Guide to live local comedy
Local venues give comedians chance to work on their craft
TOLEDO – Emily Garrow does not have fond memories of her first time on stage.
She was there hoping to be funny. Tell a few jokes. Make the audience laugh. It was Garrow’s inaugural moment to either sink or swim as a budding comedian.
“Funny people should just be left to be funny.”
Late comedian Patrice O’Neal
“It was open mic [night] at the Ottawa Tavern on Adams St.,” Garrow recalled. “It was kind of open to anyone who walked in and signed up. I had watched a few times and got brave enough to go up on stage.
“My first time was pretty terrible. My jokes were just not all there yet and the microphone went out and not everyone could hear me. I didn’t get very many laughs and I went home and cried.”
That was three years ago, and though the Ottawa Tavern permanently closed in December, Garrow continued with comedy – and now her prowess as a comedian has done a 180.
Comedian Dave Crumbley persuaded Garrow to take her shot on stage that night at the Ottawa Tavern. Crumbley is the executive producer and talent coordinator for Crumbley Comedy, which promotes shows at small venues around Toledo.
Garrow is one of 90 comedians Crumbley Comedy promotes locally.
“Emily is an incredible joke writer,” Crumbley said. “With Emily everything is earned and honest. A brilliant joke writer. No mess on it. It’s spotless.”
Crumbley wasn’t a class clown growing up. He had a “terrible” stutter until age 10 or 11 and said he was fascinated with anyone who could speak confidently to an audience. He loved pro wrestling and enjoyed listening to entertainers like Howard Stern, people who could confidently communicate to a mass audience.
“Stand-up is hard in general,” Crumbley, 39, said. “It takes years to get really good. A good stand-up comedian communicates effectively with confidence and knows exactly where the line is every night.”
As of 2024, there were an estimated 1,072 comedy clubs in the United States. Levis Commons in Perrysburg is the site of one national brand, The Funny Bone (formerly Fat Fish Blue) and regularly brings in national acts, such as DL Hughley.
“They are the big dog,” Crumbley said. “They have stars over there. They are very intelligent business people.”
Other comedy venues
Garrow and her fellow local comedians perform at smaller, non-traditional venues around Toledo, such as Home Slice Pizza, Chevy’s Place, Jake’s Saloon, Bent Custom Neon, Toledo Tech Loft, Great Black Swamp Brewing and Earnest Brew Works, which has locations in downtown Toledo, Westgate, and south Toledo.
Most of the shows are free.
- Free shows are held Sundays at Home Slice Pizza – it recently increased capacity by 20 by expanding to the heated and enclosed patio for their shows
- Tuesdays at Chevy’s Place
- Thursdays at Jake’s Saloon
- Crumbley said they also sell ticketed shows with headliners at Bent Custom Neon and Toledo Tech Loft.
As many as 200-300 people attend some of these events on any given week, Crumbley noted, but most of the establishments seat around 50 people per show.
Crumbley serves as host – he estimates he’s hosted 1,200 shows over the last several years – and does about five minutes of stand-up before introducing each comedian on stage.
“As a host, all I care about is the show being good,” he said. “We will send 15 comedians on stage at the free shows, doing five-minute sets. We’ve had comedians who are regulars at Ann Arbor Comedy Showcase, like Brad Wenzel, who was on Conan O’Brien’s show three times.
“Getting professional comedians to come out to open mics, they set the tone for our local crew. They learn from these people who are super accomplished,” he said.
Besides Garrow, some other regular local comedians include Miss DivaNae, Tha Grizz, Van Morgan and Casey Heller.
Garrow, 34, a native of Temperance, Mich., works as a dental receptionist and said she really started to “hone in” on her stand-up routine early last year. She teams up with Crumbley for about four to six shows a month.
“I’m pretty awkward in real life and I have terrible anxiety,” Garrow admitted.
“I appreciate Dave for pushing me. He wouldn’t put me on a booked show until I could show up on stage without a notebook. Shout out to Dave for taking up the comedy scene locally and giving comedians an opportunity to practice and get good,” said Garrow.
For more information on local comedy shows, visit crumbleycomedy.com.
Girl Power inspires STEM involvement
TOLEDO – Striving to inspire future female innovators, Imagination Station is hosting Girl Power on Saturday in an effort to inspire more girls to embrace STEM.
