Director Carol Ann Erford said any similarities between the school violence in “From Up Here” and the recent United States shootings are coincidental.
The show, written by Liz Flahive, opened off-Broadway in 2008, according to www.playbill.com. It follows Kenny, who was suspended after bringing a gun to school.
Even though it has dark subject matter, Erford said it is funny, and makes more sense when the audience realizes why Kenny had the weapon.
“It’s a drama with a lot of humor,” Erford said. “I don’t think anyone will come out depressed; they will come out hopeful. It’s not a total downer.”
The play, running Sept. 7 to 22 at The Village Players Theatre on Upton Avenue, has adult language, but because of its timeliness, Erford said some younger teenagers should see it, just accompanied byan adult.
Erford has worked with The Village Players on and off for 20 years,but only started directing five years ago. She will be directing two mor plays at The Toledo Repertoire Theatre later this season.
Erford liked the way the teenagers and adults react to Kenny in “From Up Here,” which is why she was interested in directing it. Work on the play began in July.
The cast is divided between teenagers and adults. Erford has worked with or seen almost the whole cast before and said they are “really on the ball.”
Other cast members include 14-year-old Cassandra Bodenmiller playing Lauren, Kenny’s sister, and Samantha Rousos as Kenny’s mother, Grace. “I feel like I also teach, especially the teenagers,” Erford said. “They’re learning new sets of rules. It’s interesting to see how they handle it.” One of the youngest cast members, Daniel Hojnacki, is 15 years old and is playing the 17-year-old Kenny. Hojnacki said he was interested in playing the darker role.
“It’s topical,” Hojnacki said. “It sort of ties in well with news stories.”
The shooting at “The Dark Knight Rises” midnight showing in July happened after Hojnacki had the role, but it made him look into it more. No one really understands the people behind massacres, he said.
Hojnacki said the part demands more body language than spoken lines.
“The challenge is to relate … without saying too much,” Hojnacki said. “You still have to be in your character when you’re not talking.”Hojnacki has been acting with The Children’s Theatre Workshop, a theater group for youth 5 to 18 years old, for two years. He said he liked the idea of playing a more mature character central to the storyline.
“This character is not a cartoon, he’s a human being,” Hojnacki said.
Hojnacki also said the script doesn’t give much direction, so the actors have to be more involved in their roles. They have to “figure out the motives behind each line.”
“Danny is his own man and has his own ideas,” Erford said in an email. “He surprised me with the professionalism he has brought to the show. He takes suggestions and directions earnestly.”
Guests will be treated to new renovations at The Village Players Theatre on opening night, said Vice President of Development Chris Jagodzinski.
The theater has new paint and seating and promises a better performance with their new sound and light booths.
“Guests can look forward to a whole new look when they walk in our lobby,” Jagodzinski said in an email. The renovations have taken about two months and will be complete before opening night of “From Up Here.”
“The Village is thrilled about the first show,” Jagodzinski said. “The majority of our cast is new to The Village Players Theatre and rehearsals have been going wonderful … the cast has been putting in numerous hours rehearsing and working together.”
Opening night of “From Up Here” was Sept. 7. Tickets are on sale through the website thevillageplayers. org or by calling (419) 472-6817. Tickets will also be available at the door. Regular admission is $16 and seniors and students cost $14.
Village Players kick off fall season with topical play
Gloriana riding high on success of second disc
Talking with Rachel Reinert, it’s clear Gloriana is on its way — and going there fast.
The singer speaks quickly. Her excitement is evident, her enthusiasm contagious.
“ ‘(Kissed You) Good Night’ just ended up being the breakthrough single for us on this record. It’s just such an amazing experience for us to go through with our highest-charting single of our entire career. I was actually just told that we have now surpassed over 800,000 copies sold of the song,” she said.
Reinert is talking about the hit from the band’s second disc, “A Thousand Miles Left Behind,” which was released July 31 and debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Country Album Chart and No. 10 on Billboard’s Top 200. Those stats likely were from “(Kissed You) Good Night,” which shot up to No. 2 on the Billboard Country Singles Chart.
