MAY/JUNE 2012
INSIDE:
Malabar Farm
A Time to Remember
Guy C. Myers Memorial Band Shell Where History Sparkles: Tiffin Glass Museum Special Outdoor Living Section
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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FEATURES The View from the Stairs Bogey and Bacall at Malabar
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Ashland Prepares to 18 Strike Up the Band 54
Black Fork Bottoms 22 Uniquely Beautiful
www.heartofohiomagazine.com
Decorating for the 27 Perennial Home
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Grabbing Life by the Sail 54 Another Tom Corogin Adventure
MAY/JUNE 2012
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FROM THE EDITOR
If I knew where to send it I would write Mother Nature a heartfelt thank you note for the mild winter and early spring she saw fit to give us this year. I’ve always said you have to be a cockeyed optimist to own a convertible and live in Ohio, but the early arrival of good weather has renewed my faith in my choice of automobiles. Putting Heart of Ohio magazine together is always rewarding, but this one has been especially fun to do. We have so many interesting stories and people to introduce you to; unless I miss my bet, this issue will become one of your favorites just as it has mine. “The View from the Stairs” is a look back at the wedding of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, two all-time great movie stars who were married at Malabar Farm in 1945. You may have heard about the wedding, but I really doubt it was from this point of view. After you’ve read the article you can get the behind the scenes story when you visit my blog: http://unremarkablewoman.blogspot.com and read “Looking Back at Love”. In this May/June issue you will meet spunky Sylvia Miller (“Thou Shalt Not Steal”), the great-grandmother who chased down a purse snatcher, and Tom Corogin (“Grabbing Life by the Sail…”), a Port Clinton marina owner who made news around the world when he was rescued from his disabled boat in the South Pacific. Our contributing writers have been busy, too! This month Julie McCready is decorating for the perennial home, and Kym Lamb will pique your interest about one of the most popular new internet sites, Pinterest. Barb Haller remembers a mother’s lesson, and Mike Greene writes about Todd Blackledge; it’s a three-generation look at fatherhood and football. This issue is chock-full of collectors, writers, artists, interesting people and community supporters. I know these are stories you will enjoy and remember… because they are stories about people I will never forget.
Diana L. Coon, Editor Heart of Ohio magazine
Publisher SunGraphics, Inc. Diane K. Brown, President diane@sungraphicsinc.com Editor Diana L. Coon editor@heartofohiomagazine.com Sales & Marketing Debra Baker debra@heartofohiomagazine.com Contributing Writers Diana L. Coon Julie McCready Mike Greene Barb Haller Guest Authors Graphic Designers Tami Shuck Tom Hofacre Circulation Michelle Fredmonsky-Harvey michelle@sungraphicsinc.com Becky Herrick maildept@sungraphicsinc.com
Heart of Ohio magazine is printed and published bimonthly by SunGraphics, Inc.
41 Longview Ave. E., Mansfield, Ohio 44903
Malabar Farm Photo courtesy of Tom Bachelder
Visit www.heartofohiomagazine.com for more information, or call 419.524.2127. MAY/JUNE 2012
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On the cover:
Copyright 2010 pending, Heart of Ohio Magazine, LLC. ISSN 2158-8732. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of editorial or pictorial content in any manner is prohibited without written permission. SunGraphics, Inc. and Heart of Ohio Magazine, LLC accept no responsibility for unsolicited material. While ensuring that all published information is accurate, the publisher cannot be held responsible for mistakes and/or omissions. Distributed through local retailers, advertisers and by subscription.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
DEPARTMENTS The Arts
Family Life
11 State of the Arts: Beth Franz, Gail Coppock
47 Night School
12 The Legacy… From Franzfeld to Mansfield 14 The Cowboy Artist: Robert M. Walker
Local Attractions 24 Where History Sparkles: Tiffin Glass Museum
52 Firelands Historical Society Museum 58 The Beauty of a Barn:
The Third Biennial Knox County Barn Tour
Collectors Corner
Community Outreach 56 Supporting Local Community One Purchase at a Time
Money Matters 61 Finance of Remarriage
IN EVERY ISSUE
Tech Savvy
3 From the Editor
36 Why the Interest in Pinterest?
38 Milliron Everyday Heroes
59 The Radio Revolution is Here
43 Restaurants & Eateries
40 Todd Blackledge: Father Knows Football
www.heartofohiomagazine.com
51 Sylvia Miller: Thou Shalt Not Steal
30 Reflective Symmetry: The Kaleidoscopes of Mary Jo Hull
Sports & Recreation
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Interesting People
W he re does th e first breath of Sp rin g ta ke you in th e H ea rt of Ohio? Look for this image throughout the magazine to find out about our read ers’ favorite ways to take advantage of beautiful spring days in Ohio. MAY/JUNE 2012
60 Give Us Your Best Shot! 64 The Last Word
Answer the next featured question on Facebook.
Go to www.facebook.com/heartofohiomagazine to find the featured question. Submit an answer and it may be printed in a future issue of Heart of Ohio magazine. And while you’re there, be sure to our page to receive updates on future issues of the magazine.
M AY I S M I L I TA RY A PPR E C I AT ION M ON T H
SUPPORT YOUR
You Can Help Support the Local National Guard with Your Purchases!
LOCAL NATIONAL GUARD
Each of the following businesses have teamed up with the Richland Area Chamber of Commerce to raise funds for the National Guard Family Readiness Programs. The money raised will support local airmen and soldiers and their families, who are members of the Guard units based here in Richland County.
PARTICIPATING BUSINESSES ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■
Advantage Credit Union, Inc. Allure Studios Bob & Bob Door Co. Buckeye Superstore Buffalo Wild Wings Cain Graphics Culligan Quality Water of North Central Ohio DRM Productions, Inc. Directions Credit Union Find It In Mansfield GROhio Community Credit Union Holiday Inn & Suites Jerrys Home Furnishings Lesch Battery & Power Solutions Madison Adult Career Center McDonalds Mechanics Bank
■ Mid Ohio Collision Center ■ My Town Partners ■ New York Life Insurance Company / Vickie Riggenbach ■ Norwalk the Furniture Idea / McCready Interiors ■ Petros Consulting Services ■ Richland Area Chamber of Commerce ■ Richland Bank ■ ServiceMaster Professional Cleaning Services ■ Silpada Designs Jewelry ■ Southern Title ■ Spire Advertising, Inc. ■ Sutton Bank ■ Swan Cleaners / Embroider Your Own ■ Tan Pro West / Stumbo Road ■ Virginia BBQ
Businesses offering discounts or promotions to military families during the month of May: ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■
Allure Studios Buckeye Superstore Directions Credit Union Eatmor Bundt Kibler Financial Group LLC Olar Family Chiropractic Rock Solid Investigation & Protective Services LLC ■ Southern Title ■ Texas Roadhouse ■ Two Cousins Pizza
Richland Area Chamber of Commerce
For more information on the promotions offered by these businesses, please visit www.richlandareachamber.com. If you haven’t already done so, please take a few minutes now to contact our senators and representatives to help us save the C-27J aircraft and the 179th Airlift Wing. Go to the RCDG website (www.chooserichland.com) and click on the “SAVE THE C-27J” logo. There you can e-mail our senators and representatives to tell them to make the right decision for America and keep the C-27J and the 179th. The Richland Area Chamber of Commerce would like to thank the following businesses for donating advertising space:
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The View from the Stairs
Bogey and Bacall at Malabar
Inset photo: Penny Schettler-Benzing revisits the stairs upon which she watched preparations for the wedding of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall.
“My mother and father sat talking with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in our modest living room. Dad was asking them questions about the kind of ceremony they would like; he was telling them what he thought would make it beautiful and memorable. He wrote it himself using their input,” Penny remembers. With a clarity often confined to the very young, Penny recalls her impressions of the famous couple. “I remember thinking that Bogart was awfully short to be a movie star and older than the pretty woman; he was the same age as my father. Betty Bacall appeared to be much taller than Humphrey Bogart, and, to the eyes of a young girl, she was much prettier.” “I knew these were very important people… Hollywood movie stars… and they were being married by my father the next day. I had a long, flowered nightgown, and as I sat on those steps I fantasized that I might be a flower girl at the wedding and wear my nightgown. In fact, I was in school when the wedding took place and I didn’t even go,” Penny chuckled. “My dad never knew I sat there on the stairs, watching and listening, until their grown-up talk began to bore me and I went to bed.” Some details for the small reception after the service were handled by Mrs. Schettler. She asked Sophia Lattimore to make the wedding cake, having seen her catering talent displayed at various women’s clubs and parties around town. Sophia protested that the idea scared her to death, and the fact that she didn’t have a car made it even more impossible. And so it was that Sophia, her young daughter Dorothy, and a three-layer wedding cake topped with boiled white icing and adorned with frosting wreaths found
themselves in a taxi on their way to the wedding at Malabar. After exclaiming over the lovely confection, Bogey and Bacall went out to pick some flowers to place around the base of the all-white cake. They also brought back some fresh watercress from the stream and Sophia made watercress sandwiches in the Farm kitchen to be served at the reception. At noon everyone gathered in the foyer of the Big House. Betty Bacall was waiting on the staircase on the arm of George Hawkins. They descended to the strains of the “Bridal Chorus”, played on the piano by the Bromfield’s eldest daughter, Hope. Louis Bromfield stood as Bogart’s best man. After the service was over, everyone enjoyed wedding cake served by Lauren Bacall herself. She carefully cut the pieces from the back of the cake so it would look as if the cake was untouched as she and Bogart posed for pictures a short while later. “Over dinner Monday evening, my father told me all about the wedding, and many times over the years I was to hear that story retold. He took the ceremonies he performed very seriously, and one event during the wedding really annoyed him. It seems during the wedding, one of Louis Bromfield’s boxers wandered into the hallway where the ceremony was taking place. He sauntered over and lay down on my father’s shoes. My father was very irritated by it, but he managed to go on with the service as if the big dog were not there!” “Over the years people who were at the wedding have told me that the ceremony was lovely. Dad wrote the vows himself using the information he had gleaned from the couple while they chatted the night before in our living room. Always ahead of his time, he
“I knew these were very important people… Hollywood movie stars… and they were being married by my father the next day.”
MAY/JUNE 2012
www.heartofohiomagazine.com
The morning of May 21, 1945 dawned bright and clear. It was a special day for the Mansfield area, although most of the residents didn’t know it yet. This was Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall’s wedding day at Malabar Farm. By six a.m. the happy couple headed into Mansfield from the farm in Pleasant Valley to finish the legal paperwork required for their marriage. The ceremony would be performed by Judge Herb Schettler, a Municipal Court Judge and friend of author, Louis Bromfield. Humphrey DeForest Bogart and Betty Joan Perske (Lauren “Betty” Bacall) had fallen in love the year before on the movie set of To Have and Have Not. Now, the freshly divorced Bogart (45) had brought his soon-to-be bride, Lauren (20) to Malabar to be married in the hopes of avoiding a media storm. One month earlier Bromfield’s secretary, George Hawkins, visited Judge Schettler in his chambers to ask if he would officiate at the wedding. The delighted Judge, a friend of Bromfield, was also a justice of the peace. He realized this would be the biggest wedding of his career and would undoubtedly put Mansfield on the map. The Judge was sworn to secrecy, and he kept his word, telling no one of the impending wedding. Warner Brothers Studios had other ideas, and they alerted the press to take full advantage of the wedding of the superstar couple. The result was that, on this lovely spring morning, the national press had descended upon Malabar Farm. On Sunday evening, the night before the wedding, seven year old Penny Schettler (Benzing) was supposed to be in bed at the Schettler home on Glenwood Boulevard. Before she fell asleep, voices coming from the living room downstairs drew her to the staircase to see what was happening.
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The beauty of Malabar Farm. (photo by Tom Bachelder)
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Penny’s father, Judge Herb Schettler, with Bogart and Bacall on their wedding day. MAY/JUNE 2012
substituted the word ‘cherish’ for the word ‘obey’. Dad said Lauren Bacall was a gracious and lovely young woman. Later, when the newlyweds were preparing to leave Malabar, my father gave her his Phi Beta Kappa key which he always wore on his pocket watch chain. I’ve often wondered if she still has it and if she remembers the man who married them that day. I know my father never forgot them. “Marrying Bogie and Bacall was a very meaningful thing in my father’s life. Afterward he was in every movie magazine and news reel in the country. I know he received hundreds of cards and letters from old friends and even strangers from all over the world. It raised my father to celebrity status, and even through all of my school years it gave me a bit of a special standing.”
Penny with Lauren Bacall in November, 2001.
Bogey and Bacall’s marriage license receipt from 1945.
Schettler to the star. After an initial gruff response of “How did you get that?” Ms. Bacall was pleased to receive the picture. Penny Schettler-Benzing is a Professor Emeritus of Occupational Therapy at Eastern Kentucky University and currently makes her home in Richmond, Kentucky.
Hollywood Returns Malabar Farm State Park will remember the wedding of Bogie and Bacall June 1 – 3, 2012. Stephen Bogart and Tyrone Power, Jr. are the headliners when “Hollywood Returns to Malabar Farm”. Bogart and Power, sons of the 1940s Hollywood film legends, return to
Malabar to help celebrate Bogie and Bacall’s 1945 wedding. The wedding anniversary celebration weekend includes special “Celebrity Tours” of Louis Bromfield’s historic “Big House”, where visitors can meet the stars and see the house as it was on the day of the wedding. Dinner shows, a look back at Hollywood’s Golden Age with celebrity look-a-likes, vintage “Cars of Stars” show, film memorabilia, auctions and more will round out a star-studded weekend. Tickets are available for purchase at www.eventbrite.com, or visit www.malabarfarm.org. • MAY/JUNE 2012
www.heartofohiomagazine.com
Judge Herb Schettler and Louis Bromfield were good friends, and Penny recalls spending a lot of time at Malabar Farm as a child. “My parents called Mr. Bromfield ‘Lou’. His daughters were older than I, but when we visited my brother and I were sent off to entertain ourselves with the girls. We were invited to picnics, parties and cookouts, and I always remember being terrified of the dogs. Bromfield’s four or five boxers had the full run of the house and farm. I think they instinctively knew I was afraid of them because they always seemed to single me out to sit and drool on!” On November 6, 2001 Lauren Bacall was the key speaker at University of Kentucky’s Sanders Brown Center on Aging Foundation Dinner in Lexington, Kentucky. After dinner Penny presented a picture of Bacall, Bogart and Judge
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“ There is a place at Clearfork Lake where you can walk right down to the water. We’ve taken the kids there for years. The sunsets are a mazing. ”
Element of Art Studio / Gallery is a non-profit art gallery that showcases the artistic talents of individuals with developmental disabilities affiliated with Richland Newhope Industries, Inc. Because the space doubles as a studio, the public has the opportunity to interact with the artists as they create unique artwork including but not limited to painting, photography, jewelry, and ceramics.
