Quick takes – October 28

Successful setup

The third annual Great Girls, Wonderful Women event, conducted Tuesday at Foundation for Youth, has found a winning combination with this program. It pairs successful female role models at luncheon tables with aspiring girls, allowing adults and students to connect and create mentoring opportunities.

Attendees this year got to hear an inspiring message from one of the state’s top women’s basketball players, 2007 Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Maria Stack. Stack, a 1980 Columbus East High School graduate, was named Indiana Miss Basketball after leading East to a state runner-up finish that year. She went on to play for Gonzaga University, where she won the Frances Pomeroy Naismith award in 1985 as the nation’s top player shorter than 5 feet, 8 inches.

Inspiring girls to achieve their goals is important, and the Great Girls, Wonderful Women event does it well.

Fine compromise

Too long or too short? We think just right.

Halloween trick-or-treat hours in Columbus were on the verge of being reduced by one full hour, to 5 to 7 p.m., after city officials received complaints that last year’s hours, 5 to 8 p.m., were too long. However, that prompted backlash from people who complained the hours would be too short.

We support the city’s compromise: shortening the trick-or-treat period slightly to 5 to 7:30 p.m. this coming Tuesday. That gives kids plenty of time to blanket neighborhoods to get sweet treats and have fun. Plus, it’s a school night and families shouldn’t have to answer their door for hours on end.

Important topic

Kudos to Ensemble Theater Columbus and Pride Alliance Columbus for tackling “The Laramie Project,” which covers an important topic that the nation is dealing with, a community’s response to a hate crime.

The production focuses on reaction from the community of Laramie, Wyoming, to the 1998 hate-crime murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student who was tied to a fence and left for dead. The special Columbus presentation, which opened Thursday, continues with shows at 7 p.m. today and 2 p.m. Sunday at 315 Washington St., Columbus.

Tickets, at $20 per person, are available at Baker’s Fine Gifts & Accessories, 433 Washington St. or laramieprojectcolumbus.eventbrite.com.

Kudos also to Heritage Fund: The Community Foundation of Bartholomew County, which provided a Welcoming Community grant that made the presentations possible.