“We’ve been a band now for five years, and we’ve been through a lot of ups and a lot of downs and just so many experiences, and to finally get to this point it feels really great,” she said. “We’re definitely firm believers that everything happens for a reason; we just feel like we’re in a really good place right now.”
Gloriana formed in 2008 when brothers Tom and Mike Gossin, both singers and guitarists, moved to Nashville and met Reinert and Cheyenne Kimball. The quartet’s 2009 debut single, “Wild at Heart,” hit No. 15 on the Billboard Country Singles Chart, and the band’s self-titled disc reached No. 2. In 2010, Gloriana won the Academy of Country Music Award for top new vocal group.
“We got asked to be a part of Taylor Swift’s first major world tour, and it was just such an incredible experience. But being that we were so green … we didn’t know what to expect,” Reinert said. “I don’t think it was appreciated as much as we appreciate things now, being that we’ve been through some stuff.”
Last year, Kimball left the group.
“We’re still us, we’re still Gloriana. We still do all the harmonies; everyone takes turns singing and you can hear everybody’s individual voice,” Reinert said during a call from the tour bus, which was rolling from Los Angeles to Bakersfield, Calif.
“But we’ve really evolved and grown up a lot over the past few years. On [‘A Thousand Miles Left Behind’], we all wrote or co-wrote every song off of it — all the songs are really very personal to us.”
Like “Where My Heart Belongs.”
“I wanted to capture the essence of an innocent childhood. And for the first five years of my life, I lived in a town called Marietta, Georgia, and those were just some of the best memories I’ve ever had as a child: Me and my brothers running around in the lawn, you know, with Ninja Turtle underwear, just being carefree and enjoying life and just being kids before you really know anything about anything,” she said. “It’s kind of my happy place.”
Gloriana’s next single will be “Can’t Shake You.”
“It’s a song Tom wrote with Stephanie Bentley and Jim Slater,” Reinert said. “It’s a song about being from a small town and breaking up with someone and there only being a handful of bars to go to, running into the person but not wanting to, but kind of wanting to at the same time.”
Gloriana will bring its golden harmonies to UT’s Music Fest Friday, Sept. 14. The band will take the stage at 9 p.m. at the free, public event in the grassy area south of the Memorial Field House, adjacent to Centennial Mall.
The country stars are happy to shine alongside Lady Antebellum, Little Big Town and The Band Perry.
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that people are responding so amazingly to the guy-girl dynamic in bands. I think that there’s just something about it that makes it really special. You get to sing songs that have the two different perspectives, and I think people relate to that,” Reinert said.
What’s it like to be the only woman in the group?
“It’s so easy. It’s me and 10 guys on our bus — our band and our crew, Tom and Mike,” she said. “It’s very drama-free, very easygoing. And the guys are all very protective of me. We have a good time; it’s always very fun.”
Database of grants, loans available
The 2012 edition of the “American Grants and Loans Catalog” was recently
released. New this year is access to an online version of the database, which is
updated daily and fully searchable.
The document contains more than 2,800 financial programs, subsidies,
scholarships, grants and loans offered by the federal government as well as more
than 2,400 programs funded by private corporations and foundations.
“From insuring honey farmers to supporting innovation in the medical field or
for students who are looking for financial aid toward their educational goals, the
variety of funding is limitless,” according to information on the publisher’s website.
The CD version is $69.95, a one-year online subscription is $119.99 and the
printed version plus online access is $149.95.
The catalog covers a wide range of benefits and services, including agriculture, business and commerce, community development, consumer protection,
cultural affairs, disaster prevention and relief, education, employment, labor and
training, energy, environmental quality, food and nutrition, health, housing, income security and social services, information and statistics, law, justice, and
legal Services, natural resources, regional development, science and technology
and transportation.
Content includes a Web link to the program announcement page, a Web link
to the program administrator, information about program authorization, objectives and goals of the program, types of financial assistance offered, uses and
restrictions, eligibility requirements, application and award process, regulations,
relevant guidelines and literature, contact information and more.