Element of Art
Phone: 419-522-2965 Gallery Hours: Tue-Fri 10-5, Sat 10-3
s t u d i o / g a l l e r y
96 North Main Street, Mansfield, Ohio 44902
Lisa G. Ashland
www.heartofohiomagazine.com
Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow.
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The possibilities are endless at your Library.
Birthday parties, wedding showers, club meetings,
any celebration goes up a notch when you arrange to have it at Potomac Bead. Everyone has a good time, and everyone takes home a treasure! Visit us on Facebook and you will find a listing of classes for all skill levels and interests. Call for class times — visit us on Facebook for directions and details.
109 West Washington Street, Medina
Main Library • Butler • Bellville Crestview • Lexington • Lucas Madison • Ontario • Plymouth
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MAY/JUNE 2012
330.722.2555
State of the
s t r a
Meet the people who use their talent to make things a little more beautiful in the heart of Ohio.
Beth Franz
Sculptor
Each day the bronze figure of a young boy greets children as they arrive at the Child Development Center on the shared campus of North Central State College and the Ohio State University-Mansfield. The figure was a gift from sculptor Beth Franz to the Center as a thank you for the care her son received. “From the age of nine months to the time he went to school, David received the best possible care at the Center. I simply wanted to say thank you to the staff for their dedication to the care and development of the children who are enrolled there,” says Beth. Beth Franz has been at North Central State College for 21 years, serving over the years as tutoring program coordinator, administrator, and associate professor of English. A love for sculpting came as the natural evolution of her appreciation for the human form, the muscle, planes and lines that give character to each individual. A sculpting class twenty-five years ago lighted the way to a passion for the art form that has grown with her skill. “I love working with a client to create something they “see” in their mind, and I enjoy bringing to life sculptures that only exist in my own. The work constantly challenges me because I must continue to change my perspective as I go,” Beth explained. One of her most rewarding works was commissioned by MedCentral Hospice to honor the late philanthropist and community leader, Ralph Phillips. The bronze bust, displayed at MedCentral, will be present each year at the hospice fund-raiser. There the Ralph Phillips Caring Spirit Award is granted to a member of the community who embodies the spirit of giving, so much a part of Phillips own legacy. “They told me I had captured the look in his eyes in the statue. It was a wonderful feeling to know we had worked together and gotten it right,” says Beth. To view Beth’s work, visit her website at www.mountainaircreations.com, or visit her studio by appointment. Call 419.774.9225, or email bethfranz@embarqmail.com.
Gail Coppock
Calligrapher, Jeweler
Look for more local artists in upcoming issues of Heart of Ohio magazine. MAY/JUNE 2012
www.heartofohiomagazine.com
Gail Coppock grew up in the Appalachian Mountains and Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. As a teacher, an inner city social worker and a psychologist at developmental disabilities training centers, she followed various career paths before focusing on artwork. “The changes I’ve made in my art have not been planned, but more of an evolution,” she said. Her award-winning calligraphy, watercolors and illuminated manuscripts hang in homes and offices in nearly half the United States and some foreign countries. “Today my newest passion is fused glass. I love creating table top art like plates and vases, and wearable art like earrings, bracelets and necklaces. The depth and beauty of the colorful glass is very much like painting with a new medium,” Gail said. “Pairing compatible glasses in a kiln for a fusing cycle, then slumping that into a mold is the process that produces these lovely things. I’m really enjoying my work with glass.” Gail says she enjoys producing beautiful things at a reasonable price because she remembers how much it meant to her to buy a piece of art she admired. “Back when I was very young and poor, I would save my pennies to buy a piece of art that brought pleasure to my life. I try to keep my work affordable to everyone so they can own something that brings joy to their lives just as it did for me all those years ago.” Her attention to detail in all her work is her way of expressing her philosophy that the wonders of the universe can be experienced just as profoundly in little things as in the grand conceptions. You may see Gail Coppock’s work on her website, Gailsart.com, on display at Artworks on Main in downtown Mansfield, at the Mansfield Art Center where she also teaches, and various venues around northern Ohio. Email her at gailcoppock@gmail.com.
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THE ARTS
The Legacy…
From Franzfeld to Mansfield
www.heartofohiomagazine.com
Some people plan to leave family heirlooms to their children — china, crystal, jewelry. Erna Schuster Becker had none of those things left from her family to pass down to her daughters. Instead, she wrote the story of her early life in Yugoslavia. As she chronicled the events she was encouraged by a friend, Mary Jane Henney, to go all the way and make this story into a book. In response to that encouragement and the proofreading by her friend, Nancy Hall, Erna wrote From Franzfeld to Mansfield: A Journey Through Tito’s Death Camps. The war was over, but by 1945 the nightmare had just begun for Germans living in Yugoslavia under Prime Minister Josip Broz Tito’s reign. Erna Schuster, her mother, grandmother, grandfather and her brother, Adam, were driven from their home in April of that year. With only the clothes on their backs and the few things they could carry, they were herded into a concentration camp. Tito’s troops took a quarter of the town of Franzfeld, surrounded it with barbed wire and armed guards, and the Schuster family was taken
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MAY/JUNE 2012
there to be imprisoned along with other German families in the village. The process was repeated throughout the country, creating countless work camps and five notorious death camps for extermination. “We slept on straw on the floor, so a blanket or extra clothing to lie on or cover yourself with was a luxury,” she said. Before the war the Schuster family enjoyed a middle class life. Franzfeld, Yugoslavia was a farming community where farmers lived in town and rode their horse-drawn wagons to work in their fields surrounding the village. Erna’s father and grandfather, a business man, grew and exported sugar beets. After their imprisonment, the adults and teens would work in the fields or take care of the cows and other animals that were left in the empty houses, then returned to the camp in the evening. Erna remembers how her mother and the other women would smuggle food and needed items into the camp. “The women sewed their aprons up to create a pouch, which they filled with anything they could find. Sometimes they were able to sneak back to their homes in the village to recover things. Then they would wear the apron under their long skirts, covering it so no one could see.” As long as she could stay with her mother, Erna says she wasn’t frightened. “Everyone was in the same boat. Soon it just seemed normal.” But even that small security was ripped from her when she and her grandmother were separated from the rest of the family. “Then I was often frightened because my grandmother would
leave me to wander off talking to people or looking for someone she knew, and I couldn’t find her. She was not a nurturing woman. That was when I was most fearful,” Erna recounted in a quiet voice. Erna was reunited with her mother only to be shipped by box car to a death camp. The young children and their mothers were selected for this trip. Her new normal became fear and hunger and death. “Our food was a soup-like thin gravy and coarsely ground corn, and not much of that. People starved to death every day, it was just the way things were. My mother became very ill with typhus. We were living in a small room with two other families, and a woman named Mrs. Weidle cared for my mother. There is no
doubt my mother would have died without her help,” Erna remembered. In 1947 Erna, her mother, grandmother and brother finally were able to escape to Hungary and travel on to Austria, where they were reunited with Erna’s father. By 1952 the family was preparing to come to the United States. “In the camp where we waited to come here they told us about America. Our guide said some people owned two cars! We couldn’t believe such a thing because no one we knew could even afford an automobile,” Erna chuckled. Sponsored by a relative who had come to America before them, the Schuster family arrived in Mansfield, Ohio. They became part of a large group of German immigrants who lived in the north end of town; their social clubs — the Sons of Herman and the Liederkranz — still exist today. In that newly formed community Erna met and married Frank Becker in 1957. They shared a history of horror; Frank lost most of his family in the death camps, and Erna’s grandfather had died there as well. Ultimately, nearly 60,000 civilians died in the death camps. Erna Schuster Becker says it is a story that has really not been told. “There are not a lot of books on the subject, and so much of what happened has never been told. I wanted my daughters to know what we went through,” Erna explained.
“ We are going to take a trip to the Colu mbus Zoo. Spring is the best time to visit. ” Donna B. Wooster
Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose. Restoring refinement to old items Habitat wants your new or used appliances in good working condition (stoves, refrigerators, washers, dryers, air conditioners, dishwashers, etc.). Stop in at our store for some great finds! It’s open to the public.
in Wayne County
To make a donation or schedule a pickup, call
330.264.4999
Most donations are tax-deductible.
1451 Spruce Street Extension, Wooster, OH 44691 | www.waynehabitat.org
Supplies for beading, basket & seat weaving
From Franzfeld to Mansfield is available at Main Street Books in downtown Mansfield, from Amazon.com, or by contacting the author at ernabecker@aol.com. •
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The Cowboy Artist
www.heartofohiomagazine.com
Robert M. Walker
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Robert M. Walker describes himself as an emerging artist now in his “cowboy period”. In his jeans, plaid shirt and cowboy hat, Walker looks as if he might be an artist emerging from the long ago wild west to conduct the tour of his facility. The Loudonville artist’s studio walls are lined with acrylics and pencil drawings of Native American Indians, breathtaking scenery and beautiful animals. He is modest about his talent, but passionate about his subjects. His love of American history is evident in his work. Robert says, “I am interested in the Western Tribes of Native Americans. I work in graphite, watercolor, pastels and acrylics to depict the strength of character that many of these people displayed. I try to recreate their strength by pulling that character from their eyes and their body language.” Early on, Robert was a commercial art student at Kent State University. About a year into the program he decided it was necessary to drop out to make a living. He got married and got a job, but he never gave up his dream of being an artist. In 2001 he retired from his job as plant manager for the Genie Corporation in Baltic, Ohio, and since then has dedicated himself to recapturing and developing his talent and his love of art. In his beautifully restored home in Loudonville, Robert has created a studio where he works, instructs and displays his craft. Commissioned portraiture, private homes, scenery, and wild life are his stock-in-trade. His paintings of buffalo, bear, horses and birds are rich with an intricacy and color that brings them alive on the canvas. Many of his paintings feature backgrounds of places and things he has seen in his travels: lighthouses in Maine, landscapes of Wyoming and Yellowstone combine to catch the eye and the imagination of visitors. However, it is his original artwork of Native American chieftains like Two Moons, Red Cloud and Sitting Bull, that gained the attention of Hollywood. One spring day in 2010, Walker answered the telephone to find a
MAY/JUNE 2012
THE ARTS Robert Walker
woman named Sarah Parks, a set designer based in New York, on the other end of the line. She told him she had found his website and thought his work was the “best thing since peanut butter.” Walker’s immediate response was, “Okay, what are you selling?” But the fact is she wasn’t selling, she was buying. It seems Ms. Parks was designing a set for a new movie and needed to flesh out a scene featuring portraits of Native Americans on the walls in a room at the White House. Searching for the right artwork had led her to Walker’s website, which inspired her to give him a call. Sarah thought Robert Walker’s artwork might just be a perfect fit for that scene. Many of his paintings were fashioned after pictures in the National Archives, so they fit the bill for design and authenticity. Ms. Parks asked if he would submit an assortment of his Native American portraits, and ultimately they were chosen to be used in the movie set. The movie, Fair Game, starring Sean Penn, premiered November 5, 2010. Getting a call from Hollywood might affect some artists, but not Robert Walker. This laid-back western artist continues to pursue his dream while teaching pencil drawing and beginning portraiture at his studio, Stonewall Gallery. To learn more about the artist and see a display of his work, visit www.emerging-artist.com. •
www.heartofohiomagazine.com MAY/JUNE 2012
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“ We can’t wait to go mushroom hunting in the spring. My husband and I have three different places we go to walk and search. It’s good exercise, and if you’re lucky you’ve got mushrooms to show for it. ” Dawn S. Crestline
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The Ohio State Reformatory Listed on the
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“… a place where families gather to imagine and discover together in quiet corners and wide open creative spaces.”
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SELF GUIDED TOURS
GUIDED TOURS
Mon – Sat. 11am – 4pm
Sundays 1pm – 4 pm • May 1st – September 9th
May 1st – September 8th
West Tower Tour • 1:00 1:45 2:30 3:15
General Tour of Building
East Cell Block Tour • 1:15 2:00 2:45 3:30 Hollywood Tour • 1:30 2:15 3:00 3:45
Admission: Adults $9.00 • Children & Seniors $7.00 100 Reformatory Road, Mansfield, Ohio 44905 • 419-522-2644 • www.mrps.org MAY/JUNE 2012
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From Medical Oncology to Radiation Therapy
Bringing Advanced Cancer Care to the Community We Love At Knox Community Hospital we believe “community” is the most important part of our name. Our Center for Cancer Care’s multidisciplinary approach allows us to work with you and your family throughout your cancer experience, to customize a program that best meets your needs. Our accredited Center for Cancer Care brings you the comprehensive cancer services you need. From diagnosis to treatment to follow up care, Knox Community Hospital is here. For you. For your family. And for everyone who calls our region home.
In the Community. For the Community.
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1330 Coshocton Rd. • Vernon, OH 43050 • 740.393.9000
11KCH0007 PRODUCT LINE AD_CANCER (7.5x10) 4c_A_r1.indd 1
10/17/11 10:15 AM
Ashland
prepares to strike up the band by Judy Webster, Program Coordinator, Guy C. Myers Memorial Band Shell
This year marks 19th annual concert series at the Guy C. Myers Memorial Band Shell, 209 Parkside Drive, Brookside Park in Ashland, Ohio. Performances are held every Thursday and Sunday evening beginning mid-June (June 10th) through mid-August (August 12th). The hotline (419-281-3018) is updated on concert days by 6 pm for relocation information due to inclement weather, or you can check the website. Brookside Park was conceived in 1917 and became a 20-acre reality in 1919. Over the next 10 years, the swimming pool, shelter house, tennis courts and a wooden bandstand were built.
In 1937 Mrs. Myers purchased 10 acres adjoining the park and presented the land to the city. Ten years later a plea for a new band shell by Dr. Louis E. Pete, Ashland’s “Mr. Music”, appeared in the local paper and was read by Mrs. Myers. The following day a message reached Dr. Pete that Mrs. Myers would build the desired band shell as a memorial to her husband, Guy Chase Myers. Completed in 1949, it was donated to the City of Ashland with three evening of ceremonies and concerts by bands and choirs. The ashes of Dr. & Mrs. Pete are buried on the Band Shell grounds. The Band Shell is 110 feet high and 90 feet
wide to accommodate a 100-piece band, orchestra or choir on stage. There are 65 seats in the orchestra pit and 3,000 seats in the amphitheater, making it one of the largest facilities of its kind in the area. Patrons arrive early to claim their seat on the comfortable benches. Others arrive with picnics and lawn chairs to choose their favorite spot before the concert begins. Children roam the area near their parents’ picnic spot, and often dogs are in attendance with their owners. For the first time, a three-act opening concert designed for the entire family and kids of all ages will start at 6 pm at the first concert on Sunday, June 10. Gordon
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Russ, performing his Comedy Magic Revue, followed by Thaddeus Rex & Rock, featuring a drumming dinosaur, and the interactive antics of Kroc Center’s KC Big Band will fill the stage for this unique season opening. The usual time for concerts is 8:00 – 9:15 p.m., and while the events are open to the public, a free will donation is always taken to help defray the cost of the concert series, which is funded by the City of Ashland. Area businesses support the band shell by donating their services or sponsoring a concert through the annual Give-a-Gift program For more information about the Ashland Band Shell visit them on Facebook: ashlandbandshell.weebly.com or at www.ashland-ohio.com/parks. • Photos by Tom Beech
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Black Fork Bottoms
Uniquely Beautiful
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by Amanda Kiplinger
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I was born, raised and still live in Ashland County. Growing up on a dairy farm just outside Polk we stayed pretty close to home, so when my dad announced we were heading to Sears at the Richland Mall in Mansfield, we jumped at the chance. The whole family piled into our 1978 Chevy Impala and headed south toward State Route 42. Just before we reached the county line my dad pointed out an area of swamp land and said, “Now who’d want to own a piece of land like that? You can’t farm it or build on it, looks worthless to me.” As I grew up I hardly paid any attention to that patch of land again, but in 2006 the Ashland County Park District acquired it and created the Black Fork Bottoms Preserve (the Preserve). It was on my first visit to the park that I realized this was the same plot of ground my Dad had pointed out as worthless to us on that long ago summer day.
