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Maumee Valley Country Day School hosts TEDx

By
Mary Helen Delisle
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Celloist Julian Beatty-Duarte, a sophomore at Maumee Valley Country High School, plays Bach Cello Suite No.1 between speakers. (TFP Photo/Mary Helen DeLisle)

TOLEDO – In an auditorium filled with proud parents, students, teachers and community members, 10 high school students captivated their audience with eloquent prose and sound.

Maumee Valley Country Day School (MVCDS) hosted a TEDx event with speakers and musicians from different high schools across Ohio, including MVCDS, Perrysburg, Anthony Wayne, St. John’s Jesuit on Friday, April 25.

The students presented topics ranging from raising awareness for social issues to self-improvement tips.

“TEDx is a great opportunity for local people to speak their mind about different topics and social issues,” said speaker Alex Ban, a sophomore at Perrysburg High School. “This was a really great opportunity for me to speak in front of a public audience and make my mark.”

Alex Ban talks about the Troubles of the Troubled Teen Industry. (TFP Photo/Mary Helen DeLisle)

Ban’s topic was about how the troubled teen industry institutionalizes child abuse.

“Last summer, I was browsing the news and I saw these two little kids getting abused at this camp center, which struck a heartstring for me,” Ban said. “There are over 200,000 kids in these facilities, so I really wanted to speak out and seek justice for them.”

Between speakers, audience members were lulled with “Bach Cello Suite No.1” from celloist Julian Beatty-Duarte and “Mia and Sebastian’s Theme” from pianist Oliver Kiehl, both MVCDS students.

This is the third consecutive year MVCDS has hosted TEDx. While the program originally began in 2016, it stopped due to the COVID pandemic.

Layan Ridid, left, and Daivik Patel introduce the TEDx speakers for the evening. (TFP Photo/Mary Helen DeLisle)

“Layan brought the idea to me of bringing this chapter to our community. And we both fell in love with it really quick and decided to bring it back,” said senior TEDx Maumee ValleyCountry Day School co-president Daivik Patel.

Junior co-president Layan Ridi said she and Patel have gone to school together since seventh grade.

“Public speaking has always been a passion of ours. I remember doing presentations with Daivik since we were little, and having that opportunity to give other students their voice was really important to both of us,” Ridi said.

Students’ topics were evaluated, and the best ones proceeded to the interview process.  

“We had applications from 20 to 30 local high schoolers,” noted Ridi.

Chosen speakers are assigned a liaison to assist them with practicing, perfecting and memorizing their speeches.

The 15 liaisons at this year’s event also assisted with various activity tables during the multiple intermissions between speakers, and set up the free Chipotle dinner provided to attendees.

MVCDS pays for the event through business donations, with S&G Stores being this year’s sponsor.

“There’s a lot of valuable high school students in our community, and we wanted to allow them to bring their voice and their ideas to the stage,” Patel said.

“One of the biggest passions of my life has always been community. And this event is really centered around community and how can we engage with one another and discuss these diverse topics that our speakers are bringing to the table.”

Speakers:

Marah Ariss, Perrysburg High School, 11th grade: “Special Needs Awareness”

Alex Ban, Perrysburg High School, 10th grade: “The Troubled Teen Industry”

Andy Caillaux, Maumee Valley Country Day School, 11th grade: “Lifting More than Weights”

Adhya Duggal, William Mason High School, 11th grade: “Octopus: What We Can Learn from the Deep Sea Creature”

Arsalan Faisal, St. John’s Jesuit, 11th grade: “How Stories Shape our Perception of Morality”

David Liu, Sylvania Southview, 12th grade: “Seven Deadly Frames”

Baraah Mansour, Maumee High School, 12th grade: “Surviving Life; Independence vs. Self-Reliance”

Medha Ramaswamy, Sylvania Southview, 11th grade: “A Pawn’s Journey”

Mallory Rettig, Anthony Wayne High School, 12th grade: “More Than a Name”      

Urvi Viamajala, Sylvania Southview, 11th grade: “Turning Failure into Success”

Photos by Mary Helen DeLisle

Photos by Mary Helen DeLisle

Pianist Oliver Kiehl plays Mia and Sebastian’s Theme from the movie La La Land.

TEDx speaker Mallory Rettig talks about the importance of names to a person’s identity.

Morgan Rowe, left, and liaison Reihana Djema work at the sign-in table and hand out programs.

Defying Odds Therapy Playspace opens

By
Andrew Helkowski
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Steve Broderick helps his daughter, Isla, navigate the gross motor gym at the DOT Playspace. (Courtesy Photo)

Occupational therapist offers calming space for kids to play

TOLEDO – The average play space can be overwhelming and loud for children with sensory sensitivities. But there is an alternative place where these kids can play. With the opening of Defying Odds Therapy Playspace (DOT), kids of all abilities can play and even receive therapy.