For more information, call (888) 341-8645 or visit grantsinfo.us.
Zoup! franchise owner invests in new Toledo location
Kaye Brazier regularly ordered the tomato bisque at Zoup! before deciding to open her own franchise.
The grand opening of the new Talmadge Town Center location is planned for October. Brazier, a Toledo native, has been training in Detroit to open her first business after working 32 years in construction.
“The soup sells itself,” Brazier said.
Featuring a different 12 soups daily, customer favorites include Chicken Pot Pie and Lobster Bisque. Zoup! has 110 recipes total, Brazier said.
“You can come every day of the week and try something new,” Brazier said.
Sizes range from 8 ounce cups and 12 ounce bowls, on average costing six to nine dollars. There is an extra-large option, Brazier said, which is 24 ounces.
Zoup! is perfect for short lunch breaks, Brazier said, but does not limit to such. The wide range of soups takes many diets into account. Zoup! offers options that are low-fat (chicken noodle,) dairy-free (sesame noodle bowl,) vegetarian (tomato bisque and spicy Italian vegetable) and gluten-free (Zesty 3-Pepper.)
“[Zoup!] is conscious of recipes for people who are conscious of their diet,” Brazier said.
Zoup! also will introduce new soups to spice up the seasons, such as this summer’s gazpacho, a vegetable soup served cold. The fall season will feature new soups, including the Sicilian Pizza Soup, which has pepperoni, mushrooms, carrots, black olives and is topped with mozzarella cheese.
“[At Zoup!] soup is more of a meal rather than an appetizer,” said Paul Gilis, who opened the Dussel Drive location seven years ago. “We work hard not to make bad ones. They don’t sell.”
Gilis said his favorite soup changes depending on the day, but one of his favorites is the Cajun Chicken and Sausage Gumbo. He said the soup is flavorful and unique to Zoup!
Customers receive French, multi-grain or sourdough bread with their soups, Brazier said. The menu also features salads, sandwiches and desserts daily. Combination meals are available for customers to pair a soup with a salad or sandwich, any way of their choosing.
Other services Zoup! offers are catering for events and the “double-up” option, allowing customers to choose two different soups.
Zoup! also recently started making their low-calorie, low-sodium chicken broth available to customers for purchase in glass jars.
The soup isn’t all Brazier returns to Zoup! for. The customer service is welcoming, she said.
“The customer service is genuine,” Brazier said. “It’s a culture like no other. It’s a great concept for Toledo.”
As part of the guest service Zoup! strives for, customers are encouraged to try soups at the counter before purchasing, Gilis said. That is an act Brazier took advantage of.
“I was able to try things I never would’ve ordered,” Brazier said, one of them being the Fire-Roasted Tomato Bisque.
Brazier also said Zoup! is a “fast, casual dining” experience, rather than fast food. The Toledo location will only differ in size from the Maumee store, Brazier said. The layout of the restaurant will be the same.
Zoup! is branching out from its current 50 stores, according to a press release.
“We look forward to growing our brand and feeding the local appetite with one-of-a-kind soup creations consumers love, but wouldn’t make at home,” Founder and Managing Partner Eric Ersher said in a press release. “In good times and bad, soup carries powerful and intangible qualities that provide comfort and promote a genuine sense of well-being for many people.”
Also in the press release, he promised Zoup! has a commitment to “uncompromisingly high standards” guaranteeing “authenticity and quality of every pot, bowl and cup served.”
“It’s a higher quality product as far as soup,” Gilis said. “Everything is from scratch.”
It was the selection of soups and the customer service that encouraged Brazier to open her own store.
“I wouldn’t have thought of opening another franchise other than Zoup!” Brazier said.
Treece: Retiring as a Millionaire
Last week I came across a Facebook post that asked if retiring as a millionaire was possible. My generation tends to spend their money on “stuff” as opposed to saving for the future, so I was excited to see a 25 year old eager to save. I told him that it absolutely was possible. This week we shift our focus towards our younger readers who have an interest in putting their money to work for them, and how they can retire as millionaires.