A Brief History Originally, the one hundred twentyseven acres belonged to Tom and Pat Gordon, who created a hunting preserve which became popular with hunters from MAY/JUNE 2012
all over the east coast. Eventually, the Ashland Chapter of Pheasants Forever bought the property using grants from the Ohio Division of Wildlife and the Clean Ohio conservation program. Because they could not legally own the property, Pheasants Forever donated the property to the Ashland County Park District, who maintains the area for public hunting and general park use today.
Landscape and Bio Diversity Black Fork Bottoms Preserve contains several diverse habitats. The bottom area is a swamp forest that is included in the flood plain of the Black Fork and Mohican Rivers. The lush marsh grassland was once a farm, but has long since grown into a beautiful grassy area containing common wildflowers. Queen Anne’s Lace, Black-Eyed Susans, Dutch Irises, and uncommon flowers such as green dragon, a close relative to the Jack-in-the-Pulpit, abound there. Investigating the upland forest you can find many species of trees, including the Ohio buckeye, sugar maples, tulip poplars, pines and shagbark hickories.
Black Fork Bottoms not only contains a variety of plants and trees, but also diverse population of avians, mammals and reptiles. The marsh itself is an important habitat for breeding and migratory waterfowl, including Canada Geese, the endangered trumpeter swan, great blue herons, mallards and American Coots. Various raptors of all shapes and sizes make Black Fork Bottoms their hunting ground. Kestrels, cooper hawks, red tail hawks and the American Bald Eagle call Black Fork Bottoms their home. Amphibians, such as frogs, salamanders and several species of turtles flourish here, along with white tail deer, red and grey squirrels, muskrats, raccoons, opossums, woodchucks and skunks.
Visiting the Park During early spring, and from October through early January, the park is closed (except for designated Sunday afternoons) to the general public. There is a hunting lottery (all Ashland County parks participate) where members of the Friends of the Park District enter their names into a drawing for the opportunity
to be chosen to hunt in the parks during closed hunting periods. Several trails wind in and around the park, with the focal point being the marsh forest. It’s a fairly easy hike, with the most difficult area being from the parking area to the entrance of the park, which is the steepest area. The trails are well maintained, but be aware the closer you hike the shoreline, the muckier the ground tends to be. Beware the duck blinds that are accessible during the summer months but treacherous in winter and spring. Dare to test your luck and you risk sinking into the swamp. There is much to see on the main trail as it meanders its way through the swamp forest up to the marsh area, finally reaching the marsh grassland and upland forest. My first experience in the Preserve was July 4, 2006. The park had just opened a few months earlier, and I was curious to know what the park district did with the property. Well, when you visit a swamp, expect a swamp! Thick algae covered the water, and the smell was unpleasant to say the least. You might question why anyone would want to visit the park, but the reason is quite simple: because it’s alive. The green algae are living organisms. The animals, trees, flowers, weeds, bugs and every single blade of grass are living, breathing creatures. The swamp is a huge, breathing entity that, in
its own unique way, is just as beautiful as any western landscape. My favorite time to visit the park is early spring. Between melting winter snow and spring rains, the swamp becomes a clear lake reflecting the blue sky above. The air is crisp, clean and smells of spring. The buds on the trees are opening up and early spring wildflowers reveal their beauty. Songbirds sing sweetly, and baby frogs (known as peepers) join in the chorus in the evening, reminding
everyone it’s spring. The air is alive with butterflies and bees as they pollinate the flowers. Red-wing blackbirds clutch onto the grasses and prepare their nests for their young. This is, by far, my favorite time to visit Black Fork Bottoms. As much as I love and respect my father, he was wrong. There is a lot that can be done with this land, and the Ashland County Park District has done just that. They’ve created a preserve that is unique and beautiful in its own way. The next time you find yourself on State Route 42 between Ashland and Mansfield, make a stop at Black Fork Bottoms Preserve. You’ll be surprised, just as I was, at its beauty. •
For more information visit these websites: www.crookedcreekphotosllc.com http://crookedcrekphotosllc.wordpress.com or on Facebook: Crooked Creek Photos, LLC
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Amanda Kiplinger and her family live in northern Ashland County. She has written for Nature Photographer Magazine, Wyoming Elements, and her photos have been published in Michigan Out of Doors. She recently had a show of her work entitled “Nature in All Directions” at the National Center for Nature Photography in Toledo, and the entire month of April her work will be on display at the Ashland Public Library.
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Where history by Ruth Hemminger, Curator of Tiffin Glass Museum The history of Tiffin Glass began in 1889, when A.J. Beatty & Sons, formerly of Steubenville, Ohio, built a new glass factory in Tiffin, Ohio to produce pressed tableware. In 1892, the Beatty works merged with the United States Glass Company, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the factory became known as Factory R, of the large United State Glass combine. The Tiffin factory was known for its fine quality lead crystal stemware and matching tableware, and modern designs, many in bold, brilliant colors. Their products were shipped worldwide with sales offices in several foreign countries. Tiffin furnished for the White House and a number of movie personalities. The superior quality of the glassware was recognized and ordered by major department stores all over the United States. From 1920 to 1930, beautiful acidetched designs were the choice of hostesses for their formal table settings. Gradually, these patterns were replaced with cut or engraved designs by the skilled
sparkles
Tiffin craftsmen. The forties brought lines of modern glassware to the marketplace as Tiffin’s heavy blown vases, bowls and decorative pieces grew in popularity. Using quality raw materials and the skill of their workers, Tiffin created some of the finest examples of modern art glass between 1940 and 1960. Their famous Twilight color, a soft lavender shade that changes to pale blue under fluorescent lighting, became extremely popular with the collectors who still consider it the favorite formula created by Tiffin. Several designs, including the Cellini line, the Fantasy ware and the Empress cased combinations have not been duplicated by other glass companies. Unfortunately, Tiffin was too modern for the market at that time and not enough Crystal Cellini candleholders, c. 1940s.
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Ruby & crystal hurricane vase, c. 1959.
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Crystal engraved vase, bubble stem, c. 1940s. MAY/JUNE 2012
Green fantasy vase, c. 1956.
The Area’s Largest Collection of Solid Wood, Domestically Made Furniture
S M F B America’s Most Fascinating Furniture Barn
The Tiffin Glass Museum and Shoppe is open year-round, Tuesday through Saturday from 1:00-5:00 pm, and by appointment. For more information, call 419.448.0200, visit the website at www.tiffinglass.org, or email museum@tiffinglass.org. All individual visitors and groups are welcome; donations accepted.
Visit us online at www.springmillfurniturebarn.com HOURS Monday – Friday 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
1055 Spring Mill Road Mansfield, OH 419-747-6066
Armed Forces Appreciation Month
For every checking account opened in May with direct deposit, online banking and eStatement; Richland Bank will donate $20 to our local national guards. Proud Supporter of Our Local National Guards
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interest was shown by buyers to allow the company to maintain production of these unusual designs. These are among the rarities that collectors now seek as they recognize the true beauty and skills required to create these fantastic art forms. The factory ceased production in 1980, and all hope of continuing production ended in 1985 when dismantling of the buildings began. That year a group of local collectors formed a glass club, which ultimately created a museum to preserve the legacy of this prolific factory. Located in the downtown area at 25 South Washington Street, the Tiffin Glass Museum opened in November 1998 to display the remarkable creations of the skilled Tiffin glass masters to all who are interested in beauty, creativity and the history of glassmaking. A chronological display assists in understanding the changes in our society over the years, and provides a view of beauty and versatility in one of the premier glassmaking companies of all time. •
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VISIT TIFFIN’S
www.tiffinlittleboxshops.com | 888-298-7236 | info@tiffinlittleboxshops.com
American Civil War Museum of Ohio
Collecting, preserving & interpreting…
The Angelus
Beautiful Religious Artwork & Giftware
Burns Electric We have it ALL!
Crystal Traditions
Watch Glass Blowing & Crystal Hand Cutting
ralphsjol.com
Frameworks
Shadowbox Framing & Gifts
Seneca County Museum Where History Flows
MLAD Graphic Designs Services Graphic Design & Large Format Printing
Surf 'N Turf
A Fresh Meat and Seafood Market
Neumeister’s Candy
It’s as good as you remember.
Subtle Verse
Ralph’s Joy of Living
Come experience the joy for yourself!
Threads
Visit www.subtleverse.com
See the Latest Fashion Trends
Tiffin Glass Museum & Gift Shoppe
Unique Handmade Candles
4TROOPS | May 26, 2012 Patriotic & Inspirational Music
Tiffin Art Guild
Where Local Artists Can Collaborate with Others
The Ritz Theatre www.ritztheatre.org
History & Displays of Tiffin Glass
The Wax Shack
Tiffin Glass Collectors Club 27th Annual Show & Sale | Saturday, June 23 - 10am-5pm & Sunday, June 24 11am-4pm
Decorating for the
Perennial Home
Bloom where you are planted.
My grandmother was a gardener, and so was my mother. I guess that is how I came to love tending to my lavish flower gardens. It was an overwhelming amount of work when all of my landscaping beds were first created. But I planted perennial flowers, a couple of species at a time. Perennial flowers are a lesson in patience and persistence. They are slow to start. But with proper sunlight, watering and placement they will grow profusely until they require being split and transplanted to a new location. Sometimes that new location is somewhere else in one of my flower beds. Sometimes they are put into plastic containers and given to other gardeners who transport them to a new location where their tender roots will attach and become a new home for them. People are like perennial flowers. Sometimes their roots grow deeply into the soil of familiar surroundings and they are comfortable to remain in one place for the duration of their lives. Others, in order to flourish and grow on their own, enjoy being transplanted into new locations to make their way in the world. People, like flowers, can be labeled native or transplants. In my many years of residential design, I have decorated for both “species” of people. I have helped many a transplant create a beautiful home while acclimating to a new city or town. I have also had the privilege of assisting native “Ohioans” in their quest to create just the right house in a place that they have always called home. Such was the case when I received a phone call from Kim and Sue. Kim, a life-long resident of Richland County, was interested in updating his home. He explained that he and Sue, while both still in their 50s, had been thinking long term towards retirement and where they wanted to live as they aged. Both agreed that they loved their existing home and could easily see themselves remaining Ohio residents for the rest of their lives. Kim went on to explain to me that while they loved the layout of their place, it needed some serious updating. We had worked together a few years ago to update their kitchen and laundry room. We had also added a new wood floor
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throughout most of the residence and new carpet as well. But everything else about their home had been the same for 20 years. “We purchased this house 28 years ago when our children were small because we loved the fact that it was a ranch home and that the square footage, while by no means large, was an open environment that allowed us to live comfortably as a family,” stated Sue. “Now there are just the two of us on a daily basis, and the house is still the right size.” Fortunately for Kim and Sue, one of their children, who had left the area for many years to pursue a college degree and a profession, decided that his own roots were calling him back. Their son not only returned himself, but brought along a wife and two young daughters. “It is so much fun to see our granddaughters running through the house laughing and playing.” said Kim. “It affirmed to both Sue and me that our single story, open floor plan would not only accommodate our generational family but our own future needs as we age into retirement.” Both Kim and Sue are avid runners and have a love of the outdoors. Their home is located in a quiet cul-de-sac with
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a large backyard and cornfields beyond that. They have a abundance of wildlife that visit them and they can easily view their yard guests from the expansive windows across the back of their family room. Their only request of me when it came time for the redesigning of their spaces was that I somehow incorporate the outdoors and keep the environment simple. “Nothing stuffy,” requested Kim, “we like comfortable and simple!” Comfortable and simplistic became my focus as I worked on the updates for Kim and Sue. Crisp white woodwork outline painted walls in hues that evoke land and sky. Multiple seating areas allow for larger family gatherings or a quiet evening for two. Fabrics are mostly neutral with a bright punch of color and pattern that creates a layering of softness against wood tables and a tall focal wall papered in a muted grasscloth. Mostly neutral area rugs define spaces on the wood floors, and well-placed table and floor lamps light the way for snuggling into the corner of the new Norwalk Furniture sectional to read a book with a granddaughter or for enjoying a cup of coffee while resting in a swivel chair that can view the television or the beauty of the outdoors.
were started, given the right environment they will grow and thrive. And their roots will be strong for a long, long time to come. I guess that makes me the tender of perennials and people, too. What a fortunate woman I am! •
“I have always enjoyed living in my hometown. It is familiar, it is safe and it is comfortable. My parents also loved this town and founded a family business of which I am proud to carry on that tradition,” Kim told me. “I have seen friends leave for good, and I have
seen them return after years of being away and feel good about coming back to their hometown.” That’s the thing about perennials and people. Whether their roots are transplanted to a new location or they are left to be right in the place where they
Julie McCready and her husband Tom own Norwalk The Furniture Idea/ McCready Interiors in Mansfield, Ohio. McCready and a staff of experienced designers offer residential and commercial design services along with quality, affordable furniture for the entire home.
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HOURS Mon & Fri 10-8 | Tue, Wed, Thu & Sat 10-6 | Sun 1-5
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COLLECTORS CORNER
Reflective Symmetry The Kaleidoscopes of Mary Jo Hull
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In 1816, the kaleidoscope was invented by Sir David Brewster. A fascinating man, Sir David was a Scotsman who was a teacher, minister, philosopher, scientist and inventor. An article in Blackwood’s Magazine in 1818 paid him high credit for bringing the kaleidoscope to life: “In the memory of man no invention and no work, whether addressed to the imagination or to the understanding, ever produced such an effect.” No one who has ever casually picked up a kaleidoscope, no matter how unsophisticated the scope might be, has put it down without having enjoyed the experience. How many of us can resist the continually changing pattern of shapes and colors, the beauty of the dancing pieces? Mary Jo Hull, of Mansfield, would have to be classified as one who cannot resist the beauty of a kaleidoscope. “I give my mother the credit, or the blame, for my love of these scopes,” she chuckled as she looked over her collection. “She gave me my first one as a gift in 1992. I was hooked, and I’ve been collecting ever since.” Kaleidoscopes come in all sizes, and Mary Jo’s collection proves it with pieces ranging from a large floor model from New Zealand, right down to a pendant and earrings that are also working scopes.
