Service To Mankind

THUMBS UP: The New Ulm Sertoma Club made a great choice for its annual Service To Mankind award, which was awarded to Dick Embacher this week.

As Social Services supervisor for Brown County for 37 years, service to mankind was his job, but his service has not abated since then. He’s a volunteer for Meals on Wheels and the other agencies, but it is a volunteer venture he and Steve Gehrke have been working on the past three or four years that really stands out. Heart to Home furnishings takes genly used donated furniture from people who don’t need it, and provides it to families who do. It involves a lot of heavy lifting and hauling, but it’s a great boon to families that now have enough beds for all the kids to sleep on, a table to eat on, and something beside the floor to sit on. Congratulations, Dick.

Threats are serious

THUMBS DOWN: We don’t have many details about the report of threats to shoot some teachers at the New Ulm Middle School, but District 88 and New Ulm Police took the threats very seriously. We know some students reported hearing other students make the threats, and the investigation turned up no credible evidence of a real threat this week. The students did the right thing in reporting what they heard, and school officials were right to investigate thoroughly. In this day and age, such threats cannot be taken lightly.