On paper, achieving the goal of $1 million is not difficult. If an individual contributed $20 per week for 50 years earning 10 percent on their money per year, they would have $1.3 million dollars at retirement. However sometimes it is difficult to find extra cash to put away, whether it is due to job loss or maybe a new home purchase. Fundamentally speaking, earning a million dollars by retirement if you are in your 20s is absolutely possible.
There are a few areas in which I would like to provide some words of wisdom to our younger readers…
- Student Loans: DO NOT miss payments. Student loans can hurt your credit score and make it very difficult to obtain a loan down the road. Continue to make your scheduled payments and if you can prepay the loan, great. Do not drain your life savings to pay off the loan tomorrow though, if your savings accounts can earn you more than the interest rate on your loan, you might as well allow your money to keep working for you.
- Study your monthly expenses: Whether you keep track of your receipts or use a software program to enter your payments and purchases (I personally use Quicken), look at how much you are spending a month and compare it to what your income is. Take that difference and put at least half of it into some form of savings, whether it is an IRA, a personal investment account or the bank.
- Employer sponsored plans are for your benefit; take advantage of them: Most 401(k)/403(b) plans have some kind of matching program. That is FREE MONEY; not even the best investment advisor in the world can give you free money. Invest whatever amount it is that gets you the maximum matching benefit, then with the rest of your savings open up a non-qualified account (personal or joint investment account) or open a Roth IRA (you cannot be actively participating in a 401(k) and have a traditional IRA). An outside investment account will give you more freedom and flexibility in your investment choices and will not face the restrictions that your 401(k) plan does.
- Find a good CPA: A good CPA will cost you about $200-$400 per tax year, but their ability to find you savings and deductions is astounding. They can do what Turbo Tax cannot; it is a worthwhile investment, plain and simple.
Above all else, you need a goal. Saying “I want a lot of money” is not a goal, but rather “I want my accounts to be valued at over $1 million by the time I am 60” is a goal, a very obtainable one at that. It requires discipline but it can be done. Sometimes, you need some help getting there; do not be afraid to ask for help. There are professionals who take care of everything from your investments and savings to your mortgage and debt servicing (financial planners), and there are professionals like us at Treece Investments who manage your qualified and non-qualified accounts so that you do not have to spend time stressing over the markets. Do not hesitate to talk to these professionals. Most do not charge for a sit down, and sometimes $1 spent today can bring you $2 tomorrow.
Ben Treece is a 2009 Graduate from the University of Miami (FL), BBA International Finance and Marketing. He is a partner with Treece Investment Advisory Corp (www.TreeceInvestments.com) and a stockbroker licensed with FINRA, working for Treece Financial Services Corp. The above information is the express opinion of Ben Treece and should not be construed as investment advice or used without outside verification.
Toledo filmmaker raises funds through Kickstarter
Local filmmaker Steven Boatman will travel to Los Angeles this winter to work on a feature-length independent film following a recent successful Kickstarter campaign.
Boatman and Los Angeles-based actor/writer/director Russ Russo recently reached their $20,000 goal for the project, raising $20,880 via the online crowd-sourced fundraising website.
Boatman will serve as director of photography for the project, which will film cross country from LA to New Jersey starting in January.
The 23-year-old Toledoan lost his hearing from bacterial meningitis at age 1 and was deaf for four years before receiving a cochlear implant at age 5. Boatman was homeschooled until enrolling at BGSU to study visual communication technology. He left BGSU after three years to pursue filmmaking full time.
Boatman’s skills grabbed the attention of Russo in July at the Northwest Ohio Independent Film Festival in Lima, where Boatman’s five-minute narrative film “Mowing Through Misery,” a dark comedy about the frustrations of a man trying to mow his lawn, was screened.
Boatman writes, directs, films, edits and acts in his films. He built most of his own equipment, including a dolly platform with metal pipe tracks, an 8-foot aluminum crane and a computer for video-editing.
Russo, who often travels to film festivals across the country, said he was impressed by Boatman’s creativity and ingenuity.