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Mary Jo’s collection now numbers nearly two hundred. Asked what her favorite might be, she gave it serious thought before deciding her favorite might just be an unusual scope made from dichroic glass. Artists Bob and Sue Riox, of Studio by the Sea, used a vibrant blue color and design that make it a work of art before you ever put it to your eye. Others she has found are made from metal, wood, and alabaster. There is even one made from a gourd, and one she brought home from Beliz that was fashioned from bamboo. Mary Jo said, “I love the unique ones, and of course the mirror systems are very important. But I think now the real pleasure for me comes from the hunt. They really aren’t that easy to find. When my husband, Jim, and I were in Scotland a few years ago I was looking forward to bringing home something really different. We didn’t see even one in the whole country! That’s odd when you consider they were invented there.” Mary Jo Hull has taught classes at Kingwood Center, and continues to speak to groups about kaleidoscopes. You may contact her at 419.529.8375. See the Hull collection on display at Kingwood Center late this year during the holiday season. •
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Visit these area retailers to beautify your yard and home and make your time outdoors enjoyable.
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Quailcrest Farm Five miles north of Wooster awaits a destination business promising to be more than worth the short trip: Quailcrest Farm, twenty-five acres of colorful gardens that are a celebration for the senses. This is arguably the finest selection of perennials, herbs, flowering trees, shrubs and foundation plantings you’ll find anywhere, with a staff to share their knowledge and ideas. Nearly 95% of the plants are grown on the premises, insuring a strong, healthy selection from which to choose. Cooks love the amazing selection of culinary and ornamental herbs, and hundreds of varieties of shade plants, annuals and perennials, miniature and alpine plants for trough, rock and fairy gardens are waiting. If you know what you want, this is where you’ll find it! The Garden Barn Gift Shop is unique at every turn; soaps and scents, things to wear and to eat, things to give and things to keep! Quailcrest Farm hosts weddings, garden clubs, private garden tours and more; perfect for a summer event or a relaxing afternoon. Quailcrest Farm, 2810 Armstrong Road in Wooster. Call 330.345.6722, or visit www.Quailcrest.com, for information about the Spring Garden Fair, with over 50 garden related artists and craftsmen on June 9-10. Sandy Hill Fruit Farm Few places can say they’ve been around since 1948 like Sandy Hill Fruit Farm. First an apple and peach orchard, it eventually expanded to stores on Ashland Road, Lexington Avenue, and the former Park Avenue West location.
Sandy Hill brings together local fruits and vegetables, offering Ohio grown items year-round whenever possible. A full garden center, they carry bulk garden seed, and a wide selection of lawn and garden chemicals, soils and mulch year-round. The knowledgeable staff is always on hand to answer questions and help you with your selections. Right now both locations are ablaze with colorful trees, shrubs, annuals, perennials and vegetable plants and lush hanging baskets for gift giving or to enjoy in your own home. For the nature lover, bird seed, feeders and bird houses abound, with over 20 varieties of humming bird feeders from which to choose. These things guarantee an interesting place to shop, plus great service and a helpful staff. For your produce and garden needs see Sandy Hill Fruit Farms, 1572 Lexington Avenue and 1482 Ashland Road in Mansfield, on Facebook and at www.sandyhillfruitfarm.com. Davis Tree and Landscaping If the winter took its toll and you need to trim up your great outdoors, call Davis
Tree and Landscaping. Damaged or diseased trees can pose a safety risk. Why take the chance when a professional from Davis Tree and Landscaping is available for consultation, diagnosis, trimming, and tree removal. They also offer spring cleanup, mulching, landscape installation, shrub trimming and lawn care. From landscape design to patio and walkway hardscapes, tree trimming and removal, even weekly lawn service, Davis does it all. Fully insured, they offer 24-hour service. Call 419.892.2882 (office) or 419.565.1599 (cell) for a free estimate. Caring for YOUR outdoors… Davis Tree and Landscaping. Pacific Impressions We all enjoy being outside in the summer, but if your “great outdoors” isn’t great, you need to call Pacific Impressions. Start-to-finish services can provide the outdoor living space you’ve always wanted. Outdoor kitchens range from built-in grills and appliances to a well-placed fire ring; living rooms are complemented by an outdoor fireplace or water feature, a pergola or an awning.
Your retreat from the daily grind can be as elaborate or as simple as you want. Pacific Impressions offer design and installation of patios, stonework, awnings and structures to your taste and requirements. An outdoor living space doesn’t have to be a lot of added work. Pacific Impressions offer services ranging from spring cleanup, planting, mulching and scheduled lawn care, to tucking your landscaping away for the winter; schedule the services and enjoy your summer. Manager Ryan Domka said, “We can deliver anything a customer wants, from the most sophisticated outdoor kitchen or living space, to the simplest yard maintenance. We might just be a homeowner’s best friend.” Pacific Impressions, 665 Sunset Boulevard, has been serving the area since 2004. Visit them on the web: www.Pacificimpressionsinc.com, or call today 419.756.3229. Wayne’s Country Market Since it opened in 1993, Wayne’s Country Market has been steadily moving ahead. It’s been a family business since
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Ask to see the metal AND paint finish • LIFETIME metal warranty warranties (some metal roofing is only • 40 year paint warranty warranted for 10 years on edge rust & – 25 rich colors 20 years for the metal). Ask to see roofs • Reduces energy costs installed at least 5 years ago. • Adds resale value Ask about exposed fasteners INSTALLED BY MILLER • The look of shingles that (they may rust in a few years). lasts 3-4 times as long • Resists hail damage • 100% recyclable Over 190 metal roofs installed since 2001 • 28-gauge, double-galvanized steel Over 35 years’ experience in exterior metal installation
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Outdoor Living Areas Outdoor Kitchens & Bars Outdoor Lighting Outdoor Fireplaces
Photo provided by Unilock
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Office 419-892-2882 | Cell 419-565-1599 MAY/JUNE 2012
day one, with daughter and son, Nicolle Mokros and Ryan Knapp working beside Wayne and Gayle Meadows. Wayne Meadows said, “In the eighteen years we’ve been in business we’ve had steady growth every year. I believe it’s because we promote quality and Ohio products.” Spring is the time for planning your garden and outdoor living space. At Wayne’s you’ll find a full-time landscape designer, an amazing variety of flowers, bedding plants, shrubs, plus topsoil and twelve kinds of mulch to make it a reality! Inside the Market you’ll find Amish meats and cheeses from Holmes County, an extensive wine selection and locally grown produce. “85% of our products are local, sustainable Ohio products. I work with several suppliers to get the best prices on produce, and we pass that savings on to our customers, “ Wayne said. “We are also proud of the line of lunch meats for health conscious customers that we carry from Dietz and Watson, and Columbus meats from San Francisco. These meats have less sodium and fillers for a healthier product.” Wayne’s Country Market is located at 2440 Lexington Avenue in Mansfield, just north of the Hanley Road/Lexington Avenue intersection. For more information visit the website: WaynesCountryMarket.com or look for them on Facebook. Eric’s Outdoor Furniture Any outdoors becomes the great outdoors with easy living furniture from Eric’s. Since 1992, they’ve been complementing outdoor spaces with furniture, playground sets and out buildings that enhance your lifestyle. Rugged LuxCraft furniture is maintenance-free and guaranteed for life against defect or fading. Made in Ohio, this amazing material is created from recycled milk jugs, virtually indestructible and environmentally friendly. Choose from a variety of designs and vibrant colors, or select natural-looking wood colors and textures. LuxCraft outdoor furniture holds its own against the hot rays of the summer sun and the freezing temperatures of winter. Make your outdoor living maintenance-free when you choose LuxCraft outdoor furniture from Eric’s.
Eric’s playground equipment is rugged and kid-friendly. Manager Weldon Hostetler said, “We always use the best designs and materials to produce our swing sets. We use grade-A lumber. We put it through an extra procedure to make it even better. Our designs are sturdy, with rounded corners for safety. We think we have the best possible product, and prices include installation.” A well-designed yard barn complements any yard and can be as basic or customized as you wish using your plans or one from a catalog of styles. Custom siding, windows, doors and trim can create a welcome storage addition that adds to the look of your home. Enhance your great outdoors with Eric’s, at the corner of Fourth Street and Lexington-Springmill Roads, at the Richland Mall entrance. Call 529.9887 or visit Ericsoutdoorfurniture.com.
Since 1948, Sandy Hill has been your one-stop source for fresh produce, bird feeders & houses, annuals, perennials, shrubs, mulch, fertilizer & more. Stop in today to see what’s fresh this spring!
Come see what’s in bloom!
We have the area’s largest selection of herbs & perennials, flowering trees & shrubs and much more! At our Garden Barn Gift Shop and Q Boutique, you’ll find everything from food to fashion.
Spring Garden Fair June 9 &10 from 10am to 5pm
with over 50 artists and craftsmen! Open tue-sat 9am-5pm
Extended Spring Planting Hours April 29 thru June 10
mon-thu 9am-6pm, fri-sat 9am-5pm, sun 12-5pm 2810 Armstrong Rd., Wooster, OH 44691 | 330-345-6722 | quailcrest.com Off St. Rt. 83, 5 miles North of Wooster or 7 miles South of I-71, watch for sign.
64 E Main St
Lexington
419-884-6135 ynotcycling.com MAY/JUNE 2012
www.heartofohiomagazine.com
Miller Custom Exteriors For over thirty years Miller Custom Exteriors has been improving your outdoor living by taking good care of the outdoor needs on your home. This Wayne County-based company specializes in the installation of siding, roofing, windows and gutters — things that decrease maintenance and increase your property value and leisure time. We all know that mosquitoes and tics can carry illnesses, but you can enjoy outdoor living without pesky insects in a custom patio room or porch enclosure designed by Miller Custom Exteriors. They will install a three-season, flexible vinyl enclosure that includes an efficient four track window system. These windows allow 75% of the screen surfaces to be exposed, but can be quickly adjusted to keep rain and wind out. Miller Custom Exteriors is set apart by their outstanding customer service. Ann Peterson Miller says, “We know home owners can be treated poorly and subjected to inferior work. We are respectful of the job site and we stand behind every job we do. Our motto is, “If we don’t do it right, we’ll do it over”. Visit Miller Custom Exteriors on the web: www.MillerCustomExteriors.com or call 1.800.589.4905. •
Ashland Road • Lexington Ave. 419-589-3944 • 419-756-3654 OPEN YEAR ’ROUND Mon. thru Sat. 8 – 8 Sun 8 – 6
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TECH SAVVY
Why the interest in Pinterest? Is Pinterest Just the Next Shiny Object? “I know half a dozen women, and a couple of men, who’ve become hooked (I’m one of them) on Pinterest over the last few months. I have a decoration on my family room door, baked bread from a recipe, and have purchased a watch from postings on Pinterest. It’s enjoyable, mindless entertainment… for as long as it lasts. But for the moment, I’m enjoying it. I can’t figure out why I like it!” ~ Diana Coon And A LOT of other people like it, too! As of February, Pinterest had over 10.4 million registered users, 9 million monthly Facebook-connected users, and 2 million daily Facebook users, according to Inside Network’s AppData tracking service. 97% of users are women. From September 2011 to February 2012, the monthly unique visits to the Pinterest site grew 866%.
www.heartofohiomagazine.com
So What Is Pinterest? Pinterest is a social media site that allows you to create “boards” of your interests. The site was launched in March 2010 and was by invitation only — and still is. The founder of Pinterest, Ben Silbermann, personally wrote to invite the first 5000 users. August 16, 2011, Time magazine listed Pinterest in its “50 Best Websites of 2011” article. In December 2011, the site became one of the 10 largest social network services, according to Hitwise data. Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web and you add to the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes. According to their site their goal is to “connect everyone in the world through the ‘things’ they find interesting. We think that a favorite book, toy, or recipe can reveal a common link
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between two people. With millions of new pins added every week, Pinterest is connecting people all over the world based on shared tastes and interests.” My friend Teresa says Pinterest is “everything I want to remember all in one spot and no paper pile!” Pinterest has been labeled “Women’s version of Fantasy Football — except useful!”
So How Do You Pinterest? You can request an invitation by going to their website at Pinterest.com (it took me several days to receive my invitation). Once you are accepted you can create your profile and select the topics that are interesting to you. Think of having a custom-made magazine. Every page is a topic that you WANT to know about. But instead of dog earring the corner of the page you select the like button (as you would on Facebook). If it is really good and something you want to try or share, “pin” an item to your Board so you can go back and review it later. You can even create different “boards” for different topics. My friend Jen uses the boards to “EASILY find and save new ideas and/or tips. It is so nice to be able to take what I find and save it in a way that makes sense to me (you can choose any name for your boards). I created a board that shows all the pins that I have actually done. Many of them I won’t find time to do until summer, however all the ideas will be waiting there for me. I used Pinterest to help plan my sister-in-law’s baby shower. Some ideas I found on Pinterest, others I
found on Google and added them to Pinterest. Pinterest is great for finding healthy snack ideas for my kids too — which they like better than crackers, cookies, etc.” Google provides a Pinterest toolbar option that allows you to add items by clicking a button. You can access Pinterest from your computer, iPhone and soon iPad. Pinterest has positioned itself to work seamlessly with your Facebook and Twitter accounts. There is also a tool called PinClout that lets you measure your Pinterest impact.
So Is Pinterest the New Virtual Vision Board or a Waste of Time? I tried to describe Pinterest to my mother, the best image I could think of was a dream board or vision board. Leadership trainers have used this tool to help people reach their BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals.) Steve Jobs said, “If you are working on something exciting that you really care about, you don’t have to be pushed. The vision pulls you.” It is evident from the number of users that people are eager to share what they are passionate about. People are being drawn to share and recognize the efforts of others. Like all social media I think the end result lies solely in the hands of the user. Those that see this as a tool to share, learn and discover will be excited and driven to share their passions with the community. They are the reason Pinterest will grow and flourish. They will balance the Pinterest use with the rest of the things they love in life. Those that find it a waste of time will either choose not use it, or use it as an excuse to waste time.
Why Would Men Want To Pinterest? Simple. That’s where the women are! Whether you are married or single if there are women in your life and if you want to know what is important to them… you need to be on Pinterest. This quote is from The Wall Street Journal: “It hadn’t occurred to me that such an online service also would be a window into me for my husband who sees me every day.”
Could Pinterest Tell Us Something About Ourselves?
Children’s Martial Arts Instills: RESPECT • DISCIPLINE • FITNESS • CONFIDENCE Learn from Master Instructor Chris Hershberger, 5th Degree Black Belt with 26 years of martial arts experience.
