February 10, 2011
‘Meet Your City Council’ set for Feb. 22 By KEVIN PARKS ThisWeek Community Newspapers
The first in a planned series of events designed to get Columbus City Council members out into the community for one-on-one time with residents during the coming months is set for Tuesday, Feb. 22. The “Meet Your City Council” event will take place in the Fedderson Recreation Center, 3911 Dresden St., near the intersection of Karl and Cooke roads. It’s scheduled to last from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
While these gatherings are open to anyone interested in attending, city council communications director John Ivanic said that this session is specifically aimed at residents served by the Northland Community Council, Clintonville Area Commission, Northwest Civic Association and North Linden Area Commission. Four others are planned, although only a March 8 date is specifically set for people represented by South Side organizations, Ivanic said. The others will have dates firmed up
in April for the north central area of the city, in early May for the Near and Far A closer look East sides and in late May for the Hilltop and Franklinton areas, according to Ivanic. The “Meet Your City Council” “You can’t really do quadrants or pies event will take place in the Fedderor anything like that because we’re not son Recreation Center, 3911 Dresbuilt that way,” the communications di- den St., near the intersection of rector said. Karl and Cooke roads. It’s set for Similar meetings, which involve only 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 22. a brief introduction and then the opportunity for those attending to sit down place the last several years, according face to face, albeit briefly, with council to council president Andrew J. Ginther. members and their staffs, have taken These have most consistently taken place
See ‘MEET YOUR’, page A2
Monthly NCC meeting now set for Feb. 10
Operation Buckeye
Founder hopes to top 25,000 boxes this year
By KEVIN PARKS ThisWeek Community Newspapers
By KEVIN PARKS ThisWeek Community Newspapers
Operation Buckeye started out on the dining room table of founder Jim Caronis’ Worthington home. It moved into his garage when his late wife, Nancy Priode Caronis, wanted someplace to serve Thanksgiving dinner. The nonprofit organization, which packs and ships boxes of snacks, candy, Girl Scout cookies, playing cards and other items to soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan to help lighten the burden and gloom of being far from home, now has its headquarters on North High Street in Clintonville, a post office box for donations in Westerville and volunteers from throughout central Ohio. Caronis said last week that he was inspired to launch Operation Buckeye back in 2006 after reading a piece by the late Dispatch columnist Mike Harden about a local Army officer and his soldiers who, instead of coming home from South Korea, were diverted instead to further duty in Iraq. Caronis immediately told his wife he wanted to send boxes of goodies to those poor military personnel, who so abruptly found themselves diverted from reuniting with loved ones to putting their lives on
on the South Side, once or twice at the Shamrock Club and also at recreation centers, as well as a few years ago for the King-Lincoln District. “We really strongly believe we ought to do it in all different parts of the city,” Ginther said. “My thought is we ought to be doing everything we can to make council as accessible and available to community and neighborhood leaders throughout the city,” he said.
By Lorrie Cecil/ThisWeek
Mim Strait organizes items that will be boxed and sent to troops in Afghanistan and Iraq as part of Operation Buckeye. The organization is staffed only by volunteers and 100 percent of the donations goes to items for the boxes as well as shipping. For more information on the organization, visit www.operationbuckeye.org.
the line. They decided to pledge $10 for each of their 13 grandchildren and match that figure with their own money, expecting to send perhaps 20 gift boxes to soldiers. They wound up sending 94 that first time around, Jim Caronis recalled last week. The letters of appreciation received in return were heart-warming, so when Nancy asked her husband if they were
going to do it again the next year, he replied: “You betcha!” With the help of a growing number of like-minded people, Caronis said that the second year’s batch of boxes increased to 184. To date, the total is 18,000 boxes. Caronis hopes that figure tops 25,000 by the end of 2011. “Each and every year we’ve
grown, and we continue to grow,” Caronis said. Nancy Caronis passed away this past Nov. 3, and her husband now carries on with Operation Buckeye in her honor. On Feb. 18, Jim Caronis will be receiving the 2011 Community Volunteer of the Year honor during the
The monthly meeting of the Northland Community Council, canceled on the eve of a wintry blast that seemed to laminate much of central Ohio in a coating of ice, has been rescheduled for this evening (Thursday, Feb. 10). Council president Dave Paul, who called off the Feb. 1 meeting via e-mail at 4:13 p.m. the day before, announced the makeup session last week. The agenda, largely unchanged, will include election of officers. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. in the multi-purpose room at Friendship Village, 5800 Forest Hills Blvd. Because the bylaws mandate that voting on president, vice president, secretary and treasurer take place at the February meeting, Paul urged as many council representatives as possible to be on hand for the rescheduled session. “The lack of a quorum at this meeting would present us with some challenges, and would most likely require that a special NCC meeting be called prior to the NCC Awards Banquet on Feb. 23,” Paul wrote in an e-mail to members. Paul could not recall an occasion during his fiveplus years as president when foul weather forced cancellation of a regular monthly gathering. “I honestly haven’t kept good track of that,” he said. “It is certainly a rarity.” Reviewing past records, Paul said that the closest he could come up with was a near-cancellation back in 2007, also of a February meeting with election of officers on tap. “In this case, we did have our meeting, though I can’t recall if we achieved a quorum,” Paul wrote in an e-mail. “I assume we did, if only barely, because the election wasn’t rescheduled.” Election committee chairman John Kirkpatrick persuaded all but one of the current officeholders to stand for re-election. Paul, who had earlier indicated he did not want to serve a sixth term, consented
See OPERATION , page A2
See NCC MEETING, page A3
Free tax help Group to sponsor free ‘Food Inc.’ showing available at Helping A closer look Hands clinic By KEVIN PARKS
ThisWeek Community Newspapers
By KEVIN PARKS ThisWeek Community Newspapers
To Shirley Williams, the picture was worth several thousand words. Williams was among those who received free assistance in preparing federal and state income tax returns last year at the Helping Hands Health and Wellness Center. The service was provided by the free clinic, based at the Haimerl Center on Morse Road, through
the Ohio Benefit Bank in partnership with the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks. Williams, who had just lost her job and could not afford the services of a tax professional, was so delighted to find help through Helping Hands that she consented to have her photo taken. In the picture, still up on the clinic’s website, a beaming Williams holds a sign that reads, See FREE TAX, page A4
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A free showing of the Academy Awardnominated documentary “Food Inc.,” intended to get African Americans, in particular, thinking more about their diet, is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 18, at the Karl Road Branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library. The event is sponsored by the Westerville-based African American Alzheimer’s and Wellness Association. It will run from 6:30 to 8: 30 p.m. and feature healthy refreshments. Showing the 2008 film, a decidedly unflattering look at food industry in the United States, is in keeping with the “wellness”
The free Feb. 18 showing of “Food Inc.” is sponsored by the Westervillebased African American Alzheimer’s and Wellness Association. It will run from 6:30 to 8: 30 p.m. and feature healthy refreshments.
side the five-year-old organization’s mission, according to executive director Kimberly S. Lee. Diabetes and hypertension, which are present to a marked degree in African Americans, are thought to be possible contributing factors to the onset of Alzheimer’s disease,
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Lee said. That’s why the former director of local assisted living facilities created the nonprofit organization. At one time, Lee pointed out, many in the African American community ignored the presence of Alzheimer’s among older people. “Really reaching out and asking for help is not something that culturally the AfricanAmerican community has done,” Lee said. That’s beginning to change, she said, but now that the issue is being increasingly recognized, there is a need for prevention efforts. The “wellness” part of the organization’s name was added after its founding, and See ‘FOOD INC.’, page A2
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