While nearly half of the U.S. workforce consists of women, women make up only 27 percent of the STEM [science, technology, engineering, math] field, according to the United States Census Bureau.
Girl Power, an annual event, is an attempt to change those statistics by teaching young girls more about science and encouraging them to pursue a career in STEM.
One way Imagination Station hopes to foster this is through an inspiring speech from keynote speaker Stephanie Finoti.
Finoti, 2024’s Miss Ohio in the Miss America program, has a bachelor’s degree in biomedical science and is working towards becoming a pediatrician.
“I really hope to show these young girls that you can truly embrace your femininity and also be intelligent and a leader,” she said.
Finoti said she hopes exposing young women to STEM will encourage them to “bridge the gap in STEM in the future.”
Sloan Eberly Mann, chief education officer at Imagination Station, said Finoti challenges the traditional stereotypes.
“She has a very broad range of interests, and I think she shows that you can be girly and love makeup and dresses and all the things that are emblematic of being Miss Ohio, and then you can still pursue these really serious, rigorous science courses and be successful in that, as well,” Mann said.
In addition to the speech, there are working women professionals on hand, workshops and hands-on activities to enhance learning.
“Being able to show them these hands-on activities gives them a glimpse of what a day in the life of this career looks like. And it gets them more interested in the actual subject itself,” said Finoti.
Another way the event strives to encourage female interest in STEM is by encouraging younger girls to get involved, piquing their interest in STEM early on.
“The vast majority of children, young girls, who demonstrate an interest in the sciences will lose that interest in middle school,” said Mann.
“We’ve actually heard back from parents and kids (who said) it set them on the track to pursue the sciences in college. It’s just an exciting, fun day that reinforces our mission that science should be accessible to everyone,” Mann said.
“I hope that students can take away not only a love for STEM and the arts, but to also feel empowered and motivated, and that they can truly become anything they set their mind to doing,” said Finoti.
More information about Girl Power can be found on Imagination Station’s website.
More information about Girl Power can be found on Imagination Station’s website.
The Girl Power event is on Saturday, March 8, from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
President’s Day sparks both public protest, private party
A deeper look into the politics of two sides
LUCAS COUNTY – President’s Day provoked strikingly different reactions from the local polarized political climate: One group publicly protested while the other held a private party.
Outside of 1 Government Center, the seat of government in Toledo, more than a hundred people on Monday braved the numbing winter winds to make their displeasure with President Donald Trump known. The National Day of Protest was in association with the 50501 Movement (50 protests. 50 states. One movement) against the Trump administration.
Susan Kuehn, an organizer with Northwest Ohio Peace Coalition, explained her group’s presence in front of the government building. “We are protesting against the Trump-Musk administration dismantling and taking over the federal government and federal agencies, and purging hundreds of thousands of employees without cause for their [Trump-Musk] own benefit.
“They’re attempting an unconstitutional act,” she added.
While there were many specific reasons for the protest, Elon Musk, who is unelected and unconfirmed by Congress but deep into the government’s business, seemed to be the main target of the protesters’ frustration.
Trump unveiled his plan for the new Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE) while on the campaign trail. During that time, the venture included Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, but when he stepped down from the role, that put Musk in the center seat of DOGE, formerly the United States Digital Service (USDS), and he began slashing government spending and regulations without approval from Congress.
Trump took office a month ago, and since then DOGE has gotten to work in a strikingly similar manner to how Musk gutted Twitter after he bought it for $44 billion.
It’s unclear how many government employees have been fired by DOGE, but the most recent effort included a call from the Office of Personnel Management to layoff all probationary employees, with no known cause for the layoffs, which could be counted into the hundreds of thousands.
The probationary period refers more broadly to employees who are still in their first two years of service within the government, or who may have taken a new position within the government, including promotions.
United States Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) responded from the United States Senate Committee on Appropriations and said, “There is nothing efficient about indiscriminate mass firings.”
The senator vouched for the estimated 220,000-250,000 probationary employees, saying that 56,000 of those employees were part of the Veterans Health Administration, and warned that “these firings are totally arbitrary – pushing out high performers and the promising next generation of our federal workforce who won’t be easily replaced.”
At the beginning of last week, Musk and Trump addressed concerns specifically about DOGE from the Oval Office, where Trump defended his choice to place Musk at the head of DOGE.
