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A LOOK INSIDE Town of Essex Council Continued from May 19 PAGE 3 _______________ How COVID-19 has affected one health care nurse in Windsor PAGE 6 _______________ Town of Essex Council notes - June 1 PAGE 9 _______________
Vol. 140
Thursday, June 4, 2020
Issue No. 22
EDHS student earns $41,000 scholarship, will be co-valedictorian for class of 2020 - Co-valedictorians Emily Stanley and Josh O’Neil have been close friends since kindergarten -
COVID-19 pandemic increases demand on CMHA PAGE 17 _______________ Kingsville Cleanup gets community to pitch-in at a distance PAGE 20 _______________
Looking For A Good Home
“COOKIE” See Page 5 for adoption info.
Photo submitted: Pictured are Emily Stanley and Josh O’Neil. The two best friends are thrilled they will share the limelight to deliver the valedictorian speech for the EDHS class of 2020.
by Sylene Argent When Emily Stanley and Josh O’Neil were still playing in the sandbox during their playful days of kindergarten, they would never have predicted their friendship would continue to grow into high school and that they would both be selected to be co-valedictorians for the Essex District High School Class of 2020. When the duo got a phone call from the local high school last week, they were told they were both going to be valedictorians. Staff members of EDHS, she said, noted they felt with the current climate due to COVID-19, a change up, in having two valedictorians, would be nice. They were thrilled to hear of this decision. “We’ve been friends since like JK. We’ve been really close,” O’Neil said of his friendship with Stanley. “It was awesome when we heard the news.” The duo noted they will record their speech, which will be put into a video for the graduating class. The actual graduation ceremony, they added, will be postponed until COVID-19 is cleared up. O’Neil said he had his heart set on the role since the beginning of the schoolyear, and had friends tell him he should pursue that goal. “And, I was just that friend who was hyping him up to be valedictorian,” Stanley said. Before they got the call, O’Neil remembers telling Stanley, “What if they asked us to be co-valedictorians. That would be so cool. We’d kill it.” Stanley said she and O’Neil have already been hard at work at preparing the speech and bouncing ideas off of each other. They hope the speech will bring to light to what is going on right now. “We kind of decided to go with a sense of community. We realized over the past four-years how important that is.”
Continued on Page 2