One pleasure of producing a community newspaper is the opportunity to focus light on the good news happening around us. There is no shortage here: groups doing wonderful things for people in need, schools and their personnel working overtime to train our young people, churches feeding the hungry … and much more.

All that being true, three pieces of news we have printed recently stand out to us as representing Gloucester and Mathews people standing at the head of the class.

First in this spotlight was the Rev. Dr. Robert Diggs Sr., who grew up at Cardinal, graduated from Mathews High School, went on to Norfolk State and the Army, later became an Army chaplain, and finally settled into the ministry at a church in Petersburg.

From that base, Diggs has worked to improve the challenged community which he serves, most notably in providing decent places to live for elderly neighbors. Young people are helped with a community center. Diggs and his church members are not hearers o...