Trump said DOGE had already uncovered “billions and billions of dollars in waste, fraud and abuse,” with a grand total of $55 billion claimed to have been saved on the DOGE website.
Musk was busy, but so was Trump, having signed 65 executive orders since the beginning of his second term.
When expounding on the savings he claimed to have done for taxpayers, Trump pushed back against federal judges who have impeded his and Musk’s ability to go as far as they have wanted with the massive changes in the federal government.
These massive changes to the government have not been met with support by all.
When asked what made him want to come out to the Toledo protest, Ryan McConnell, of central Toledo, said, “You know, if nothing else, just that people realize what’s going on, that President Musk and MAGA don’t speak for all Americans, that people see the wickedness that’s going on, how the government’s backsliding into authoritarianism.”
The Republican Party’s party
The energy, intensity and discomfort of the protesters sharply contrasted with the Republican Party that gathered 11 miles away, in the suburb of Holland, Ohio. Held inside the Lucas County Republican Party Headquarters, GOP members celebrated President’s Day with food and games.
Red was the primary color of the event, and elephants were on display throughout the private party. “We had a dress as your favorite president contest, and we had a young man dressed as Teddy Roosevelt,” said Barbara Orange, chair of the Lucas County Republican Party, as she recapped the afternoon’s events.
When asked about Trump’s actions that have rattled the federal government, Orange said, “I think President Trump is fulfilling all the promises he made on his campaign trail.”
If there’s any waste or fraud that needs to be addressed it should be pointed out. And then, of course, Congress is the ultimate one to make a decision on any changes that would come from that,” she said.
Orange said that pausing funds may be necessary in the meantime to figure out where payments are going, and added she thought government should be approached like a business that needs to be audited.
These were the same conclusions Musk expounded upon during the Oval Office press briefing, where he pointed to the $2 trillion national deficit ($1.83 trillion, to be exact) as the reason behind his aggressive cuts.
Musk warned the cuts were “…essential for America to remain solvent as a country.”
Anecdotally, Musk pointed to payments made by the Department of Treasury without specific categorizations, calling them “blank checks,” and complained about the current processes associated with putting things on a “do not pay list” associated with the Office of Payment Integrity through the Payment Integrity Information Act of 2019.
“The people voted for major government reform,” Musk said when asked to respond to the criticism that DOGE was part of a hostile government takeover that was happening without transparency. He cited the Republican majorities in Congress and the popular vote Trump won as a sign and mandate for the changes happening now.
The Toledo Free Press was denied permission to photograph or interview participants taking part in the festivities, which lasted from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., the same relative timeline the protesters were out in front of 1 Government Center.
While the Republicans had a colloquial get-together, where people had a pre-existing familiarity with one another, the coalition in front of the government building was a mixed bag of mostly strangers.
Some represented themselves, while others were members of groups, like the Northwest Ohio Peace Coalition, Veterans for Peace and Toledo Persists, all concerned citizens who turned out in conjunction with protests across the nation.
This is a great way to activate, organize, get together and see how many people are like-minded, [who] feel just as angry and can yell, in a healthy way, while also sharing other ways to volunteer, to donate, [to share] what organizations are actually doing the work.
Colby Buzzell, of Perrysburg, Ohio
“The voters are getting exactly what they voted for,” Musk said, brushing off concerns about any conflicts of interest he may have from receiving $18 billion in contracts from the Pentagon.
“All of our actions are fully public,” he said referring to the DOGE website, which has three main categories in the navigation bar that relate to the federal government: Savings, Workforce and Regulations.
“Savings” appears to be the most integral navigation section on the website, offering a large sweeping view of contracts for each respective agency. A number of the contracts are listed as offering no savings at all, meaning nothing was cut, while others offer millions of dollars in savings.
“Competence and caring will cut the budget deficit in half,” Musk said, and estimated that by 2026 there will be no more inflation in the U.S. at all.
At the same time, he said DOGE was “…moving fast so we will make mistakes, but we’ll correct the mistakes very quickly.”
But the answer for transparency seems to be vague at the very least, as Musk’s DOGE employees have largely remained anonymous, except for Marko Elez, 25, who resigned after being doxed and having incredibly racist tweets come to light.
