Laurels to the students at Woodrow Wilson Elementary School in Kannapolis who raised $974 to help buy a protective vest for Kannapolis Police Department K9 Boone. A police dog’s life can be perilous. They don’t just sniff out drugs. They can be ordered to take on violent offenders, and when police officers aren’t sure what a situation holds, they may send in a K9 first. That’s why getting Boone a bullet- and stab-proof vest is such a big deal, and a great project for the young students. Most importantly, they understand Boone’s job and why they’re helping. As Ty Broadway, a fourth-grader who searched through couch cushions for spare change, put it: “He protects us, so we need to protect him.”

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Dart to the continuing uncertainty people in the Dukeville community are being forced to endure about their water. As of this week, at least 32 residences had received letters from the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services advising not to drink the water from the wells on their properties. Nearly 20 more were still awaiting the results of testing on their wells. The community sits beside Duke Energy’s Buck Steam Station and two coal-ash ponds that remain from the days of its coal-fired plants there. The tests found abnormally high levels of hexavalent chromium and vanadium, which occurs naturally and is found in coal ash, the tainted wells. Duke has thus far not taken responsibility for the contamination, but said this week it would provide bottled water to residents until the company completes its testing and would consider extending a waterline to the community if it’s determined their wells were fouled by chemicals from the coal ash dumps.

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Laurels to the six members of the inaugural graduating class of the Community Care Clinic’s Freedom from Smoking program. The eight-week smoking-cessation course was funded with a grant from CVS — the pharmacy chain that made headlines last year by pulling cigarettes and other tobacco products from its 7,800 stores. CVS also provided nicotine patches to help with the class members’ transition to being non-smokers. But perhaps most important was the support they got from the Community Care Clinic staffers who conducted the course and from each other. The six who graduated were among nine people who began the class. But that’s a 67 percent success rate, compared to only 30 percent of smokers who successfully quit on their own. And with all the benefits of quitting — reduced risk of disease, dispensing with an expensive habit, better quality of life, to name a few — these six will be glad they did, and will hopefully be examples to others.