The gym features an interactive piano wall. Children can press to activate the keys to make music, or it can be set to make animal sounds and car/truck sounds. (Courtesy Photo)
Headphones are available for those with sound sensibilities. (Courtesy Photo)

The DOT, located at 6544 W. Central Ave., was founded by pediatric occupational therapist Erica Zimmerman, whose expansion of the existing office and has been in the works for about two years. DOT Playspace combines play, therapy and learning all in one place. 

Zimmerman added that much of her inspiration for starting the project was her son. “I wanted a place where I could bring my son to work and he could play,” she said.

Nicole Whitaker brings her two-and-a-half-year-old son, Ellis, to the DOT Playspace. She said that Ellis is one of three boys, and he can be shy, so the play area is a great place for him to spread his wings without the chaos of some other area playspaces for kids his age.

“He also is doing speech therapy, so with Erica’s background in occupational therapy, I knew that she would probably have a lot of really great sensory things,” Whitaker said.

“It’s not just a play space with a bunch of toys. It’s actually thoughtfully planned for kids’ sensory output and input, and to really spark them into not just playing, but learning, as well. That’s why I go there.”

Though the space offers equipment that is ideal for children under five years of age, Whitaker takes all three of her kids, who range from two to nine.

“I think she’s [Zimmerman’s] going to have even more for the bigger kids coming soon. She doesn’t even have all of the play structures delivered yet, so there’ll be even more. But I think it’s good for for all kids, honestly.”

Nicole Whitaker

The indoor space offers a wide variety of things to do, like climbing structures, slides, swings and sensory friendly rooms. During the design process, a couple of people with autism were brought in to give their opinion on the play structures. The design of DOT’s interior is meant to be calming, with soft pastel decor and white walls, while other play spaces have really bright colors, which can be overstimulating.

“I’ve worked with a lot of families who had children with developmental disabilities,” Zimmerman said. “There aren’t many places to bring them.”

DOT is inclusive for all children, not just limited to children with developmental disabilities.

“We really weren’t taking her places [before taking her to the Playspace] because places didn’t feel like they would be conducive to her,” said Broderick. “She can get really overwhelmed by a lot of loud noise, and just doesn’t have the stamina to play all the time, especially with other kids there; it’s a lot of gross motor work. She goes through fatigue and it tires her out.”

Steve and Devon Broderick hold their daughter, Isla, at the DOT Playspace.
Isla Broderick plays at the DOT Playspace.

Devon Broderick brings her 18-month old daughter Isla to the DOT. Isla has single-sided deafness, making the calming aspect of the facility especially appealing to the Broderick family.

Broderick notes that the Playspace is ideal for letting small children explore and play while parents relax. And when children do get overstimulated, there is a sensory room with a bubble wall and dim lighting they can use as a reset. Without this kind of setup, Broderick would often feel compelled to go home when Isla became overwhelmed during play. The DOT Playspace makes it possible for kids to spend more time playing after they calm down.

The space is broken up into three separate rooms with different purposes:

  • The sensory room is quiet and calm, a great place for children to unwind and relax.
  • The motor gym is more high energy, hosting play structures.
  • The creative cafe is a place where children and their parents can eat together. There are also art stations set up to encourage creativity.
For information about what DOT has to offer, visit their website and Facebook page.

Steven J Athanas: Adder Snake

By
Steven J Athanas
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Anne Grady Services raises disability awareness

By
Hannah Sellers
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Julia Hage, director of mission advancement at Anne Grady Services, speaks to attendees at the Coffee for a Cause event.

Coffee for a Cause highlights need for volunteers, donations

PERRYSBURG – Every year, Anne Grady Services hosts Coffee for a Cause, an event that raises awareness and fosters inclusion for children and adults with intellectual disabilities in the community.

Attendees at the Ann Grady Coffee for a Cause event. (TFP photo/Hannah Sellers)
Julia Hage, director of mission advancement at Ann Grady Services. (TFP photo/Hannah Sellers)

During the Coffee for a Cause event, it was announced that Noah’s House would reopen after a long respite.

“Ever since we had to pause this service during Covid, I have received endless calls from families in need of respite care,” said Julia Hage, director of mission advancement.

Not only is respite care on the horizon, but already individuals with intellectual disabilities have been taking advantage of the new therapy pool at Anne Grady Services.

At the event, a video played on screen showing the large, bright smiles on the faces of individuals splashing in the water and feeling freedom. Wheelchair users and others with physical disabilities are weightless in the water, a relief from pain that creates greater mobility.