Behaviors like these, including Musk’s alleged Sieg Heil at Trump’s inauguration, have sewn distrust among skeptics of Musk, and have caused backlash in Europe, causing Tesla sales to plummet there.
And while the DOGE website includes a list of contracts with different government agencies, the organization of the contracts seems to be organized thematically. The termination of news outlet subscriptions is organized towards the top of the page, regardless of date, but the information is not organized or organizable by date, amount of money saved, or by government department.
When looking into the specific contracts, the reasons for cutting funds are not evident, just that they are happening.
Boiler plate terms like, “TERMINATE FOR CONVENIENCE” or “FUNDING ONLY ACTION” are listed as the reason for modification of the contracts.
An almost $16 million contract with USAID given to DEMOCRACY INTERNATIONAL, INC for training conflict and violence negotiators was cut by nearly $14 million without a full sentence to explain why.
Musk admitted in the Oval Office presser that a previous claim to send $50 million of condoms to Gaza was incorrect, and said, “Some of the things I said will be incorrect and should be corrected.”
But the lack of transparency in the process of cutting the government – and Musk’s cavalier attitude towards making mistakes – have not exactly reassured Americans who are suspicious of him.
“10s of 1,000s of federal employees that have been fired; the only one the administration has spoken out for was one from DOGE, who resigned for racist tweets. So you see who the government’s looking out for,” Ryan McConnell said during the Toledo protest.
“It’s just a bad situation. Abolishing agencies that help people, like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, USAID, targeting all these agencies that were investigating Musk. They [the Trump administration] have an unelected billionaire, basically the richest man on the planet, basically running the government however he sees fit,” he complained.
Elections and results
Ultimately, the voters did choose Trump, who won the 2024 election with 49.87 percent of the vote.
A recent Gallup Poll showed that within Trump’s first week in office, there was a 91 percent approval rate amongst Republicans, 6 percent approval among Democrats and 46 percent among Independents. That first week included big changes in the government, including pulling out of the Paris Accords, pulling out of the World Health Organization and attempting to get rid of birthright citizenship.
More recently, a CBS poll showed 50 percent or higher support for Trump on most issues, except for America taking over Gaza, with only 13 percent approval, and only 23 percent of people saying Musk should have an integral role in government operations. A more popular conclusion was that Musk should have some role in the government, with over 50 percent of people saying he should have some, to a lot of, a role in what’s going on.
But Lucas County is not indicative of the rest of the United States, or even Ohio. Kamala Harris won the popular vote in Lucas County with 55.23 percent of the vote – 106,320 votes to Trump’s 82,398 – at 42 percent.
When asked about Trump’s alleged overreach of power, Orange replied, “I’m not a constitutional authority,” and wished not to comment on DOGE, the layoffs or on any ways the judicial branch had blocked Trump’s actions.
Well, I would like to see where the waste and fraud is within our government, no matter where it is, no matter who it is, whether it’s Republican or Democrat or Independent.
Barbara Orange, chair of the Lucas County Republican Party
And while declining to comment on specifics, Orange said, “I do have a general trust in what his [Trump’s] ultimate goals are, to put America first and correct a lot of things that have gone wrong for probably many years.”
Some Americans trust Trump, mostly those who voted for him, to sort out the details of a chaotic month-long series of cutting actions, while others find it impossible to do so.
“When they talk about these fraudulent spending things with USAID, it’s not fraud so much as some policies they disagree with,” McConnell said.
“You can have the conversation of saying where the money should be going, but just axing an agency that helps 10s of 1,000s, if not hundreds of 1,000s, people worldwide is not the solution. And they’re calling it one thing when it really is another.”
McConnell went on to say the gutting of the government with the cover of rooting out fraud seemed to be a facade to make space for Trump’s new proposed tax cuts for the rich.
The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed during Trump’s first term is set to expire at the end of December 2025, and, if made permanent, the changes to taxes could severely increase the deficit.
Chess prodigy speaks at Strategic Interplay Chess Tournament at TMA
TOLEDO – Tani Adewumi was introduced to chess at age 7 by his older brother, Austine Adewumi, when their family lived in a homeless shelter in New York City.
One year later, Adewumi won the K-3 New York State chess championship. Sound implausible?
