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I love football, I play football, I live football. Life is too short and too valuable to take seriously or take for granted.

I like to treat every moment as a reward, not a gift, because in order to get anything in life you have to earn it through hard work and discipline, that makes life all the sweeter. Work hard so you can play harder.

Fred Statz,

as quoted in the program for his Nov. 17 funeral at St. Martin’s Catholic Church

Fred Statz’s parents and siblings say his passion for football was contagious, and they all caught the bug.

Local members of the Sikh community were joined by the city as they reacted to reports that white supremacist Wade Michael Page opened fire and killed six people at a religious center in Oak Creek on Sunday, Aug. 5.

The City of Middleton is home to the Sikh Society of Wisconsin-Madison’s gurudwara, or temple. Bimal Pangli described the Century Avenue building as her family’s “second home,” where followers of the faith can go to find serenity.

Bakhshinder Singh, a priest at the Middleton gurudwara, called the shooting a “tragedy.”

“This is a place where we pray for everyone,” he said, shaking his head. “This is very sad.”

On Tuesday night, the Middleton Common Council approved a resolution supporting the Sikh community and expressing condolences for the victims in Oak Creek, which is about two hours east of the Good Neighbor City.

In a bed at St. Nicholas Children’s Hospital in Barlad, Romania, a baby named Andrei was wailing. Suffering from Hydrocephalus, the abandoned child’s head was slowly filling with fluid, swelling to twice its normal size.

He was in a facility that houses sick or deformed children cast aside by parents who see them as God’s punishment, or by caretakers on whom the shackles of alcoholism weigh too heavily to care for another human life.

Even in a place where suffering is commonplace, many were overwhelmed by his condition.

“I think everyone was intimidated,” recalled Nicole Mueller. “I was too. He cried 24/7 and he had sores all over.”

Mueller, at the age of 23, is a picture of health - Andrei’s opposite in nearly every way. Athletic and copper-skinned, she flashes white teeth in a frequent smile and speaks with unflinching Midwestern amiability. She was in Romania with the Global Volunteers program.