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My pal Angie said “It’s like cutting out your favorite pictures and sayings from magazines into a journal. I used to do that growing up. Plus there are a lot of fun surprises that bring you down memory lane. I have to admit when I reviewed my own board after using Pinterest for a couple of weeks, I was surprised by some of the topics on my boards. Could Pinterest help us identify subjects we never thought we were interested in, or maybe revisit dreams we had given up? Maybe this will be a new tool to identify the best paths as the seasons in our life change… or maybe it will be just the next shiny object. •
270 Lexington Ave. • Mansfield
419.295.7886
We do closings anytime and anywhere. Real Estate Closings with Friendly Professional Service | 419 525-4600 TOLL FREE | 800 525-2021 MANSFIELD OFFICE
Corner of Mulberry and Third St. in Mansfield
www.southerntitleofmansfieldohio.com
www.halmaxfield.com REAL ESTATE CO., INC.
INDIVIDUAL MEMBER
INDIVIDUAL MEMBER
COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE EXPERTS
Hal Maxfield, CCIM, SIOR
George Diez
President / Managing Broker Commercial REALTOR® halmaxfield@earthlink.net georgediez@halmaxfield.com
George R. Sikora, DVM Commercial REALTOR® grstpsg@yahoo.com
John P. Bryk, DVM Commercial REALTOR® jpbtpsg@yahoo.com
Local, out-of-county, out-of-state and out-of-country properties
380 N. Main St. • Mansfield, OH 44902 419-524-0010
MAY/JUNE 2012
www.heartofohiomagazine.com
Kym Lamb is a Social Media Manager, Coach and Designer. Her company, Integrity Project Management, assists people in becoming involved, informed and innovative with their internet presence. Kym has a BBA from Mt. Vernon Nazarene College and is a Certified Human Behavior Consultant and Wellness Motivational Coach. Send questions or comments to kymlamb@integrityprojectmanagement.com or call 419-571-0204 or read her blog at http://integrityprojectmanagement.com.
| 800 219-4183 GALION OFFICE | 800 468-4811 SANDUSKY OFFICE | 888 309-4811 WOOSTER OFFICE
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everyday submitted by Jill Hartson Hospice of North Central Ohio, Inc.
Virgil and Barb Cooke Hospice of North Central Ohio, Inc. Volunteers are absolutely essential to the success of many organizations, and Jill Hartson, Coordinator of Advertising for Hospice of North Central Ohio in Ashland, knows that first hand. That’s why she nominated Barb and Virgil Cooke for Everyday Heroes. For ten years Virgil Cooke donated his time as a companion volunteer. Assigned to specific patients, Virgil would visit them at home or in the hospital. “Eighty percent of a companion volunteer’s time is given to the support of the patient’s caregiver. Nurses and doctors are caring for the patient, but the caregiver is often the forgotten member of the team.
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Virgil and Barb Cooke
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As companion volunteers, we offer the caregiver respite time and any other support we can,” Virgil said. For the past year Virgil has been filling a different roll at Hospice of North Central Ohio. “As I’ve gotten older my role has, by necessity, changed. I am now a service volunteer, delivering flowers or medicines, anything they ask me to do,” he said. Barb Cooke has been a volunteer at Hospice of North Central Ohio for the past five years. Working at the front desk, she helps with mailings, serves as receptionist and greets the public. “I fill in for vacations or if someone is off for any reason, whenever they need me,” Barb said.
In addition to his work at Hospice of North Central Ohio, Virgil has a men’s bereavement group. Once a month the “Ashland Men’s Lunch Bunch” meets. “Our group provides support and counseling to men who have lost a loved one. The number of men in the group varies, but the effort is always the same,” Virgil said. When asked why the couple has dedicated so much time to this work over the years, Virgil said, “After retirement we wanted to give back to the community. This has been a rewarding way to do that.” •
Milliron Industries and Heart of Ohio magazine understand that we all know heroes. They are the people who have displayed courage or leadership in an effort to benefit others. We need your help to tell their stories by introducing your hero to the readers of Heart of Ohio magazine. The nominees for “Everyday Heroes” are a person or group of people who have shown their selflessness in one or more of the following ways: (1) Led the way to correcting a hardship or injustice; (2) Overcome adversity and by example has helped others do the same; (3) Served the country and/or community above and beyond normal expectations. Nominees must live in the heart of Ohio and be willing to have their story and picture in the magazine, on the website, and in the offices of Milliron Industries. Email your story to: editor@heartofohiomagazine.com or send to: Heart of Ohio magazine P.O. Box 1406 Mansfield, Ohio 44901
MAY/JUNE 2012
“ The first good weather we head back to the bike trail. We are so fortunate to have it, and when the weather breaks we are back enjoying the outdoors! ” Andrew H. Lexington
A
Quality Tree Service
CALL FOR A FREE ESTIMATE!
419.589.8618 Stump Grinding Pruning After-storm Cleanup John V. Herrick, Owner Licensed & Insured
MAY/JUNE 2012
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Tree Removal
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Keeping Score Todd Blackledge
www.heartofohiomagazine.com
Father Knows Football Todd Blackledge is the father of four boys, which is definitely an important family accomplishment, but you probably know him as one of ESPN’s college football analysts. In my humble opinion, he is one of the two or three best of those whose job it is to supply expert commentary on TV for college football or NFL games. Todd is able to speak with quite a bit of authority about the game of football, having had a stellar high school career as a quarterback at North Canton Hoover here in Ohio. From there he moved onto Penn State and all he did as a Nittany Lion QB was become a three-year starter for Joe Paterno and win 31 of 36 games AND a national championship in 1982. He was taken by the Kansas City Chiefs in the first round of the 1983 NFL draft. I got to know Todd’s dad, Ron, when he was an assistant coach under Fred Martinelli at Ashland College in the late 60’s. Ron had been a fine college football player himself (an end not a QB) at Bowling Green. The path to college coaching success more often than not is a winding road with many stops. In Ron’s case, the stops, following Ashland, took him to the University of Cincinnati, Kentucky, Princeton, Kent State, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Indianapolis Colts. By the time the family had gotten to Kent State, where Ron served first as an assistant and then as the Head Coach, Todd was already active in sports and the family had chosen North Canton as the place where they wanted to live. Hoover High School was where Todd would hone his athletic skills. The cruel
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irony of being a college or pro football coach is that they seldom get to watch their own offspring play on Friday nights or Saturday afternoons because they are usually out scouting or preparing for their own games. Ron was able to see some of Todd’s early games at Penn State, but only because he was fired as Kent State’s head coach. Now, firings are almost a rite of passage for college coaches, although, as Ron discovered, they’re never fun. He wasn’t out of work for long because Chuck Noll called with an offer to join his Pittsburgh Steelers staff as an assistant. That entailed another move, although it didn’t really affect Todd, who was in his sophomore year in State College, Pennsylvania. You might think that with all of the family moves Todd made during his
Ron Blackledge
with
school years that he would never want to put his own children and wife through the same “gypsy-like” existence, and he hasn’t. Even though he is on the road every week from early August until the middle of January preparing for and participating in the telecast of college football games on ESPN, sons Harrison, Quinn, Eli and Owen and their mom, Cherie, have continued to live in Canton, Ohio. I asked Todd if he ever felt cheated as the son of a coaching father due to the fact that, with all the moves, it was difficult, almost impossible, to establish close friends at schools where you knew that you might only be attending for a year or two. He said it wasn’t something he thought about; it was just a part of life that he and his sisters accepted. Ron said that he never thought of it as a hardship from a fathering standpoint. In fact he believes it drew the family closer because while their hours together might not have measured up in terms of quantity; they
Todd Blackledge
The Blackledge family: Cherie, Harrison, Todd, Quinn, Owen (in front) and Eli.
None of the other three Blackledge boys seem all that interested in the pigskin sport either, preferring basketball, baseball and wrestling instead. The fact that none of his sons play a fall sport has helped to unclutter Todd’s schedule during football season. He heads out in the midweek to take in practices of the teams he’ll be covering, does his preproduction interviews and such on Friday and is in the broadcast booth to work with his play-by-play sidekick, Brad Nessler, on Saturday. Shortly after the final gun sounds, Todd is headed to an airport for a flight back to Canton. For the past couple of seasons, Dad has made it a point to take each son, individually, to one of the games he’ll be working. It’s sort of a traveling “take your sons to work” assignment. They get to shadow their father and Mr. Nessler from before sign on to sign off. How cool would that be? I’ll bet there are a few fathers reading this article who would love to change places for just one week with any of the Blackledge boys. Perhaps few of Penn State’s former football players were closer to Joe Paterno than was Todd Blackledge. During the tumultuous and sad times that marked the coach’s final season, Todd was often sought out by the national media for comments on whatever the news of that
Mike Greene’s voice and face have been familiar to the sports fans of North Central Ohio for decades now. He did play-by-play for hundreds of high school and college football and basketball games over the years and still does selected Ashland University football games on television. He also hosted a popular SportsTalk show on WMFD-TV for a dozen years.
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(Ron and mother Linda) worked hard to make it quality time. That word “quality” is also something that is extremely important in the parenting that Todd and Cherie provide for their sons. All of the boys have been homeschooled from day one because, said Todd, he and Cherie wanted to be the driving force in their sons’ lives; helping to shape their character on a day-to-day basis; something that they believe can be done much more effectively in a homeschool setting. Their strong Christian faith is the centerpiece of the Blackledge family values and, as parents, Todd and Cherie can instill that same commitment in their sons through homeschooling. Perhaps you’re saying to yourself, “certainly the sons of a former football star like Todd Blackledge will want to play sports, most likely football, somewhere.” You’re right, and that issue was dealt with when Harrison, the oldest, entered public schools as a 9th grader — something second son Quinn has also done and Eli and Owen will likely do. Harrison played freshman football but has decided that basketball is the game he prefers and, at 6'5", Todd thinks that he might have a future in that sport at the next level. He’ll be a senior at Hoover High this fall.
day was. He had an unusually close relationship, and still does, with the Paterno family and told me that Joe was indeed a second father figure to him. During his off season, Todd follows in the footsteps of his father and Joe and becomes coach/Dad, filling many of his hours working with his sons and their buddies as a sideline mentor. For the past several years he has served as an assistant to Randy Montgomery, Hoover High’s boys basketball coach. Sports are a common thread that is woven through the three generations of Blackledge males but it certainly isn’t all that defines them. Todd, Cherie and their boys, Todd’s sisters, Michelle and Traci, and their children, and parents Ron and Linda all live within a few miles of each other, so family gatherings are common. So, as you’re clicking through the many college football games that can be seen on a variety of channels on a Saturday afternoon or evening this fall, when you see Todd Blackledge offering his thoughtful opinions, remember that he’s also a father who is probably wondering if his four sons are helping their Mom back home in Canton. It’s a Dad thing! •
MAY/JUNE 2012
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MiGreps LLC Mike Greene Reps Media • Business Networking Project Consulting cell 419.565.1249 bus 567.247.4736
P.O. Box 3822 Mansfield, OH 44907 mike@migreps.com
www.migreps.com
“ There is no place prettier than Kingwood Center when the daffodils bloom. That’s always my first spring outing. ” Kelly M. Mansfield
2012 TOUR PRICING Weekday: $75.00 / Person Weekend & Holidays: $85.00 / Person Kids' Day (ages 10-17), every Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday $60 per child (as always, must be accompanied by an adult). Mohican Area’s “Must Do” Whether you are a nature lover, adventurist, or an adrenaline junkie you will not want to miss this! For active adventurists ages 10 & above meeting a weight requirement of 90-250 lbs.
OVER 4,000 FT. OF www.heartofohiomagazine.com
Pure Fun!
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Our 2 1/2 hour zipline, rappel & sky bridge adventure is an opportunity for a fun, unique & educational outdoor experience you will never forget.
OPEN MAY - OCTOBER
See Seeour ourwebsite websitefor foradditional additionalrestrictions, restrictions,group grouppricing, pricing,&&reservations. reservations.
Located 9 miles S. of Loudonville • 21899 Wally Rd.
740-599-2662 • TreeFrogCanopyTours.com MAY/JUNE 2012
OVER 200 USED VEHICLES 1493 Park Ave. West | Mansfield 419.529.4000 | 800.762.8824
mmgauto.com
&
ReStaurants Heart of Ohio is proud to feature some of Ohio’s great local eateries. Use the key below to find the perfect place to go for your night out or lunch on the go.
Eateries Be a part of the next
B Breakfast
Outdoor Seating
Br Brunch
Family-Friendly
L Lunch
Reservations
D Dinner
Happy Hour
TO Takeout
Wheelchair Accessible
GG Grab ‘n’ Go
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Average dinner entrée price $ $10 or less $$ $11-$20 $$$ $21-$30
$$$$ $31 or more
Restaurants Eateries
&
Contact Debra Baker debra@heartofohiomagazine.com 419.961.7464 419.524.2127
The Alcove Restaurant & Lounge 116 S Main St, Mt Vernon, 740.392.3076 www.alcoverestaurant.com Dining M-Th 11:30-9, F-Sa 11:30-9:30 Lounge 11:30-10, F-Sa 11:30-11 TO D L The Alcove first opened in December 1911, now 100 years later, we are proud to say we are still the place to come for quality food & service. Daily lunch & dinner specials, our famous Alcove prime rib on Friday and Saturday, intimate cocktail lounge, private banquet rooms, catering services. $$
Athens Greek Restaurants 41 N Main St, Mansfield, 419.524.5620 M-Sa 11-8 41 S Lexington-Springmill Rd, Ontario M-Sa 11-9 TO D L Best gyros outside New York. Closed Sundays & major holidays. $
Broken Rocks Cafe & Bakery 123 E Liberty St, Wooster, 330.263.2949 www.brokenrockscafe.com M-Th 9-9, F-Sa 9-10 TO D B L Casual dining with upscale appeal. Hand crafted pasta, pizza, soup, salad, sandwiches, steaks and dessert. Artisan breads baked daily. Wine list and full bar. Open for breakfast lunch and dinner. Gift cetificates available $$
www.heartofohiomagazine.com
Bromfield’s at Mohican State Park Lodge
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1098 CR 3006, Perrysville, 419.938.5411 www.mohicanstateparklodge.com M-Su Breakfast 8-10:30, Lunch 11-2, Dinner 5-8 TO D B L Open Daily. While overlooking gorgeous views of Pleasant Hill Lake, dine on one of our locally farm-raised beef dishes including our delicious signature halfpound burger or one of our outstanding pasta dishes. Full-service lounge, banquet spaces and catering available. $$ MAY/JUNE 2012
Fine Dining with an Extraordinary View!