Now 14, Adewumi is a high school freshman and plays guard on the basketball team. He is rated one of the best young chess players in the world, with an international rating of 2362 and a rating of 2436 with the U.S. Chess Federation; it’s a rating high enough to earn him National Master (NM) status.
To put those ratings in perspective, a chess Grand Master (GM) typically has an FIDE rating of at least 2500. FIDE is the governing body for international chess. To become a GM, a player must also achieve three favorable tournament results, called norms. Adewumi is determined to become a GM sooner than later.
He said chess has always captivated him because “it’s so creative and keeps giving you new ideas.
“It’s infinite, the amount of ideas and creativity,” said Adewumi, known for his aggressive style of play. “Chess is creative. That’s why I like it. There are an infinite amount of (game) openings – everything about chess is pretty good.”
Adewumi was the guest speaker on Feb. 15 at the Strategic Interplay Chess Tournament at Toledo Museum of Art. The tournament was sponsored by TMA, Toledo Public Schools, and Warren and Yolanda Woodberry of the Woodberry Park Chess Club at Jones Leadership Academy in Toledo.
Adewumi, Austine Adewumi, 20, and their parents, Oluwatoyin and Kayode Adewumi, immigrated to the United States from Nigeria in 2017. They were forced to flee their homeland due to religious persecution and lived in a shelter in New York for some time.
The family still lives in Manhattan, where the family patriarch, Kayode Adewumi, is now a licensed real estate salesperson.
Prior to the start of the Strategic Interplay tournament, Tani Adewumi was the guest in a 45-minute Q&A session with moderator Lanisa Kitchiner, curator of African Art at the TMA. Approximately 150 chess fans, children and adults, attended the session in the museum’s Little Theater to meet and talk with the young prodigy.
Kayode Adewumi said he and his wife realized just how prodigiously gifted Tani Adewumi was at chess when, as an 8-year-old, he won the K-3 New York state title in Saratoga Springs.
“He signed up to play chess at school in 2019, and he loved chess,” said his father. “As parents, we encouraged him. He loved it with a passion. When he was 9 or 10, he practiced seven to eight hours a day. He learned chess and became a champion in one year.”
Kayode Adewumi said he is most proud of his youngest son’s consistency.
“Some kids may lose focus, but I love his consistency,” he said. “He knows what to do, with little advice from others.”
Tani Adewumi, who has has written four books, said he plays chess two to three hours a day, seven days a week. He has a chess coach whom he said he has never beaten.
Tani Adewumi has had countless stories written about him by a myriad of publications, including the New York Times, and has appeared many times on local and national television. Former president Bill Clinton and chess legend Garry Kasparov have raved about him.
At age 11, on live TV, Tani Adewumi said that “chess just came to me – just like a tennis ball comes to a racket.” He practices on a popular internet chess site, chess.com, every day and said he prefers to play other competitors online instead of playing against the computer.
“I’m always thinking about chess,” said Tani Adewumi, an honors student who does not have a cell phone. “School and education are really important. After I come back home from school, everything about chess is on my mind.”
During the Q&A session, a young chess fan asked him what goes through his mind when he loses.
“I can get mad at myself,” he admitted, “but it’s also a learning experience. You get stronger every game you play.”
Tani Adewumi has proven to be a tremendous chess ambassador, and he relishes the support he gets from his family.
“A support system is very crucial,” he said. “It gets you in the right mode and helps you relax and focus. You want to feel good after every single game.”
Orchid Show kicks off Toledo Zoo’s 125th anniversary celebration
TOLEDO – Back in 1871, the City of Toledo bought land along the undeveloped Maumee River and founded its first city park, calling it Lenk Park. Three years later, the city added acreage and changed the park’s name to Riverside Park, and in 1887 the name was changed once again to Walbridge Park, which still exists today.
To make a long historical story short, in 1899 city officials wanted to start a zoo at the park, so local businessman Carl Hillebrand donated a single woodchuck as its first exhibit – and the Toledo Zoo was born.
Over the past 125 years, the Toledo Zoo has steadily added species and exhibits, becoming a landmark and cherished destination for millions of visitors who come to visit the zoo’s 16,000 individual animals and more than 680 species.
This year, the zoo is celebrating its 125th anniversary, with the campaign slogan of Honoring our past. Envisioning our future. The first event kicks off with the return of the annual Orchard Show, a winter favorite that runs until Feb. 23.
