Vol. 5 No. 10 Inside This Issue...
Spotlight On ... PineCraft Storage Barns Plain Country Page 4
Home & Garden Pages 8 - 11
March 30, 2011
Melanie May, Local Songwriter, Wins Strum Magazine Contest
R
emember the name Melanie May because there’s no doubt that this Parkman Township resident is well on her way to becoming a household name and bringing a swarm of fans with her in the process. At the ripe young age of twenty, Melanie has experienced opportunities many people can only dream about. She has met and worked with many well-respected people, some of them artists in the music industry, such as Jason Aldean, Jack Ingram, and Gretchen Wilson. She has hosted the Nashville TV show, Nashville Spotlight, and released two hit singles to country music radio. Locally, she has been on the Fox 8 Morning Show and appears at numerous fairs, festivals, and fundraisers. These accomplishments first began at the age of 10, when Melanie first started singing and launched her career. Known to many simply as ‘Mel’, she first set her huge goals way back in 2006. “My first goal was to simply get to Nashville,” she says. “Now that I’ve accomplished that, and
Continued on page 2
Children & Computers Page 20
White House Chocolates Donates to Local Churches
M
PreSort Std U.S. Postage PAID Middlefield, OH 44062 Permit No. 77
Cardinal Local Schools Page 16
ore and more people need assistance for housing, heating, groceries, and gas these days, and many of them are reaching out to churches. Burton’s White House Chocolates is helping area churches in a “Pay it Forward” fundraiser that will be kicked off for the Easter season. They are making 3-pound premium milk chocolate fish bars to donate to churches physically located in Geauga County. The fish has long been a symbol of Christianity, and appears in a number of places in Biblical scripture. The bars, presented in pretty gold boxes and molded with the name Jesus, are each 8 by 16 and a half inches thick, and would sell at the store for about $30. White House Chocolates owners, Debbie and Ken Butler had the unique mold for the fish specially made to help local churches through this economic crisis. Ken stated that he hopes their contribution will inspire other small business owners to want to help out in their community. The churches, like all of us, are suffering through these hard times, and so are encouraged to sell or auction the bars to raise money. They are free to use the proceeds for whatever good works they choose, and since so many people are unable to contribute as much as they used to, churches
Postal Customer Local / ECRWSS
OR CURRENT RESIDENT
Middlefield Post P.O. Box 626 Middlefield, OH 44062
Continued on page 4
Ken & Debbie Butler, owners of White House Chocolates, with a 3-pound premium milk chocolate fish to be donated.
Bicycling 322 Miles to Support WWII Veterans Elise Bruening, a Madison High School junior, is bicycling approximately 322 miles from McKeesport, Penn. to Washington, D.C. this April to raise funding and support for a wonderful organization called “Honor Flight Cleveland.” Honor Flight is a volunteer, non-profit organization that flies World War II veterans to the Washington D.C. World War II Memorial at no cost to them. Elise spent the day with these remarkable American heroes on just such a trip this past August, and was overwhelmed by the emotions that were generated as they visited the many great war memorials and shared stories and memories. There were smiles, tears, laughter, and at the trips conclusion, a bittersweet parting. Honor Flight’s Jan Merrick called Elise an “exceptional young lady,” and a great supporter of this cause.
Elise’s goal is to raise $10,000, which is the total cost to fly one Honor Flight group of veterans to Washington D.C. She plans to take six days to bicycle to Washington along the Great Allegheny Passage Trail during spring break, April 16-21. Averaging approximately 50 miles per day, she will pass through Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Maryland, and stay at hostels and other inexpensive lodgings. With her, she will carry the medals of a World War II Prisoner-of-War Veteran who passed away without ever seeing the World War II Memorial. She hopes this will serve as a symbolic gesture of his presence, and highlight the fact that so many other veterans have passed away without ever seeing the memorial, which wasn’t completed until
Continued on page 2