Carnival time is fun for everyone

The Whitefish Winter Carnival is the perfect antidote for the gray skies of winter that can make us blue. This year's theme, "Mardi Gras - Whitefish Style," has colorful celebration written all over it. Whitefish knows how to throw a party, and this tribute to the Big Easy should be one of their best ever.

Carnival-goers will be kept busy all day Saturday, with activities ranging from a children's carnival to the Battle of the Bands at local taverns. Skijoring at the Whitefish Airport is a big highlight. The centerpiece of the celebration is always the parade on Saturday afternoon. Check the schedule at www.whitefishwintercarnival.com for exact times.

There are dozens of volunteers who work behind the scenes to pull off the carnival each year. They deserve a round of applause for making our winter a little brighter.

As expected, local schools added some more hardware to their trophy cases last weekend.

Columbia Falls finished first and Whitefish second in the Class A speech and debate finale, while Flathead took the team title in Class AA speech.

This is familiar territory for our area speech programs: It was Flathead's fourth straight state championship and eighth in nine years; Columbia Falls earned its eighth state speech crown.

But in spite of their excellence, these high school orators don't always get the same glory as their counterparts in athletic extracurricular activities, and they don't compete in front of cheering crowds.

So let's all take time to say congratulations to them. Their accomplishments deserve the same level of accolades bestowed on any state champs.

Students have had their say in another way as well.

Youths headed to Glacier High School have voted the Wolfpack as the mascot for the new school.

Their decision follows months of study, second guessing and backtracking by school officials in an effort to be politically correct.

And we wound up back where we started - with the Wolfpack, just as originally recommended by the study committee.

We hope this is the final word.

If the name game is over, the community's attention can be turned to even more important decisions still to be made about the new school.