The Historic Malabar Farm Restaurant Open Year Round (Closed Monday & Jan. 1 – 17) Hand-Cut Local Steaks & Seafood Local Produce In Season Handmade Pasta • Casual Dining Reservations Suggested
1 Mile from Malabar Farm
Corner of St. Rt. 603 & Pleasant Valley Road
www.MalabarFarmRestaurant.com • 419-938-5205 Brown Derby Roadhouse 3985 Park Ave W, Ontario, 419.529.2959 www.brownderbyontario.com M-Th 4-10:30, F 3-11:30, Sa 12-11:30, Su 11:30-9 TO D The one true Roadhouse. A relaxed and fun atmosphere. We hand select and cut our steaks fresh daily. Our USDA Prime and Choice steaks are cooked western style over open hardwood flames. St. Louis BBQ ribs, great seafood selection, over the top sides, draft & bottle beer, specialty drinks & wine. $$
Carmie’s Grill & Bar 2460 S. SR 231, Tiffin, 419.448.7699 www.tiffincamdenfalls.com M-Sa 11-10, Su 11-9, Bar F-Sa til 12am TO D L Family atmosphere & we’re grillin’ and chillin’. $
City Grille & Bar 37 E 4th St, Mansfield, 419.709.9199 T-Th 11-10, F 11-11, Sa 4-11, Closed 2-4 Bar T-Th til 11, F-Sa til 1am TO D L American cuisine. Family-friendly, casual full-service restaurant & bar. $
Coolridge Golf Course Diner 591 Vonhoff Blvd, Mansfield, 419.521.5159 M-Sa 6-7, Su 6-2 TO GG D B L Home-cooked meals, friendly atmosphere. Prime Rib Friday 4-7. Daily Specials. $
Der Dutchman 720 St Rt 97 W, Bellville, 419.886.7070 www.derdutchman.com M-Sa 7-8, Closed Sunday TO Br D B L Amish kitchen cooking. Formerly Troyer’s Dutch Heritage. $
Doc’s Deli 424 Glessner Ave, Mansfield, 419.521.5159 www.docsdelimansfield.com M-F 10:30-6, Sa 10:30-3 TO GG D L “The Cure for the Common Sandwich” Casual Catering, Business Delivery $
Ed Pickens’ Café on Main 28 N Main St, Mansfield, 419.522.7699 www.cafeonmain.net M-F 8-3 TO Br L We can provide a complete range of services for groups of 20 to 600. Continental breakfasts to full service wedding receptions, we can fulfill all your needs for a seamless event. Our soups, salads, entrees, sides, and desserts are all made at our facility in downtown Mansfield. Visit www.cafeonmain.net. $
Empress Express 1041 Park Ave W, Mansfield, 419.524.4200 M-Sa 11-9 TO D L Our food is fresh, made to order. Limited delivery. $
The Kenyon Inn & Restaurant 100 W Wiggin St, Gambier, 740.427.2202 www.kenyoninn.com Breakfast M-F 7-9:30, Sa 8-10 Brunch Su 9-2, Lunch M-Sa 11-2 Dinner Su-Th 5-8:30, F-Sa 5-9 TO Br D B L
The Mill Street Bistro Bar 21 Mill St, Norwalk, 419.663.3663 www.millstreetbistrobar.com D
Located At The Brown Derby Road House Our Professional Staff will create the Perfect Event! Complete Catering and Banquet Service from 25 to 1,500 guests. Wedding Receptions Rehearsal Parties Bridal Showers Creative Customized Menus On & Off Premise Catering Special Events
Thanks fo r Voting u s the Best Aga in!
Your Every Event Caterer
419-529-2959
3985 Park Ave. West - Ontario Email: staff@ontarioeventcenter.com For more information visit our website www.ontarioeventcenter.com
Oak Park Tavern 2919 St Rt 430 E, Mansfield, 419.589.2637 www.oakparktavern.com Tu-F 11-10, Sa 3-10, Su 3-9 TO D L Enjoy fine dining in a casual atmosphere. $$
Ontario Event Center 3985 Park Ave W, Ontario, 419.529.2959 www.ontarioeventcenter.com TO Br D B L Full service banquet and catering facility. Can accommodate 25-1500 off site and 300 on site. Breakfast, lunch, dinner menu or custom menu per your request. Located at the back of the Brown Derby Roadhouse corner of Rt 314 and Rt 309 (Park Ave West). Voted “Best Banquet Facility” again! See display ad for more. $$
Shugar Freaks Bakery & Sandwich Shop 189 Marion Ave, Mansfield, 419.709.6220 M-Fri 9:30-3:30 TO GG L Sweet Treats and Good Eats $
Slick’z Drive-In 228 Lexington Ave, Mansfield, 419.522.FOOD www.slickz.com M-Sa 7-7, Su 7-3 TO D L Our meals are made to order from the freshest ingredients. Nothing is “pre-fab”, from the hand formed specialty burgerz to the fresh cut french fries. Serving the area’s best breakfast (all day, every day), lunch (soupz, saladz, sandwiches) and dinner (each includes two sides)!! Cruise in-Chill Out at Slick’z. $
Our own farm-raised elk, buffalo and beef. And local produce. $$
MAY/JUNE 2012
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A charming atmosphere awaits you at The Kenyon Inn on the campus of Kenyon College. We offer delicious food, fine wine and tantalizing desserts. Live music in the summer during our Party on the Patio series and introducing our newly enlarged and renovated private room for special occasions and corporate needs. $$
Catering to Your Taste!
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Southside Diner
V&M Restaurant
620 S Main St, Mt Vernon, 740.392.1282 M-Sa 5:45-8, Su 7-3 TO D B L
104 Main St, Bellville, 419.886.3569 www.vandmrestaurant.com TO D B L
Enjoy 50s / 60s atmosphere. Breakfast served all day! Homemade pies. $
What’s the best thing about small town Bellville? Many think it’s the V&M Restaurant. Breakfast, lunch, dinner – The meals are home cooked with consistent quality that draws people from near and far. Great food at pleasant prices, served with a smile. $
Spearman’s Restaurant 26155 Coshocton Rd, Millwood, 740.599.7617 M-Sa 7-7:45 Su 8-7:45 TO D B L Daily Breakfast, lunch, dinner specials over 60 years! Homemade pies. $
Steve’s Dakota Grill 3101 Park Ave W, Ontario, 419.529.9064 www.stevesdakotagrill.com M-Th 4-10, F 4-11, Sa 12-11, Su 11-8 TO D L Casual, relaxed atmosphere. Steaks cut fresh daily, USDA prime choice steaks hand selected, aged to perfection, flame-broiled, seasoned with Steve’s special blend. Rotisserie roasted prime rib, fresh seafood, pasta & chicken dishes. Great sandwiches. Kids’ menu. Wine & beer selections from around the world. Voted “Best Prime Rib” again. $$
TJ’s Restaurant 359 W Liberty St, Wooster, 330.264.6263 www.tjsrestaurants.com M-F 11-9:30, Sa 4:30-9:30 TO D L Steaks, seafood, chicken, pasta, daily specials in a relaxed atmosphere. $$
Virginia BBQ 625 Lexington Ave, Mansfield, 419.522.7427 www.virginiabbq.com M-Sa 11-8, Su 12-7 TO D L
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l o o h c S t h g i N by Barb Haller
“I am right, absolutely,” Mom answered. Then, an awkward silence. I strained through the darkness and heard my mother sobbing softly. Though surrounded by friends and my father, she was utterly alone. Fear gripped me as I lay beside my brother, heart pounding beneath my thin cotton nightgown. I wanted to leap from the tangled sheets and dash to my mother, stroke her lovely, smooth face and bury my face in her soft, familiar shoulder. I needed her arms around me and my arms around her. Somehow, in my child-like naiveté I thought I could wipe away her humiliation and sadness. I don’t know how. I was only six: just a small girl who perhaps needed a powerful message. How I grieved for her. With 50 years of hindsight, we can minimize the reality of the civil rights era. We think we’re more enlightened and beyond the capacity to normalize ignorance and hatred. But my mother grew up in the Deep South of the 1930’s and 40’s, when racial segregation and prejudice were as commonplace as a lack of air conditioning; it was all she had ever known. To sever her mind and heart from her upbringing was radical. Sometime, somehow in her life, Mom decided that human dignity should not have to be earned. Speaking this truth in a roomful of lifelong friends took enormous conviction and courage. The conversation ceased. Sweat trickled down my chest and I licked my lips, not moving. No other memories of that night remain. My parents did what parents of young children do; they shielded me from the ugliness of life. And though that night at the lake is my only disturbing memory of the time, 1961 saw a violent and deadly summer. “Freedom riders” were testing the laws which prohibited segregation of interstate travel facilities across the South. Many of these groups, comprised of student volunteers of both races, were
My brother Mike and I read with Mom.
brutally attacked by angry mobs. No doubt, this news event initiated the conversation in which my mother found herself. Changes in the world can happen through big events like freedom rides, or the silent statement of Rosa Parks in keeping her seat on a city bus, which resulted in a bus boycott by the people of Birmingham, Alabama. The 1963 March on Washington and Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, or the public ministries of Gandhi and Mother Teresa. But transformation also happens in the tender heart of a little girl who hears courage in her mother’s voice on a summer night in the civil rights-torn South. My mother could not have anticipated that night. She could have remained silent. In an unrehearsed response, she unwittingly schooled me in the character qualities of courage, boldness, and integrity. Cancer claimed my mother 18 years later and I never asked her about that July night in 1961. How I wish I had told her what it meant to me. Her courage gave me a blueprint to follow for my life, especially in my role as a mother. Barb Haller writes from her home in Delaware, Ohio. She is married to Bill and is the mother of four and grandmother of three. MAY/JUNE 2012
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What is Mother’s Day? Is it a day for an obligatory lunch buffet or flower bouquet for mom? Or is it something deeper? Each Mother’s Day I consider the sober responsibility I carry to lay a solid foundation for my children’s lives. A five-minute memory rests in a corner of my mind. Kathryn Stockett’s The Help crystallized the importance of this single experience. More importantly, the brief episode at age six taught me the power of a mother’s example. It shaped the mother I became. Like Skeeter in The Help, my mother put principle above popularity and propriety. She was my Skeeter. The setting: summer, 1961 at a rambling lakeside house in northern Alabama. Our family was vacationing with several other families: my mother’s lifelong friends. I was in bed just off the living room where the adults were playing cards, sipping cold drinks and socializing. Sleep wouldn’t come that sultry July night. An unfamiliar bed and shadowy room spooked me. I tossed and turned for what seemed a very long time while my four-year-old brother slept peacefully beside me and my parents were just steps away. I felt alone and uneasy in the creaky house. A cacophony of night noises just beyond the window screens mingled with the grown-ups’ voices as they laughed over their game of cards. Iced drinks clinked and voices rose and fell, then rose again. Sleep creeping ever closer, I was jerked awake by urgent conversation. “They have their place, Precious (my mother’s given name). We have ours.” It was the voice of Mom’s childhood girlfriend. “I disagree.” Mom’s voice was strong and resolute, but completely alone. “God created everyone equally, no matter his skin color.” “Come on, you can’t believe that,” replied the friend. “They are obviously different.” I heard the snap of cards being shuffled.
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INTERESTING PEOPLE
Sylvia Miller
Thou Shalt Not Steal ‘You’re not getting my purse,’ and I took off after her across the parking lot, into the field, and finally I found her sitting in the ditch, gasping for air. “Give me my purse,” Sylvia demanded. The girl gasped, “I don’t have your purse.” A man who had run after Sylvia to help her chimed in, demanding she give up the purse. Finally the girl pointed to a large drain pipe where she had tossed the handbag. “I made her fish my purse out and hand it to me, but it was dripping black gunk something awful. I turned and walked back to the store, just left the woman sitting there in the ditch. Inside I explained what had happened and they called security. The clerk tried to clean my purse off a bit, and someone called the police.” On a return trip to the store Sylvia asked to see the security tapes. On an earlier tape, the same girl who snatched her bag was seen going from car to car in the parking lot. “I asked what she was doing and the security guard said, ‘She’s looking for an unlocked car.’ Sure enough you could see her opening a door on a truck and taking something from it. “ The security tapes of Sylvia’s own ordeal show the three women following her around inside the garden center, looking for a chance to steal her bag. An outdoor camera captured the purse snatching and the pursuit from beginning to end. “They were nice enough to show me the tapes when I asked,” Sylvia said. Although she hasn’t heard what happened to the young woman who tried to steal her handbag, Sylvia was besieged by calls from media outlets around the area. “News crews from channels three and six came to the house and filmed
my story. They wanted to see how I keep myself in shape, so I showed them my exercise room in the basement,” she said. Although she doesn’t pump iron, Sylvia works out with two plastic gallon milk jugs filled with water along with a treadmill. Her workout may not have been supervised by a personal trainer, but it’s good enough to keep her in shape to run down a thief a quarter her age. “Channel 6 has asked if I’d be interested in doing some commercials for their Crime Stoppers show, so who knows what will happen,” Sylvia says with a grin. On her dining room table, resting on a fluffy white towel, are the shoes she wore and her purse. “These are the shoes I ran in, and that’s the purse. My granddaughter is going to put them up for sale on eBay!” Summing it up perfectly, Sylvia Miller says, “The Bible says, ‘Thou shalt not steal.’ You can steal someone’s reputation, you can steal from a store… but you can’t steal the purse of an 82-year-old grandmother and get away with it!” •
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Sylvia Miller is a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother whose springy step, sparkling eyes and rapid fire speech belie her age. Sylvia and her late husband, Urie, were members of the Amish community until she was 23. She credits her hard working upbringing and God’s help with her health and positive outlook on life today. An interesting storyteller with a great laugh, Sylvia recounts her recent shopping trip at Walmart on Possum Run Road with a sense of humor. “I was buying some things in the Lawn and Garden section of the store. I had ten pounds of grass seed, a hanging basket and some other items. As I was browsing, I noticed three women who were also looking at the plants. I heard the one say, ‘I’m going to buy this plant later today,’ and I just kept moving and finally ended up at the checkout.” What Sylvia didn’t know, but would later see on the store security tape, was that these three women were stalking her, watching for an opportunity to snatch the purse Sylvia had in the cart’s baby seat. She exited the store and proceeded to her car to put her items in the trunk. “I always put my purse in the car first, and why I didn’t do it that day I don’t know. I was reaching over the cart to put the grass seed in the trunk when a sound made me look up. A tall, blonde woman was charging at me, and as she passed she grabbed my purse and kept running. I think the plan was for her to run into the store to meet her two friends, but she was going so fast she couldn’t make the turn to go back, so she ran out into the field from the parking lot,” Sylvia remembered. Things happened so fast that the five-foot-tall great-grandmother didn’t have time to think, “I just yelled at her,
MAY/JUNE 2012
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LOCAL ATTRACTIONS
Firelands Historical Society Museum
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On the western edge of the business district in Norwalk, Ohio, a neat frame house sits at 4 Case Avenue. Although it blends in with the other attractive houses on the street, this is actually the home of the Firelands Historical Society, the oldest museum and second oldest historical society in Ohio. Established in 1857, the Historical Society had no permanent address for its collection and was forced to travel from location to location. Eventually the Society was granted space in the basement of the newly constructed public library. By 1957 the museum had outgrown the site and the search for a new location began. The Preston-Wickham house, scheduled for demolition, was purchased by the Historical Society. The main part of the house at 38 W. Main Street was moved to the lot on Case Avenue, just around the corner. It officially opened on May 20, 1957, the 100th anniversary of the Historical Society. The museum had found a permanent home. The Preston-Wickham house was built by Samuel Preston in 1836 as a wedding present for his daughter, Lucy,
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who had married Frederick Wickham in 1835. The first of thirteen Wickham children was born in the front room of the house just one week after they moved in.