“The Toledo Zoo has been a key anchor in our community, a fundamental force,” said Toledo Zoo president and CEO Jeff Sailer. “For 125 years, we have been making this a better community, and we have been a good business, too.”
Strong local impact
Over the zoo’s history, Sailer explained that tens of millions of people have visited from the Toledo area, as well as consistently high numbers traveling here from Michigan, Indiana, and other parts of Ohio. Today, attendance averages 1 million annually, and results in an average annual contribution of more than $73 million to the local economy.
“This year, the Zoo has more than 77,000 membership households, the highest ever,” Sailer noted. Considering the average number of people in each household, the actual membership number is close to 300,000 people.
In its 125 years, the Toledo Zoo has set many standards for conservation, education and community connection:
- Caring for 90 endangered species, and participating in conservation projects around the globe (including Nepal, the Pacific Islands and Tasmania)
- Leading local conservation efforts, including reintroducing lake sturgeon to the Maumee River and releasing 1,000 monarch butterflies to support their migration to Mexico
- Developing school and educational programs that reach over 45,000 students
- Maintaining more than 40 acres of native prairies on Zoo grounds, and the largest collection of WPA (Works Progress Administration) era buildings in one location
- Accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums
Orchid Show underway
To kick-off the anniversary’s activities, the 6th annual Orchid Show is running on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. through Feb. 23 in the ProMedica Museum of Natural History. Admission is included in zoo admission, which is half-off during this time of year.
Orchids are one of the largest plant families on earth, found in almost every habitat on Earth except glaciers (but especially in tropical climates). Hundreds of cultivars are on display during the show, according to Ryan Walsh, Ph.D., the zoo’s director of plant conservation.
“We have 2,400 orchids on display for this show, more than 30 percent more than in previous years,” he said. “It was a chaotic week putting the show together. Our orchids are from as far away as Hawaii and Florida, all at the same time.”
In addition to displays filling the Museum of Natural History, the show includes workshops and classes about caring for and photographing orchids, along with special ticketed events, such as Blooms & Bubbly (champagne tasting and small plates) and Slow Brew (coffee-sampling with live music).
The conclusion of the orchid show will feature a plant sale on March 1 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Museum of Natural History’s Great Hall.
“The show is a little bit about education,” said Walsh. “But it’s also a breath of spring in February in Toledo.”
125th Anniversary Events:
- March 27: Making Waves Donor Event
- March 29: 10th Anniversary of the Aquarium
- May 24-25: 125th Zoo Birthday Bash & Summer Season Kickoff
- Oct. 10-23: 125 Years of Impact Symposium
“The symposium will feature the impact we’ve had in conservation and science over the years,” explained Sailer. Colleagues will be in attendance from projects in the Philippines, Nepal and Brazil, among others.
Oct. 23: Impact to Action | A Legacy Gala - 125th Zoo Birthday Bash and Summer Season Kick-off – May 24-25
- 125 Years of Impact Symposium and Legacy Gala – Oct. 21-23
Ohio higher education overhaul of Senate Bill 1 passes Senate
Senate Bill 1 passed Feb. 12 without any changes despite 8 1/2 hours of opposition testimony the previous day
This story was originally published by Signal Statewide. Statewide is a nonprofit media partner of the Toledo Free Press.
By Amy Morona | Signal Statehouse
Senate Bill 1, a proposal to overhaul Ohio’s higher education system, continues to make its way through the Ohio Statehouse after state senators passed the bill Wednesday.
This comes after the legislation, which proposes a host of changes, such as banning faculty’s right to strike and requiring professors demonstrate the so-called “intellectual diversity” of ideas, was voted out of the Senate Higher Education Committee earlier that same day.
It was a tight turnaround for the committee’s members, who met Wednesday morning after hearing about 8 1/2 hours of testimony from more than 200 opponents of the bill late into Tuesday.
During that time, Democratic members proposed several amendments to the bill, including eliminating the provision on striking. They also asked that the bill make universities, not lawmakers, the ones responsible for creating mandatory civics courses that would become a new graduation requirement.
Republican members rejected all of the Democrats’ proposals during that meeting. This prompted State Sen. Catherine Ingram, D-Cincinnati, to ask other committee members if they “had read these amendments at all.”
