Club benefits county

To the Editor:

Martin County Conservation Club, Inc. was established on March 25, 1914. The organization is responsible for having the foresight to purchase and protect many areas in Martin County that are now enjoyed by residents in the way of public access to lakes, parks and wildlife management areas.

Land acquisition is where the large dollars go. Other dollars go to fish stocking, fishing piers on area lakes, student conservation studies, soil and water conservation, high school trap shooting team, Let’s Go Fishing, 4-H, Dollars For Scholars and other local projects.

Listed are several projects that MCCCI has partially or fully funded over the years: Amber Lake Park, Timberlane Park, Bright Lake Park, Center Creek and East Chain Wildlife Management areas, just to name a few.

This month, we will host our annual banquet on Saturday, Feb. 23, at Martin Luther High School in Northrop. There will be games, gun raffles, silent and live auctions, a social hour and a great meal featuring prime rib or stuffed pork chops, all of which will raise funds for conservation. The banquet is heaps of fun for the entire family.

MCCCI has no administration fees. All funds raised go directly back into Martin County to help make all of our lives more enjoyable.

Please consider becoming a club member, joining us at the banquet ($40), becoming a sponsor ($250) or donor ($100). Martin County needs you. Banquet tickets are available at Hy-Vee, Sommer Outdoors or by calling (507) 235-3692.

Mike Ebert and Hugh Fraser,

MCCCI banquet committee

Fairmont

The perfect love

To the Editor:

Being in what many consider to be the “month of love,” it would be remiss not to talk about the only perfect love of all time. I am, of course, referring to God and his son Jesus’ love for us.

When people refer to God’s love for us, they immediately jump to John 3:16, and rightly so, but often overlook the entire body of work God has displayed throughout the Bible.

Every generation has seen God’s Love, from Adam and Eve, to Noah, to the Israelites, to Christ and his disciples, to every single person on Earth today, tomorrow and forever. (Hebrews 13:1-18)

Even when things didn’t seem so great for the people of the Old or New Testament, or for even us today, there is always God’s love shining through. God sometimes had and has to teach his people through discipline when they go astray, as it is unloving and even cruel not to correct someone when they are following a wrong path. (Leviticus 19, Mark 16:9-20)

Yet this is where we find ourselves most of the time, on the wrong side of God’s wishes for us. Thankfully, he put a plan in place to save us from ourselves by sending his son, Jesus to be the sacrifice for us. He also gave us the Bible so we can know him and the great love he has for us, to teach us how, in our imperfect way, to show others this great love from him and the proper way we are to love others. (Ephesians)

There is and never will be any other source of perfect love than that which has come from God, and nowhere else it can be found but in the teachings found in the Bible.

Anthony Scheff

Fairmont

Drop tackle football

To the Editor:

Do you think it is important to listen to the leaders of this country? I do. Recently (on Super Bowl Sunday), President Trump said he would not encourage his son to play tackle football. The reason? Concussions.

The medical evidence is overwhelming that permanent brain damage can result from concussions that occur while playing tackle football. Concussions are insidious because the damage sometimes does not appear for years or decades later.

High school tackle football programs are being discontinued around the country. The Fairmont school system should stop its program, immediately. I have no doubt there is not one doctor at Mayo in Fairmont or Rochester who would not agree with the President. For the sake of the children’s health and life, let’s drop kick the tackle football program from the Fairmont school system today.

Peter Engstrom

Fairmont