GOOD PEOPLE...
Many times we in rural America mirror our citydwelling counterparts when it comes to stopping to help someone. We, like the flatlanders we sometimes despise, will sail past someone parked on the side of the road without a second thought. We, so many times, get caught up in our own little world of activity that we barely notice what’s going on around us.

The key word in that paragraph is ‘Sometimes’...

Not so this past weekend, when a pair of hunters stopped to help another fellow hunter alongside the road.

Phillip Silva is a 78-year old who resides in Cassel. He’s recently fought a bout of pneumonia, but like any intrepid deer hunter a little illness didn’t stop him from trying his luck tracking the Intermountain Area’s bucks. Phillip also suffers from COPD - a respiratory ailment that many of us old timer’s find hinders us from doing what we always used to do.

So Phillip decided he felt well enough to try and fill his deer tag... and sure enough, he bagged a buck. However, just recovering from pneumonia and already suffering breathing problems, he found it near impossible to drag his prey some 100-yards to his truck. He managed to get back to his vehicle and was leaning on the pickup struggling to breathe.

Here’s the ‘good people’ part...

Burney high alum Tony Mazzini and his grandmother Arlene Bartram were driving down the Old Dump road and caught sight of Phillip leaning on his pickup. They stopped to see if everything was all right.

Well, everything was all right... kind of.

Phillip explained that he shot a buck, but was finding it more than a little difficult hauling it back to his truck.

No problem for Tony and grandma.

Tony not only traipsed the 100-plus yards to the kill site, but field dressed it and hauled it back to Phillips truck and loaded it in the bed for him.

Phillip Silva now has a freezer full of Venison for the long hard winter ahead.

Tony has always been a good ‘Kid’... from his days at Burney High and even before. He has always taken on life with great gusto and fervor. When he was in junior high, he became the first bowler in that year’s junior bowling league to break that magical mark of 200. When presented with his ‘200 Club’ pin, you’d have thought he won the Boston Marathon... he was a wee bit excited.

Tony is now an adult, and his fervor and ambition and manners can be directly contributed to his upbringing by parents and grandparents. Mazzini is not the only kid-now-grown-up who is willing to help others - it seems to be something about being raised in our Area that creates some worthwhile adults. Adults who stand up for the National Anthem, protest with law-abiding honor and respect their Elders.

Now being an ‘Elder’ myself, I know that there will always be someone in the Intermountain Area who will volunteer to help if help is needed. Thanks to both Tony and his grandmother.

ON TO MORE...

• Another Cassel resident, Dixie Geissner, bought a Ducky Derby ticket recently and it paid of nicely. Her ‘Ducky’ came in second at the annual Ducky Derby in Redding over the weekend earning her a San Francisco Giants Weekend package that includes two tickets to a game, hotel accommodations and dinner. Congrats, Dixie!

• A Martial Arts tournament is set for Burney High School Saturday at 9am - check out the story on page B-2, you won’t wanna miss it.