The Tifton Gazette would like to extend a round of applause to the following individuals and organizations for doing good things in our community.

Polar bear plungers

Twelve brave volunteers dived into the Polar Bear Plunge Jan. 1 at the Tiftarea YMCA pool.

The air temperature on the morning of the plunge was 34 degrees and the water was a frigid 46 degrees, which was the lowest water temperature recorded for the event.

Participants raised $13,091 this year, another record broken.

Our hats are off to the polar bear plungers and their chosen charities: Mike Beeman; Ruth’s Cottage; Vicki Taft, Tift County Commission on Children and Youth; Ted McElroy, Called to Care; William Barberee, Pregnancy Care Center; Jarrod Roberts, Literacy Volunteers; Wingate Whitley, Patticake House; Paul Horst, Tift Area Greenways Association; Darian Peavy, Family Promise; Bobby Bennett, Celebration Recovery; Bret Wagenhorst, Meals on Wheels; Jarett Haswell, CASA; Julie Smith, Save Our Pets.

William Bill Richardson

Longtime Tift Regional Health System CEO William “Bill” Richardson has retired after nearly 30 years.

Richardson came on board in 1988, attracted to the job by what he calls the connection between doctors, nurse, staff and administration at the hospital.

Our best wishes as he transitions into retirement and finds his next challenge.

Blue Devils All-State players

Numerous Blue Devils football players have been named to All-State and Best Of lists in the last few weeks.

The 2017 calendar year finished with five Tift County Blue Devils being named to the Georgia Sports Writers Association All-State football team.

The Devils, who went 11-2 and advanced to the state quarterfinals, saw Griffin Collier and Rashod Bateman both named to the Class AAAAAAA first team squad. Second team picks were Fernando Ramirez and Andrew Johnson, with Mike Jones earning honorable mention.

We congratulate them all.

ABAC scholarship recipients.

Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College recently announced its scholarship receipts for 2018.

And while the list is too long to go into here (it was published in a previous Gazette edition) we want to congratulate all the recipients.

Many were from Tift County and neighboring counties and we’re glad they have been recognized.

There was also a fair number from other counties, states and even countries and we congratulate them as well and look forward to welcoming them to Tifton.

Georgia Bulldogs

We’re stretching the rules of Round of Applause a little bit, but seeing the ‘Dawgs go to a national championship for the first time since 1980 is good for every Georgia community.

As to whether they’ll defeat Alabama, well, the optimists in the office say yes and the pessimists say no. We’ll reconvene Tuesday morning and compare notes.