Jim Weisz, who attended the event, said “hearing the impact the Anne Grady staff has on the lives of residents is inspiring and uplifting, especially given the current climate we live in. There is good in this world, and it’s right in our backyard.”

With the re-opening of the respite care, Anne Grady Services is doubling their efforts on fundraising for the Noah’s House Scholarship Fund, which assists families who cannot afford $300 per day for respite care services. Not only is respite care vital for caretakers, but it is very important for those with disabilities, as well.

Julia Hage, left, listens to Doug Homer, chief financial officer at Designetics, Inc., during the event. (TFP photo/Hannah Sellers)

Receiving outside care opens the doors to new opportunities, like outings into the community, interest based programs, relationship building, and high quality medical care.

To donate to the Noah’s House Scholarship fund, visit the Anne Grady Services’ website.

BGSU research: Defining gray divorce

By
Mary Helen Delisle
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BOWLING GREEN – Despite contrary perceptions, research increasingly shows that divorce of couples at or over age 50 has risen significantly, despite overall divorce rates decreasing in the U.S.

This phenomenon is called gray divorce, something studied by Bowling Green State University (BGSU) professors Susan Brown and I-Fen Lin.

While the phrase was coined locally by the two researchers, it is now nationally used by prominent sources such as Psychology Today, USA Today and Forbes.

Brown and Lin began researching gray divorce in 2010 after a conversation about the divorce of Al and Tipper Gore made them wonder, “What makes people get divorced after 40 years of marriage?”

They didn’t expect to discover this was not as uncommon as they’d previously thought.

What started as a hallway conversation soon became a 15-year research project that is still ongoing.

BGSU professor Susan Brown.
BGSU professor I-Fen Lin.

“The divorce rate overall for the entire adult population of the United States has been declining, so it peaked in 1979,” Brown said. “We were really shocked to find out that it was actually increasing for older people and that it doubled between 1990 and 2010.”

Lin explained that gray divorce research can give context to how it will affect divorcées, particularly women.

“Our research findings have very important implications. We find that [with] the economic well-being after gray divorce, there’s a big drop for women but there’s a smaller decrease for men’s well-being,” Lin said. “People who experience gray divorce, they experience economic decline, and they don’t really have a lot of work years to recuperate.”

Brown pointed out that a factor of this recuperation has to do with the accumulation of wealth and assets to split, including Social Security money.

“Somebody who’s 60 or 65 years old and getting divorced…it’s very different than if you’re getting divorced when you’re 30 or 35,” Brown said. “When you’re young, you’ve got your whole adult life course ahead of you to make up for those financial losses…Whereas by the time you get into later life, people have had decades to accumulate assets.”

“We found that we can follow people for up to a decade after their gray divorce and they still haven’t recovered economically,” Brown said.

According to Brown, their research could influence policy decisions related to these economic issues.

“Your marital experiences during adulthood are related to your poverty status as an older adult. We think of Social Security as something that’s going to lift you out of poverty. But for a lot of older people, it’s sustaining them in poverty, and that’s particularly true for a gray divorced woman. 27 percent of them are living below the poverty line, even though they’re receiving Social Security,” Brown said.

Brown said some of the problems that arise for people who have experienced gray divorce are because of the assumptions made by those who created the system; firstly, that people wouldn’t divorce, and secondly, that a traditional nuclear family would remain a social norm.

“We’ve set our systems with these assumptions about what types of family support most people would have,” Brown said.

All these factors beg the question, why would someone get a gray divorce?

Along with more acceptance of divorce is our changing expectations of what constitutes a good marriage. It’s more about thinking about marriage from an individualized perspective. What is this marriage doing for me? Am I happy in this marriage? Am I fulfilled in this? And if I’m not, then getting divorced is acceptable.

Susan Brown | BGSU Professor

Gray divorce can’t be attributed just to one factor, however.

In later life, there are questions of who will be caregivers of the old. Brown said some spouses do not want to be caregivers, a factor that may lead to gray divorce increase.

Lin said increased lifespan may be another reason.

Despite all these reasons, Lin and Brown suspect the gray divorce trend is generation-specific.

“Susan and I still keep track of this gray divorce rate for the next few years to see the trend. But we suspect it’s more likely a baby boomer phenomenon,” Lin said.

In addition to divorce being more socially acceptable, so are other non-marriage options such as cohabitation.

Lin said gray divorce may not be as prevalent in the newer generations because they choose options alternative to marriage.

More information about Brown and Lin’s research can be found on here. 

