy and treatment for a brain injury suffered in a vehicle accident in early February.

He was transferred from Doctors Medical Center to Children’s Hospital Central California last week, and is expected to remain there for about six weeks.

We join all those in the community who are keeping Zeb and the Parreira family in our thoughts during this difficult time, and add our own prayers for his recovery.

• Hitting close to home.....the “trickle-down” of the state budget crisis is very much being felt in local schools, where staff reductions, larger class sizes and other cost-cutting moves are being proposed in response to the state’s budget cuts.

Sometimes, I think, we in the small communities can feel insulated from the banner headlines of daily newspapers or television news accounts of statewide budget cuts. But it all becomes very real when those cuts translate into the possible loss of local school jobs, and our local districts must take steps that are felt in a variety of ways.

Those dollars that must be cut from our school budget translate into difficult decisions and true impacts.

Our school districts will work through this budget crisis, hopefully with the involvement of community and staff, but it will unfortunately be a painful process.

• Even as our districts face trying times, there are still plenty of good things happening in local schools.

Our congratulations go out to the Occupational Olympics team from Orestimba High School, which brought home a number of medals from the annual event last week and was the county’s small-schools champion!

Impressive, too, was Friday’s “ag day” event at Hunt School, organized by Hunt staff in conjunction with the Orestimba FFA chapter. From the petting zoo and tractor display to the educational exhibits (with tasty treats such as cheese, apples and ice cream), the event helped introduce young students to agriculture in innovative, fun ways.

We fully support any programs which help educate our students about the wonderful world of agriculture that literally surrounds our communities. California agriculture is amazing, and the more we can do to promote ag awareness, the better!

This week, by the way, the Gustine FFA chapter also took its petting zoo on the road to local schools, and has a full week of activities which conclude with the return of the traditional tractor parade Friday afternoon.

We were proud to join community sponsors in saluting the local FFA programs with a special section last week.

As always, we are pleased to share with our readers the accomplishments and achievements of our local students and schools.

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