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January 20, 2011

Walmart to return to commission with changes By JENNIFER NESBITT ThisWeek Community Newspapers

The Hadler Cos. will be back before the Westerville Planning Commission next week to further discuss plans to renovate and add a Walmart at its Westerville Square shopping plaza. The company is on the agenda for the planning commission’s Jan. 26 meeting, which will be at 6:30 p.m. in council chambers at the municipal building, 21 S. State St.

Westerville planning administrator Rich Kight said there’s not likely to be a vote on the proposed renovations, but the company should be presenting changes to the plans that reflect concerns previously brought up by the commission. For concerns that are not addressed, Kight said he expects the company to explain its rationale for leaving elements of the plan as-is. Kight said he expects the company will be looking for further feedback from

the commission before requesting a vote on the plans in the near future. “I’m guessing it will be some more discussion, and whether there’s additional things that they want to do, or ready, it would be then the next time for a decision,” he said. “I think we’ll just have to play that by ear.” The meeting will mark Hadler’s third appearance before the planning commission to discuss $14-million worth of renovations to Westerville Square, which include demolishing three vacant store-

fronts to construct a 108,000-square-foot Walmart and upgrading the rest of the center to match the new store. At the commission’s December meeting, representatives of the Hadler Cos. criticized the city for being too slow in moving the application forward, while planning commission members said the company had failed to respond to any concerns they expressed at Hadler’s first appearance in October. Commissioners said the renovations lacked the four-sided architecture city

code calls for and don’t provide adequate landscaping for the parking lot or screening for the neighborhood to the property’s north. Commissioners also said the main entrance to Walmart may be too much of a departure from city code. At the December meeting, commissioners and the Hadler representatives expressed a commitment to working together to help the plans move forward. Also on the agenda for the Jan. 26 See WALMART, page A2

Westerville-based mission continues relief efforts in Haiti By JENNIFER NESBITT ThisWeek Community Newspapers

Since the 7-magnitude earthquake struck Haiti just over a year ago, Westerville-based Lifeline Christian Mission has provided more than 13-million meals to earthquake victims, shipped 65 40-foot containers of supplies and built 121 homes.

One mission trip inspires life’s work Thirty-one years ago, Bob DeVoe heard a missionary speak at his church about the need for volunteers to build a medical clinic in Haiti. Then a general contractor, the Westerville resident signed up to help. Within a month, he took a five-day trip to Haiti. It was his first foreign misSee INSPIRED, page A6

Lifeline has been working in Haiti for more than 30 years. With a well-established mission and more than 500 full-time employees in Haiti, the group was poised to respond quickly and effectively to the devastating earthquake that struck on Jan. 12, 2010, said Lifeline president and CEO Bob DeVoe. “We’re well-situated, wellgrounded in Haiti,” DeVoe said. “We were pretty well set up to help with the tragedy of the earthquake.” Because people in the United States were able to see how quickly Lifeline could respond, donations of food, supplies and money began to pour in, he said. “Since we were well-grounded, our supporters in the United States were able to see what we were able to do and responded to that,” he said. The mission, which has an orphanage and medical clinic in Grand Goave, Haiti, and also operates in El Salvador, Honduras and Cuba, has seen earthquakes,

By Chris Parker/ThisWeek

Day-ON

Aziza West dances to the drumming of her husband, Tony West, during the Martin Luther King Jr. Day-ON event at the Westerville Community Center on Jan. 17. Otterbein University students led residents in volunteer projects, and the Westerville Parks & Recreation Department hosted multicultural events, such as cooking demonstrations and dancing.

See LIFELINE, page A6

Teachers ‘Gettin’ Triggy’ with math class Hanbys at center By JENNIFER NESBITT

of historical trilogy of novels

ThisWeek Community Newspapers

You probably won’t hear these songs on “Schoolhouse Rock!” A group of teachers at Westerville South High School has created music videos based on rap songs as a way to teach factoring and trigonometry. The videos, which include “Gettin’ Triggy Wit It” and “Teach Me How to Factor,” have earned tens of thousands of hits on YouTube. The first math video posted, “Teach Me How to Factor,” parodies Cali Swag District’s “Teach Me How to Dougie.” Featuring vocals by South teachers and dance moves by South students, the video has earned nearly 70,000 views in the two months it’s been posted on YouTube. “Gettin’ Triggy Wit It,” posted a month ago, has earned 14,000 views. The idea for the videos came to a group of teachers playing music in the halls during a class change. When Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind” came on, teachers starting making up their own Westerville-related lyrics. “We started changing the words as the kids were walking by, just to make the kids laugh,” said Tyler Winner, a math teacher at the school. A group of teachers, including Winner, Dave Schultz and Anthony Calo, collaborated to completely rework the song. Winner, Schultz and fellow teacher Sarah Detrick recorded the song and made a photo montage to go with it. “Wildcat State of Mind” was posted on YouTube at the end of August and earned a little over 6,000 views. Its success encouraged the teachers to move on to “Teach Me How to Factor.”

By JENNIFER NESBITT ThisWeek Community Newspapers

Westerville South math teacher Dave Schultz raps the lyrics to “Gettin’ Triggy Wit It” in a YouTube video that has generated more than 14,000 views in the past month.

“We showed it as kind of a school pride thing, and it really took off,” Winner said. The teachers decided to create a song about factoring because many students struggle with the subject in algebra. “It’s always a really tough subject for Algebra I students,” Winner said. The video instantly started getting hits on YouTube, as teachers and students shared it over social networking sites like Facebook. “It started getting tons of hits on YouTube,” Winner said. About three-fourths of those viewing the videos are from Ohio, Winner said, but people from all over the country — and even from other countries — have been watching the videos. “When you look at the statistics YouTube gives us … they’re from all over the country now,” he said. “I have a Russian exchange student, and I know he showed it to friends

back home.” The videos are really a collaboration by the teachers involved, Winner said. When they settle on a topic to tackle, they choose a song and create an online document that they can all access and alter to add lyrics. “Every time we come up with a topic, we kind of pass it around to the other math teachers,” Winner said. “Everyone kind of plays around with it.” Many of the teachers who help write the lyrics also perform the songs for the videos. Winner said the teachers have worked on the songs over their lunch breaks and in the evenings. The videos were recorded with Schultz’s equipment after school. “We’re busy teaching the old-fashioned way during the school day. You’ve got to put your new methods on the back burner until See MATH LESSONS, page A2