Learning a lesson in courage
Inter Lake editorial
We can all learn a lesson in courage and strength from 6-year-old Kiley Heffner of Dayton. She's battling acute lymphoblastic leukemia with a fighting spirit that simply has touched people's hearts.
After eight months of treatment, Kiley still has close to two years of treatment ahead of her. She's had the support of her family all along, and now has the support of the Flathead Valley community as well. In response to an article about Kiley's courage in last Sunday's Inter Lake, many have donated to the fund at the Whitefish Credit Union to help the Heffners defray travel expenses for medical care. Others have donated tires and mechanic work for the family's vehicle that they rely on for numerous trips to Kalispell Regional Medical Center and occasional trips to The Children's Hospital in Denver.
As we've always known, Flathead residents are among the most giving people on earth. Now the Heffner family knows it, too.
AT A TIME when prayers are being said for the victims of a recent boat crash on Flathead Lake, it was encouraging to read about the miraculous recovery of Steve Nardi from an earlier boating accident.
Nardi, a Kalispell attorney, had suffered major internal injuries when his boat ran aground on Flathead Lake in September 2007. He lost both of his diseased kidneys (he had been forced to retire in 1998) and went on dialysis until receiving a kidney donated by his stepsister in April 2008.
With a positive attitude and a string of lucky breaks, plus top-notch medical care, Nardi is now ready to resume his law practice and looks forward to doing "as much living as I can do for as long as I can."
Hopefully, his story will be the model for a full recovery by all those involved in last month's crash.
CONGRATULATIONS to everyone who played a role in the challenging task of repaving the runway at Glacier Park International Airport this summer.
It was a job with plenty of potential for problems and delays, not good considering the obvious importance of resuming daily commercial air traffic in and out of the Flathead Valley as soon as possible. The airport is an economic engine for the Flathead and surrounding areas.
Because of that, it could not be shut down entirely to accommodate paving. Instead, it was closed to air traffic three days a week, Tuesday through Thursday, to make way for paving.
After twelve 24-hour work days and 96 million pounds of asphalt, the job was finished on time and likely under the $6.9 million construction bid. And it was done despite a rainy period that required adjustments to the work schedule. A job well done, and it won't have to be done again for another 20 years.