The museum has one of the largest collections of antique firearms. MAY/JUNE 2012
Preston, who started the Norwalk Reflector, built the frame of the house extra strong to accommodate the newspaper presses on the second floor. The newspaper office was reached by the present front hall and inside staircase, where they remained until about 1860. Today people touring the museum can still see the markings on the upstairs floor where the printing press sat for so many years. In 1980 the Laning-Young building was acquired by the society, and today it is open to the public as a genealogical research center. The building also accommodates exhibit space and a small conference area. When you visit the Firelands Historical Society you will find an unbelievable collection of items. From weapons to water buckets, furniture to glassware‌ it’s there. The displays are amazing, and constantly changing, offering the visitor a step back into the long ago life of the Firelands.
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This beautiful A.B. Chase 2-manual reed organ (circa 1890) was donated to the museum from the Howard Jewell estate. The A.B. Chase Organ Factory was part of the Norwalk business community from 1875 until 1930.
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The oldest items in the Firelands collection are a display of sloth bones. Marked by the stone implements used to scrape and cut the meat away, they provide the first scientific evidence of hunting or scavenging of Ice Age sloth in North America. The prehistoric bones have been carbon dated by the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and are known to be at least 13,000 years old, making them the oldest evidence of prehistoric human activity in Ohio. Very recently the Society was given the opportunity to grow once again when Midway Inc. donated their adjacent property. When money has been raised and the work completed, the Midway property will be accessible from the Laning-Young building. Curator Kristie Bilger said, “The addition of the Midway property will provide us with the opportunity to add a meeting room to accommodate 200 people, much needed traveling exhibit space and, just as important, the ability to grow the collection for future generations.” Visit www.firelandsmuseum.org for more information. •
1050 Dauch Drive, Ashland 371 Cline Avenue, Mansfield 419.281.7107 800.952.2207
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Grabbing Life by the Sail… another Tom Corogin adventure
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Harbor Park Marina in Port Clinton, with its landmark sailboat at the entrance, would seem to be the perfect home base for a sailor, and it is. Thomas Corogin, who has owned and lived at the marina for 35 years, calls the harbor home when he isn’t sailing the high seas. Corogin has sailed the Atlantic nine times, once solo, and to Bermuda, Panama, the Galapagos Islands and Colombia alone. With that kind of history, it’s no wonder no one who knows him raised an eyebrow when he announced last year that he would make his seventh attempt to sail around Cape Horn of South America… alone. The sailor’s latest adventure in the Pacific began with his departure from San Diego, California on October 11, 2011. Early on, the trip south was fraught with problems. Tom was offshore from Costa Rica at Cocos Island when a fall on the boat opened an ugly gash in his leg that refused to heal. After his own treatment efforts failed to improve the infection, he sought treatment and was hospitalized for four days in Ecuador. After being declared fit for travel, he sailed on. Tom arrived at Easter Island in late December. The island is considered to be the most remote inhabited island in the world, and is famous for the
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887 extant monumental statues (called moai) that surround the island. While on the island, Tom bought some replicas of the Easter Island heads to bring back to friends. On December 27th he continued on his journey. Sailing for Cape Horn and Puerto Williams in Chile’s south, Tom first noticed a problem with the back stays on the mast. A quick repair did not solve the problem, and the mast leaned at a dangerous angle. Eventually the entire back stay structure crashed to the port side, wrapping around the rudder. Now the ship drifted with no main sail and no rudder to control its course. Tom took the disabled sail down, tied up all the broken metal and started to think through the situation in which he now found himself. “By doing some calculations I figured the wind and the current would carry the boat about twenty-four miles a day,” Tom says. That meant he would arrive in the vicinity of Cape Horn in about one hundred days. Food and water were not a problem, especially since his breakfast was waiting for him each day. “Every morning the deck was littered with small squid and flying fish. All you do is skin them, add a little lemon and they are delicious,” he said, smiling as I grimaced. But Tom also knew his
calculations were dependent upon stable weather, which was unlikely. “I knew timing was important if I was going to call for help, it would create more problems if I waited. I didn’t want someone to risk his life to try and save mine.” After much thought, on Tuesday, January 3rd Tom turned on the emergency position indicator radio beacon (Epirb), which is registered by NOAA, picked up by a satellite, and monitored by the U.S. Coastguard. After it was confirmed to be an authentic signal, the Chilean Navy search and rescue was notified. At the time, the Vice Admiral of the Chilean Navy was on an Orion Patrol plane flying to northern Chile. He made the plane land, cancelled his trip, and sent the plane to find Tom Corogin. Two days after he had first triggered the alarm, Tom heard a plane overhead. He fired a flare, and then got on the radio. The plane continued to fly over Tom’s location every 8 hours to talk with him by radio to keep him informed and to update his position. Making preparations for his rescue, Tom set about putting things into bags. “I thought about what I could take with me, and then retrieve the rest if the boat was later found. I decided the souvenirs from Easter Island were the most important. I didn’t think I’d ever get back there, so they had to go with me.”
Tom remembers the next three days on the Japanese ship as hectic. “They told me they had never taken so many pictures on that ship. I was their first rescue and everyone wanted their picture taken with me. “Finally the Chilean Navy was within 60 miles of the Japanese ship, and they sent a helicopter for me. They couldn’t land on the deck, so once again I grabbed my little bag of souvenirs and was hoisted up into the helicopter on a cable with a hook to be taken to the Chilean frigate Blanco Encalada, and eventually on to Valparaiso.” The Captain of the Blanco, Cristian Estay, warned Tom that the media would be waiting for him in Valparaiso. Once in Chile’s Puerto Principal, Tom was greeted by U.S. Vice Consul Dawn Suni, who came to the region to thank the Chilean government for the rescue. While the media storm raged, Tom spent three days as the guest of the Chilean Navy. “I was treated like royalty. They showed me the sites, even gave me a tour of the Navy headquarters and lighthouse.” After his three-day stay, the Chilean navy assisted Tom in making travel arrangements to fly back to the states. An eight-hour flight got him to Miami, where he spent some time recuperating and relaxing with his brother and son in Florida. After he arrived back in Ohio, Tom got a phone call that he’ll always remember. “I got a call from Marvin Cramer. He
Inset photo: Captain Christian Estay and Tom Corogin aboard The Blanco.
is an amazing man who, along with his crew, sailed around the world without the use of any instruments. He navigated simply by using the stars. His obviously irritated comment was, ‘You abandoned your vessel and got more press than I did for successfully sailing around the world.’ ” Tom’s big grin splits his face as he remembers. You might think an experience like this could take the fun out of sailing for an 85-year-old sailor like Tom Corogin, but nothing could be further from the truth. “My boat should arrive at the Chilean coast sometime in early April. If I get lucky and someone calls me that they have my boat I will go back, order parts and make the necessary repairs. I still want to go on and finish my journey to Cape Horn,” he says. And what if the boat never turns up? Well, he’s been invited to visit the crew of the Chilean rescue ship when they are docked in San Diego later this year. They will be heading to Hawaii for Naval exercises and they might just have room for one more on board. And then, of course, there are lots of requests for him to join the rubber chicken circuit to talk about his adventures. Was there ever a moment in this whole experience when this sailor was afraid he wasn’t going to make it? “I really don’t think that way. My main thought is always ‘do you have to do to get to your goal.’ ” he replied. Tom Corogin says he has been asked many times why he continues to sail the seas and take the risks he does. His answer reveals a man who celebrates life. “I was in a foreign port refueling and buying supplies. I needed help to get my bags back to the boat, and a young boy offered to help me. I gave him a coin as he picked up some bags, and his smile spread from ear to ear. When we got to the boat I gave him a second coin and the little guy treated me to another smile that made my day. As he left the boat he had a bounce in his step. I knew he was happy not because I gave him the coins, but because he gave his love. That’s when I realized that it is love that keeps me taking these voyages. The love I have for the people I meet and the love they give to me in return.” •
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Tom chuckles as he recounts his preliminary conversation with the rescue ship. “The voice asked me, ‘What are your intentions?’ I knew my response would be passed on through the chain of command and I didn’t want there to be any misunderstanding. My mind said, ‘be direct, no confusion.’ I said, ‘Abandon ship.’ You can’t be more direct than that.” A Japanese bulk carrier, “White Kingdom” was directed to deviate from its course to help in the rescue effort. The huge ship dwarfed the yacht as it pulled alongside to bring Tom aboard. “These ships travel from Japan to Chile to move wood chips to Japan for the manufacturing of paper. The rescue ship was empty, riding high in the water. As they pulled alongside, my mast was level with their deck, so I knew they were going to have to pull me 51 feet up the side of that ship. They lowered a rope to me; I tied it on and grabbed the bag of souvenirs. I was dragged up the side of the ship to the deck. I arrived up top banged up and scratched, but safe.” It was January 5, 2012. When the rescue effort began, the weather was mild, but as the rescue operation progressed, the wind kicked up and Tom was forced to leave his other bags behind as it became too dangerous to go back to his boat. With deep regret Tom Corogin said goodbye to his Westsail 32, the TLC. Exhausted and bruised, he was spirited away to sick bay where he slept twelve straight hours.
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Supporting Local Community One Purchase at a Time
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by Tuesday Trippier, The Delaware County Community Market Delaware businessman Rick Dinovo is turning the traditional nonprofit organization model on its head and is succeeding in benefitting the local community in a myriad of ways. Dinovo, president of Central Marketing Associates, Inc., a nationwide broker of fresh fruits & vegetables, came up with the idea of taking a for-profit business model and applying it to a nonprofit organization. So, after several years of planning, he remodeled the warehouse portion of Central’s offices on the eastside of Delaware and turned it into a nonprofit community market. Opened in April 2010, The Delaware County Community Market has since donated more than $52,540 to local charity. How does it all work? The Market was set up as an Ohio not-for-profit corporation and is designated as a public charity. The Market has a three-fold goal of supporting local vendors, increasing donations to local nonprofits and providing area consumers with access to quality local goods. When customers shop at the Market, they can select a local nonprofit of their choice to receive twenty percent of their purchase. (An additional five percent comes back to the Market for operating expenses.) Local vendors, including growers, bakers, makers and artisans, stock their goods at the Market, agreeing to accept 75 percent of the retail price of their items. The cut is usually worth it as most vendors welcome the opportunity to have their products marketed year-round without investing the time to sit with and sell their goods, as in most farmers markets and craft shows. “The Market provides a low-risk platform for individuals to become entrepreneurs,” says Dinovo. “If their items don’t sell, their only potential loss is the cost of the item.” Celebrating two years, the Delaware County Community Market seems to be
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catching on. Its customer base is up from 450 when it first opened to a current count of 3,700. Customers, often referred to as members if they sign up to donate to a specific nonprofit, can get a printout at year’s end itemizing their donations for tax purposes. (Anyone can shop at the Market whether they sign up to donate or not.) Vendors have increased as well, from 29 in the beginning to 76 now. The same is true of nonprofit organizations who have partnered with the Market to receive donations: up from 25 partners to 91 currently. The Market’s success lies not just in variety of locally-produced items but also in its full-service deli and catering operation. “The deli provides us with a way to increase the return to our growers by reducing their shrink while providing homemade lunches and dinners for our members,” explains Dinovo. Currently, the Market can cater events with pickup service only, but is looking into delivery licensing to expand its foodservice options. The deli’s philosophy of going back to basics and using up produce from the Market keeps costs down and seems to be a formula for success. Catering requests from the
community have picked up, indicating the public’s approval. Delaware native and Chef Bo Reed, who is a favorite in town from his days working at Bryn Mawr, Pizza Villa and Riverview Manor, heads up the deli serving daily soup and sandwich lunch specials. His famous chicken salad keeps customers coming through the door. Reed also provides special orders to customers and can cook within dietary restrictions. “Thank God we found Bo at the Market to help us with the healthier special diet that my husband and I need to follow,” says Kelley Hubbard, loyal Market customer. “We can give Bo a recipe and he knows how to convert it into a healthier version that tastes just as good, if not better, than the original recipe. He uses the freshest produce, meats, herbs and spices which make each meal taste better than anything that we could order from a restaurant or prepare at home.” Recognized for its unique business model, the Market was awarded the Innovation in Business Award for 2010 from the Delaware Area Chamber of Commerce. Dinovo doesn’t want the success to stop here in Delaware. He is working with others through a group
many ways, not only by providing access to local products, but also income for the local citizens who are its vendors and the nonprofit organizations which are its beneficiaries.” Dinovo hopes that sentiment will spread for other counties throughout the state as this unique approach to “going local” takes off. “With only two years under our belt, we are continuing to evolve as an organization and as a business,” admits Dinovo. “We look forward to seeing where this thing can go and feel good about supporting our local community. That’s what it’s all about.” •
vegetables,” says Susan Liechty, Master Gardener. “We will be hosting programs at the garden throughout the year helping with insect problems, diseases, harvesting and garden questions.” Other groups that have committed to a garden spot include The Common Ground Free Store, Sustainable Delaware, The Delaware Unit of the Herb Society of America, Boy Scout Troop # 318, First Presbyterian Church, Cub Scout Troop #108 at Conger School, and the Liberty Community Center. The Market changes with the seasons. A treasure trove of goods awaits shoppers who will be tantalized by the delicious sights and smells at the cozy shop. The myriad of products for sale include local honey, eggs, breads, jams, jellies, sauces, pastas, baked goods, candles, lotions, soaps, jewelry, clothing, wash cloths and towels, bird houses and much, much more. During the local growing season, farmers bring in their produce — oftentimes grown with organic methods. Year-round, produce from Central Marketing Associates is stocked, specializing in local when available. This spring and summer the Market is loaded with hanging baskets, herbs, plants and other garden accessories — all from local growers. “The really special thing about DCCM is its second “C,” which stands for community,” says Stephanie Seery, a regular Market customer and vendor. “The Market exists to benefit our community in
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MAY/JUNE 2012
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called the Nonprofit Local Foods Network to encourage low-income people to create opportunities to sell products in markets like this one across the state. “The Nonprofit Local Foods Network provides us a way of communicating with other organizations throughout the state of Ohio wanting to incorporate our Market model into their plans to improve their communities,” says Dinovo, who serves as president of the organization. Store Manager Bob Sullivan-Neer, who has been with the Market since August 2011, sees the value of the operation and has worked hard to increase the store’s visibility and quality of goods. “As a new member of the Delaware community, I was thrilled to become part of the Market,” explains Sullivan-Neer. “It is extremely rewarding to help with the success of this unique concept. A neighborhood market is about community and it’s wonderful being a part of that.” This spring, the Market will begin a new project in local food — a community garden. Using his surrounding property, Dinovo has worked with the Delaware County Master Gardeners to come up with a plan for a full-fledged community garden where local groups will plant and tend the garden for educational purposes and use some of the produce to benefit those in need. “The Master Gardener committee will have demonstration gardens showing different techniques, structures and a wide variety of new and unusual
The Market is located at 222 E. William St. in Delaware and is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and, starting April 15 and through fall, Sundays from noon to 4 p.m. You can find the Market on Facebook, email them at general.info@dccmc.com or give them a call at 740-610-0091. The website is www.dccmc.com.