Jerry King: Artsy Fartsy TV

By
Jerry King
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Dr. Linda Rouillard: UToledo Program Cuts

By
Lori King
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Dr. Linda Rouillard, a UToledo French professor, attends the anti-SB 1 protest on March 20. (TFP Photo/Lori King)

On this episode of Behind the Byline, host Jaden Jefferson sits down with University of Toledo professor Dr. Linda Rouillard to discuss Ohio Senate Bill 1 and how the University of Toledo responded to the new law.

The bill, signed into law by Ohio Governor Mike DeWine in March, bans diversity, equity, and inclusion activities at public higher education institutions; prevents faculty from striking; requires the elimination of programs producing fewer than five graduates in a three-year span; and makes many other changes.

Rouillard offers her personal perspective on:

• recent cuts to programs at Utoledo in response to the bill’s passage, and how that will lead to a “direct path to the bottom”

• how “righting a wrong by creating another wrong” could negatively impact students statewide and their educational experience

• the challenge of critically analyzing subject matter under the new law and what role the university experience can play in a student’s development

• and how UToledo is creating workers for industrial needs while sacrificing critical thinking

New episodes of the Behind the Byline drop every week on the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Pod Station⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Behind the Byline is a production of the⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Toledo Free Press.⁠

Don Lee: Convenient Coincidence

By
Don Lee
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The dismantling of Department of Education: How it could impact TPS

By
Mary Helen Delisle
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TOLEDO – When President Donald Trump signed an executive order on March 20, effectively dismantling the Department of Education (DoE), he brought change to the U.S. education system as a whole.

The problem is that no one seems to know exactly how this cut will affect local schools throughout the United States, including Toledo Public Schools.

According to section one of Trump’s executive order: “Closing the Department of Education would provide children and their families the opportunity to escape a system that is failing them.”

While the idea is to return power to the states and the state education departments, the tasks have yet to be redistributed.

Another problem is that DoE is known largely for its role in providing funding to state schools.

Section two (a) of Trump’s executive order states: “The Secretary of Education shall, to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law, take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return authority over education to the States and local communities while ensuring the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely.”

But what, exactly, does that mean? As of April 8, Toledo Public Schools (TPS) had received no information from the government about the effects on local schools or funding, according to TPS communications coordinator Robert Wiercinski.

Section 2 part (b) of the executive order has this to say about the effects to school funding: “The Secretary of Education shall ensure that the allocation of any Federal Department of Education funds is subject to rigorous compliance with Federal law and Administration policy, including the requirement that any program or activity receiving Federal assistance terminate illegal discrimination obscured under the label ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ or similar terms and programs promoting gender ideology.”

Breakdown of school funding from the 2019-2020 school year.
 

Despite the termination of funds to DEI programs, which primarily affects higher education, the order does not specifically mention how the tasks of the DoE will be redistributed or how schools will continue to receive their federal funding.

In the 2019-2020 school year, 7.6 percent of school funding came from the federal government, according to USA Facts, with the remaining 92.4 percent coming from state and local tax dollars.

While school funding has not yet been affected, Toledo Federation of Teachers (TFT) board member Dan Fray said it is a concern.

“We [TFT] are not really actively protesting anything as much as we’re just trying to get the message out that we need fair funding,” Fray said.

Fray has been a TPS teacher for the past 28 years and is in charge of member engagement, retention and development at TFT.

Dan Fray (Courtesy Photo)

He explained that federal funding for Toledo schools typically goes to help with career tech and early childhood education programs.

“We’ve already had our kids be affected by some of the cuts from the federal administration early on,” Fray said. “Not too long after Inauguration Day, there was a lot of executive orders pausing funding for different programs.

“We had field trips that had to get cancelled because the organizations that were funding the field trips for the students thought they were losing their funding,” Fray said.

While the organizations later realized their funding was not actually lost, the panic surrounding the executive orders caused some students to miss the experience.

Fray also mentioned that federal funding helps TPS with Title One.

“Title One is a federal program that provides assistance to school districts and schools with a high percentage of low-income families, which Toledo does qualify,” Fray said.

If TPS funding were to be affected by the DoE cut, Fray worries that rather than just the federally funded programs being cut, the pool of money for all school programs will simply be diluted.

“My bigger concern is that all of them lose a little bit [of funding], such that all of them lose their effectiveness,” Fray said.

Regardless of what happens, Fray noted that TFT’s primary concern is for the students.

“Hopefully, if you’re a kid sitting in a second or third or eighth grade or high school classroom in Toledo, you never realize that this all happened. The school district and the Union and everybody, the community, all work together such that even if there is cuts, our students don’t notice it,” Fray said.

“That’s the end goal – just to make sure our kids go to school in a safe and rich learning environment, loved by their teachers and supported by the district and the community. And they don’t even realize that the Department of Education got cut,” Fray said.

Steven J Athanas: Pier Circle

By
Steven J Athanas
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