One of the biggest criticisms of Senate Bill 1 is that it would eliminate all diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, work, while never explicitly defining what constitutes DEI efforts in Ohio.
Critics say the bill’s language is vague. Because of that, they claim, entire departments or programs could close.
Democrats proposed an amendment that would have created a specific carve out to allow support programs for veterans and/or disabled students that may exist under that DEI umbrella to continue. That amendment was also rejected.
Late into the hearing Tuesday night, State Sen. Jerry Cirino, R-Kirtland, acknowledged the confusion around the definition of DEI.
“My answer to that would be, ‘Well, I didn’t make the term up,’” he said. “Let’s ask Ohio State [University], who spends $14 million a year on DEI. They must know what it is, [and] other universities in our state system, as well.”
Officials at Ohio State, which has a budget of about $10 billion, have already pushed back at that figure. A spokesperson told Signal Ohio earlier this month that the number was “produced without the university’s input or guidance.”
Cirino, who wrote the bill, made that remark during the testimony of the Buckeye Institute’s Greg Lawson. His testimony marked one of the few times Republicans were highly engaged during the 8 1/2-hour meeting.
Signal Statewide is a nonprofit news organization covering government, education, health, economy and public safety. Sign up for their free newsletters at SignalOhio.org/StateSignals.
McCord Jr. High’s Amazing Shake competition puts skills to the test
SYLVANIA – Sooner or later, young students are going to figure out there’s much more to life than learning about isosceles triangles or memorizing what the heck e=mc² means.
Growing up is as much, if not more, about the ability to show poise, learn how to interact with people and put your communication skills on display.
Seventh grade students at McCord Junior High in Sylvania were put to the test, so to speak, on their non-academic skills during the school’s third annual Amazing Shake soft skills competition on Feb. 11.
The program was inspired by the National Amazing Shake Competition, held every year at the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta. The competition focuses on building essential skills and placing strong emphasis on manners, discipline, respect and professional behavior.
To demonstrate these skills, McCord students rotated through 24 stations, called The Gauntlet. The stations included topics like Declutter the Den, Appointment Alley, Profile Pages, Know Your House and Break the News.
Students spent 60-75 seconds at each station, while more than 60 community members served as guest judges. Approximately 220 seventh-grade students participated in five 45-minute rounds.
One of the guest judges, Mary Helen Darah, was judging the individual students’ ability to “sell” her a car. This was Darah’s second year as a judge.
“It’s amazing,” said Darah, who put three daughters through the Sylvania school system. “It teaches the kids about introductions and connecting with people and professionalism. I wish they had this for adults.
“For the judges, it’s wonderful to see how incredible our youth are. Having this program is another example of Sylvania Schools’ forward thinking,” she said.
Seventh-grader Connor Scovell, 13, said he was “excited” and that he practiced for a few days by watching a slide show teachers gave the students to help prepare them for this event.
“I struggled with (the slide show) for a couple days and then I got used to it,” said Scovell, an honors student who plays center on a travel hockey team. He said his favorite station was Shark Tank.
“You could pick an item on the table and describe what it could do and try to sell them the item,” Scovell said. “I thought I did pretty good.”
Brooklynn Tucker, 13, plays the violin and does competitive dance. She didn’t hesitate when asked about her favorite station.
“You read a paper, like (the judge) was interviewing you,” she explained. “You had to have a strong voice. You read about ProMedica out loud. It’s important to teach these lessons for when you get older. They make you feel comfortable.”
Alex Witham, 12, who plays left defense on his soccer team, said the Amazing Shake program was “pretty fun. I thought I would be really bad. It was a new thing, but it wasn’t bad. My favorite was Perplexing Puzzles. They ask you questions while you do a puzzle. She said I was the only one who finished, and they said to remember to shake hands and remember when you meet people.”
Brynlee McCord, 13, who plays the violin and center-back on her soccer team, said her favorite station was Interview Alley.
“They asked about my favorite hobby and what I want to do in the future,” she said. “I learned a lot about what the future is going to be like. It taught me how to schedule a doctor appointment and how to use a credit card.”
McCord Junior High Principal Susie Felver said many students admit they are nervous when preparing for the event.
“When they go through it, nearly all of them are so glad they did,” Felver said. “This is one of those things that teaches life skills that are more important than your typical academic content. These are important skills to learn, no matter how strong you are academically.”