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The Beauty of a Barn
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The Third Biennial Knox County Barn Tour The third biennial Knox County Barn Tour will be held June 16, 2012 from 11 am to 6 pm. The tour this year takes place in the northeast corner of the county. This one-day self-guided tour of Knox County barns strives to draw attention to their utilitarian majesty and historical importance in our communities. Five barns will be featured: two on Amish farms, one on a homestead circa 1877, another on a working beef farm, and one that is no longer used as part of a farming operation. Come experience barns and the central role they play in life on the farm. There will be events taking place at each location. Hayrides and buggy rides, farm animals to see and pet and antique farm implements will show how things were done back at the turn of the 20th century. Discover quilts and quilters, plein air
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MAY/JUNE 2012
artists, activities for the kids and the experience of a timber frame barn with a large model from Friends of Ohio Barns to round out the entertainment. The Knox County Barn Tour is a collaborative effort of these non-profit organizations: Knox County Renaissance
Foundation, the Owl Creek Conservancy, and author Pamela Whitney Gray, the Lady Barn Consultant. • Please visit knoxcountybarntour.info for information and tour map.
where caring is key
TEAMRick & Karen RIEGEL Rick Riegel
“SELL”: (419) 565-7541 RickRiegel@haringrealty.com
Karen Riegel, SRES®
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1180 L e xington Ave nue • M ans fie ld • Ohio • 4490 7
The Radio Revolution is Here
TECH SAVVY
by Dan Hayden some sort of internet radio system in their vehicles. As internet radio becomes increasingly common, broadcast radio will face yet another challenge for the ears of drivers and passengers. First it was the 8-track player, then the cassette player, followed by CD players and satellite radio, and now it is time to make room on the dashboard for internet radio. For AM and FM radio, the internet represents a remarkable opportunity to extend its reach beyond normal coverage areas and be heard in places where reception is poor. It represents additional advertising revenue opportunities and new ways to interact with listeners. On the other hand, internet radio will become a competitive threat to local stations that fail to capitalize on their unique ability to serve a local audience with live broadcasting, local news and information, and local personalities. The national trend for AM and FM radio has been toward greater reliance on syndicated programming, automation systems that replace live personalities and increasing amounts of commercials. The threat from internet radio may be just the thing that AM and FM radio needs to get back to what they can do better than any other medium — super-serve their local communities. I’ve been in broadcasting since 1969 and I am currently a radio programming consultant. My first job was as a disc jockey at a small radio station in Asbury Park, NJ. The studio was located in the owner’s house and we shared the kitchen and other facilities with the family. It wasn’t the glamorous gig I had dreamed about, but it was a start. Before that it was Armed Forces Radio and later, the itinerant life of an unmarried young disc jockey at various stations around the country, including a stop in Dayton in the early 70s. It was a very cool life for a young guy. Over the years I have been a part of radio as the industry evolved. Many of the biggest changes were the result of advancements in technology, such as FM upsetting AM because the audio quality of
FM was so much better. The next game changer for traditional radio will be internet radio. Early last year, from a small studio in my home office, I launched MistyRadio.com. MistyRadio.com is the kind of station that my partner, Kathryn Gallant, and I had always hoped would appear one day on FM radio, but it never did — so we created it ourselves. MistyRadio.com is commercial-free and plays a mix of jazz, samba, doo-wop, standards, exotica and world music. The artists on MistyRadio.com are an eclectic bunch with roots in various music styles, but the songs are familiar to almost all listeners. You’ll hear Ray Charles sing Georgia, followed by a heartfelt version of To Know Him Is to Love Him from Amy Winehouse, then Billie Holiday and Elvis Presley, and so it goes. The programming emphasis at MistyRadio.com is on creating a certain mood rather than specializing in a certain type of music. My wife tells me it sounds dreamy. MistyRadio.com has listeners in 51 countries, something I could never have predicted. You can listen to MistyRadio.com by clicking the “Listen Now” button at the MistyRadio.com website, or by clicking the player at the MistyRadio.com Facebook page. Dan Hayden is the owner of Pathfinder Consulting & Research LLC, a radio programming and audience research company based in Kensington, CT. Dan can be reached by email at pathfinder@danhayden.com or info@mistyradio.com MAY/JUNE 2012
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Suppose you could turn on your radio and listen to jazz from a station in Paris or get the latest on a natural disaster impacting a town thousands of miles away from their local station. With internet radio, the next generation of radio is already available on your computer and smartphone and will soon be in your car. There are thousands of internet broadcasters from all over the United States and the world streaming their unique blend of talk and music programming to anyone with access to the internet. When disastrous flooding rolled through Australia last year, I got a true sense of what people were experiencing by listening to a Brisbane radio station that was taking calls from local listeners. No matter how specialized your interests are, there is likely to be a station for you (all surf music, all ghost stories, whatever). The ability to target programming to people with similar interests is a fascinating aspect of internet radio, and one that makes it different from broadcast radio’s aim to reach mass audiences. For example, if you’re a fan of delta blues it is unlikely a station in your town specializes in delta blues, but you’ll find one on the internet. Fans can hear the music they love and, with the help of social media sites like Facebook, swap comments and opinions with people who share their passion. Internet radio is uniquely suited to facilitating the formation of online communities based on specific interests. While the internet has changed the way we look at the world, the full impact of internet radio will not be felt until it becomes available in more cars to make tuning into a samba station in Brazil as easy as turning on the local country music station. A research firm, Strategy Analytics, forecasts the number of global light duty vehicles with internet radio will jump more than tenfold over the next seven years. More than 45 million cars and light-duty trucks will be equipped in 2018, up from about four million this year. For the 2013 model year every major carmaker will have
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! t o h s t s e b Give us your Whether you’re vacationing, exploring or just relaxing with a cup of coffee, we would love to see you enjoying your copy of Heart of Ohio magazine. Submit your photo, and you just might see yourself in a future issue! Send your photo to: editor@heartofohiomagazine.com
of Ohio magazine rt ea H ok to t nd ra ly’s Tom and Nancy B visited Huggin Mol ey th n he w em th along with ma. in Abbeville, Alaba Ice Cream Parlor
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Judy Vickers enjoyed reading Heart of Ohio magazine in Ocean City, Califo rnia.
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Evie Durkin made Heart of Ohio magazine part of her program as she recovered from surgery at Admiral’s Point Rehabilitation in Huron, Ohio.
MAY/JUNE 2012
MONEY MATTERS
Finance of Remarriage by Charles P. Hahn, CFP® in conjunction with Lincoln Financial Advisors/Sagemark Consulting, a division of Lincoln Financial Advisors, a registered investment advisor or Lincoln Financial Securities Corporation
Talking About Finances As your relationship grows, trust is reinforced by honest communication, and planning a life together includes talking about financial expectations. The topic can be difficult and requires many discussions; it’s not something you can expect to work out in one sitting. But time spent talking with each other can help you understand what is important to your partner, how you both spend money, and what each other’s needs and dreams are. The following topics can serve as a starting point: ■ How you decide how to spend your money ■ Financial lessons from a previous marriage
■ Goals — such as plans to buy a beach house or fund a grandchild’s education ■ Monetary concerns — paying off debt, funding retirement, managing your assets ■ Legacy goals — inheritance for your children, charitable donations A financial planner can help facilitate a discussion to help you both determine what you want out of life, when you want it, and how to afford it. For example, some goals may be funded by an individual and others by the couple. Your financial planner can also provide a neutral point of reference. Often people who have experienced a divorce or the death of a spouse have emotional issues attached to their finances. Rebuilding a life after losing a spouse is difficult and people may become self-protective or inflexible about their perceived needs and wants, creating an obstacle to blending a life with a new spouse. In addition, your financial planner can help you discuss the estate planning needs that must be considered with a remarriage to reflect your new circumstances and priorities. These may include how to: ■ Equalize an inheritance by redistributing assets ■ Develop new assets to support your spouse or children ■ Reassign assets through beneficiary status ■ Design trusts to provide spousal support and/or protect assets for your heirs ■ Assign assets to your new spouse to maximize estate tax exemptions
Strategies for Managing Finances A number of factors may impact how you decide to manage your assets within a new marriage. These may include having accumulated assets you want to protect, how finances were handled in a previous marriage, providing support to ex-spouses and children, and/or imbalances of income, assets and liabilities. Working with a financial planner can help you structure a financial plan that is appropriate for your situation. If you have assets you want to protect, consider a prenuptial agreement. This requires a full disclosure of each partner’s financial status and can help foster discussions about what each person is bringing to the marriage, how property will be titled, and how household expenses and existing debt will be paid. Many remarried couples elect to keep their income separate, as well as their savings, retirement and investment accounts. This allows each person to maintain some independence and pay for their obligations from a previous marriage with their personal funds. (In this instance, a joint account can be used for household expenses and vacations.) But even if accounts are kept separate, it is important for the couple to agree on a lifestyle, spending budget and individual contributions to the household. Regardless of whether you elect to keep your assets separate or blend them together, it is as a couple with new, shared objectives that you may find some benefits to working with one investment manager. Merging advisors can help a family identify asset duplication and reach individual and joint goals. •
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Getting remarried includes merging two well-established financial and emotional lives. Both partners bring accumulated assets, debts, forged spending habits, obligations and perhaps children to the relationship. Determining how to manage your financial assets to meet the needs, goals and expectations of each partner can help solidify a harmonious union — but may not always be easy. Ideally, a couple embarking on marriage would discuss their finances, values and expectations beforehand. But few people do, because they perceive financial discussions as negative and do not want to detract from the joy of the upcoming marriage. Yet talking about financial histories and goals can strengthen a partnership by reaching an agreement on how to manage assets to support a shared lifestyle and individual goals.
MAY/JUNE 2012
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Complete Floral Services • Fresh Flowers • Fruit & Gourmet Baskets • Plants & Planters • Gift Certificates Available
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Large Selection of Bulk Foods, Groceries, Party Trays Available • Over 100 Kinds of Deli Meats & Over 100 Kinds of Cheeses with Everyday Low Prices
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Subscribe to Heart of Ohio To have Heart of Ohio magazine mailed directly to your home or office, you may subscribe online at www.heartofohiomagazine.com or call the circulation office during business hours: 419.524.2127
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MAY / JUNE 2012 Marie’s Frame Shop
Angelwoods Hideaway B&B
We provide custom framing of pictures, keepsakes, shadowboxes & cross-stitches. Gift Certificates Available
• Gift Certificates Avaiable Wedding & Reception, Rehearsal Dinner & Showers, Reunions, Business Training, Scrapbook/Craft Weekends, Retreats
Crafty Clutter
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Gift Certificates Available Candles & home decorating accessories!
Family Owned & Operated Free Estimates, Furnace & Airduct Cleaning, Dryer Vents, Chimneys
Buckeye Bookkeeping Solutions
The Evergreen Company
Call to schedule your appointment. “I have over 25 years in small business management and accounting services. Call for a FREE CONSULTATION !” – Sherry Wilson
Since 1993, offering unique home decor, fine gifts, jewelry, WoodWick candles, Willowtree, pottery, dishware, Christmas year round, Gift Certificates
You name it, we frame it. 1444 Lexington Ave., Mansfield 419-756-6040 www.mariesframeshop.com M, Th 10am-7pm, T, W, F 10am-6pm, Sat 10am-5pm
Clutter makes a house a home 305 E. Main St., Lexington 419-884-1901 clutter4u@aol.com Mon-Sat 10am-6pm, Sun in Dec. 10am-6pm
Small Business Management & Accounting 9944 Mount Gilead Rd., Fredericktown 740-398-5726 www.smallbusinessaccountingservice.net
Between Mohican, Malabar & Mansfield 1983 Pleasant Valley Rd., Lucas 419.892.2929 www.ohio-bed-breakfast.com
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THE LAST WORD
“There’s much that’s fine to see and hear in the spring of the year. . .” Surely, Edna St. Vincent Millay had the heart of Ohio in mind when she penned these words nearly 100 years ago. We still celebrate the freshness and purity of springtime as each year we look forward to rediscovering the great outdoors. As you flipped though these pages, did you notice the quotes from your neighbors who are eagerly anticipating their springtime adventures? Do you have favorite places you look forward to visiting each spring? Here’s a great way to add to your list. Visit our local Convention & Visitors Bureaus or their websites. The CVBs are staffed with friendly, informative ambassadors of the area. The websites are updated regularly and are full of adventurous places to visit, upcoming events, great photos and even a little history. And after you checkout your own county, see what’s available one gas tank away! Happy trails to you! Diane Brown, Publisher
Ashland Area CVB Bucyrus CVB Delaware County CVB Knox County CVB Lake Erie Shores & Islands Lorain County VB Loudonville-Mohican CVB Mansfield/Richland Cty CVB Marion Area CVB Medina County CVB Seneca County CVB Wayne County CVB Wyandot County VCB Westerville VCB
211 Claremont Ave, Ashland PO Box 1023, Bucyrus 44 E Winter St, Delaware 107 S. Main St, Mt Vernon 4424 Milan Rd, Sandusky 8025 Leavitt Rd, Amherst 131 West Main St, Loudonville 124 N Main St, Mansfield 1713 Marion-Mt Gilead Rd, Marion 32 Public Square, Medina 114 S Washington St, Tiffin 428 West Liberty St, Wooster 108 E Wyandot Ave, Upper Sandusky 20 West Main St, Westerville
www.visitashlandohio.com www.bucyrus.org www.visitdelohio.com www.visitknoxohio.org www.shoresandislands.com www.visitloraincounty.com www.loudonville-mohican.com www.mansfieldtourism.com www.visitmarionohio.com www.visitmedinacounty.com www.visitsenecacountyohio.com www.waynecountycvb.org www.visitwyandotcounty.com www.visitwesterville.org
877-581-2345 419-562-0720 888-335-6446 800-837-5282 800-255-3743 800-334-1673 877-266-4422 800-642-8282 800-371-6688 800-860-2943 888-SENECA1 800-362-6474 877-992-6368 800-824-8461
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Green Cleaning From Grandma’s old lamp to Grandpa’s old tractor, we take your household and industrial metal items and turn them into cash for you!
General Recycling of Ohio, LLC, a subsidiary of Nucor Steel Marion, Inc. Nucor recycles over 26 million tons annually and 350,000 right here in Marion, Ohio; making Nucor one of the world’s foremost recyclers and the largest producer of steel in the United States. Visit us at 400 Bartram Avenue, Marion, Ohio 43302 or call us at 740-383-6068. We are open from 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday to purchase your metals. To be part of the team that is leading the effort to rebuild America, go to www.nucor.com and look for Career Opportunities. Nucor Steel Marion is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
We are a division of Nucor Steel and share their simple business philosophy: take care of our customers by being the safest, highest quality, lowest cost, most profitable steel and steel products company in the world.
Recycling the Past to Reinforce Our Future