Bob Champagne, community center director for the Manchester Salvation Army, facing the camera, gets a hug from Kids’ Cafe member Ezra Twahirwa after Champagne was honored with the Others Award for his 30 years of service during the Union Leader Santa Fund Luncheon at the DoubleTree by Hilton Manchester Downtown on Monday.
Bob Champagne, community center director for the Manchester Salvation Army, facing the camera, gets a hug from Kids’ Cafe member Ezra Twahirwa after Champagne was honored with the Others Award for his 30 years of service during the Union Leader Santa Fund Luncheon at the DoubleTree by Hilton Manchester Downtown on Monday.
The Salvation Army in Manchester could not have found a better recipient of its Others Award than Bob Champagne. He has worked tirelessly and devotedly for the Army, including as longtime director of its Kids’ Cafe.
That cafe is one of the Army’s shining success stories. It provides much more than a hot evening meal and a social respite for hungry kids, some of whom are new to America and all of whom are in need of knowing that others care for them.
SNHU community engagement director and Army volunteer Kelley Hobbs put it well. The Army’s programs serve to uplift the whole community, she said. Kids’ Cafe kids “feel seen. They feel valued. They feel safe. That’s a lot for a lot of kids.”
A lot of those kids, now grown up, looked to Champagne as both a mentor and an auxiliary father. He was no doubt embarrassed but quietly pleased that they turned out to honor him.
Readers of these newspapers can help, too, by making a Union Leader Santa Fund donation, care of the Union Leader, P.O. Box 9555, Manchester, N.H., 03108.
Much social and media air time was spent last week on the matter of which restroom a certain new member of the U.S. Congress will be permitted to use. Liberals and their press pool pals seem not to have learned much from the recent presidential election.
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Whereas it has long been our custom to commemorate November 11, the anniversary of the ending of World War I, by paying tribute to the heroes of that tragic struggle and by rededicating ourselves to the cause of peace; and
We have a hunch that both state and local governments are going to face some financially tougher times in the next two years. The watchword ought to be to spend on “needs not wants” as a former governor used to say.
This Monday is Veterans Day, Nov. 11. If you see a veteran today (or any day, for that matter) thank him or her for their service. Some of them will shrug it off as no big deal but most of them, we think, will appreciate it.
The 2024 presidential contest puts Americans in a spot they have no wish to be in — a choice between a man many have rejected and a woman most of the country can’t remember voting for in any contest (Hint: you likely never have). We cannot endorse either Kamala Harris or Donald Trump. That t…
