CHEERS: to High Peaks Dental for providing free dental care for the second year in a row through participation in the Dentistry from the Heart NY program. The dentists, Michael O'Connor, William Caldon and Donnon "DJ" O'Neill, saw 106 people on Saturday, Aug. 2, at their Plattsburgh office, with all services provided for free. Many of the patients hadn't seen a dentist in years. The dentists and their staff did free fillings, extraction, cleaning and X-rays. We are sure their generous efforts put a smile on many faces that day.

CHEERS: belatedly, to schools that insist senior trips be taken within the United States and to locations of educational value. Places such as New York City, Boston, New Orleans and Washington, D.C., come to mind. They offer venues of historical and cultural value, while still providing for students an enjoyable time and memories to last a lifetime. Taking a journey to Cancun or Acapulco to lounge on the beach stretches the term "educational experience."

CHEERS: to Erika Kollinder, who adopted an abandoned, probably doomed kitten last week under difficult circumstances. Rachel Moore was on a photo assignment for the Press-Republican when she saw a kitten that had fallen from under a moving truck in the Wal-Mart parking lot. Rachel took the kitten, which appeared injured and in shock, to the paper in a box to try to find a veterinarian or shelter to take custody of it. She and staffer Michelle Besaw began making phone calls but could find no vet or shelter able to accept the kitten. Several suggested they let it go to fend for itself. Some of the shelters said they didn't have the space for yet another cat, an issue that appears significant for the area. Anyway, with no professional prospects, the women started calling friends and finally stumbled upon Kollinder, a known animal sympathizer. Rachel delivered the kitten and, after vet visits, it is doing just fine in its new home. We need more people like Erika Kollinder and more responsible pet owners who spay and neuter their cats.

CHEERS: to Reps. John McHugh (R-Hudson) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-Hudson) and Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles Schumer (both D-N.Y.) for being so visible and so publicly concerned about the economic health of the North Country and its residents. We can say from long experience that the members of this congressional delegation have been far more attentive than many of their predecessors -- particularly the senators. Going back to Al D'Amato, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, James Buckley, Jacob Javits and Kenneth Keating, this pair have visited the region more in the past eight years than all of them combined in the previous 30. They and the House members cited above have been accessible to local officials and can point to numerous improvements in North Country life in which they've had a direct hand.