“It’s as if one sense gave way to another sense, which was his eye. The camera was always moving, always presenting something and coming into the next scene. What he was doing was something on a studio level. It’s presented in a way that feels very much like a big Hollywood feel film,” Russo said. “I saw Steven’s film right at the end of the festival and I thought, ‘Wow I’m actually in the midst of writing something and that kind of filmmaking is what I picture.'”
“Heat Wave” is a dark comedy that addresses modern day society, Generation Y friendship, moral decay, narcissism, self-discovery and more as two friends take a cross-country road trip.
The film will include some up-and-coming actors, including Kiowa Gordon and Bronson Pelletier, who portray werewolves Embry and Jared in “The Twilight Saga”; Natasha Alam of “True Blood” and “Entourage”; Amanda Clayton from “John Carter”; Jessica Andres of “Liberator” and “Gossip Girl”; and more.
Kristina Michelle, host of The Reel Show on the Reel TV Network, interviewed Boatman at The International Indie Gathering Film Festival in Hudson, Ohio, where he earned his first award for “Mowing Through Misery.”
The interview will air online for two weeks at www.ReelTVNetwork.com, beginning Sept. 4 at 4 a.m., 10 a.m., 4 p.m., and 10 p.m.
Between now and “Heat Wave,” Boatman plans to stay busy with other projects, including freelance videography and as a cinematographer for “Huntsmen,” a local web series project of director and writer Gerald Hill. The “Huntsmen” team is seeking to raise $1,500 before Sept. 22 to cover expenses. Production will begin in early September.
Boatman’s father, Glen Boatman, who helps with filming when Steven is acting, said he is proud of his son’s opportunity to work on a feature-length film.
“He’s doing very well. Fortunately he has me to bankroll him, but this is going to be big payback,” Glen said, laughing. “He’s getting started now.”
Retirement Guys: Facts about buying long-term care insurance
As the Retirement Guys, we talk to people all the time about their concerns as they approach and reach the retirement phase of life.
When asked about their biggest concern, the majority of the time the answer is “not having enough” or “outliving my money.”
It is a fact of life that we all have to figure out a way to support ourselves. It especially becomes concerning when we are reaching the latter phase of life, as our strength and energy begins to diminish.
I (Mark) had the opportunity recently to visit my daughter Caitlyn at Grand Valley State University near Grand Rapids, Mich. She asked me to bring her a small desk that we had at our house toput in her room at the sorority house where she lives.
The desk came in two parts and I was able to get it into the back of my car with no problem.
My wife Lisa said, “You got that in there all by yourself?” Yep. It wasn’t that heavy and with a little extra effort I was able to get the job done.
For some reason, I thought of my late grandfather who lived into his mid-90s. I remember him sitting while people tended to his needs because he had reached a point of not being able to do much. I wondered to myself if I would get to that point someday, where I could not perform the fairly simple task of putting something in the back of my car.
Which brings us back to the concern many have of “not having enough.” Typically, it is the thought of some type of health crisis and worrying about needing long-term health care and how to pay for it.
According to the Department of Health and Human Services, about 70 percent of people older than 65 will require some type of long-term care services during their lifetime.
Let’s look at how we can pay for it. There are basically three choices.
Pay for it out of your own money, buy insurance to help pay for it or rely on the government after you have used all of your own money.
Let’s focus for a moment on the idea of using insurance to pay for it. We ask folks all the time why they do not have this kind of insurance and the typical answers are “it is too expensive” or “we don’t want to pay for something that we might never use.”
The Retirement Guys believe in using insurance to do what we call “leveraging.” Using what we have to create something bigger — in this case, creating a pool of money to use for long-term care.
When you buy a traditional long-term care policy, there are several decisions to make. First, how long do you want it to pay? It is typical to buy a policy that pays for a specific period of time, like five years. The longer it pays, the higher the premium.
Next, how much do you want it to pay? You can pick a daily amount like $200 a day and try to guess how much care would cost and how much you can afford to pay out of your assets or income to make up the difference if your insurance policy does not cover it all.
There is also what is called an elimination period. This is kind of like a deductible. There are a certain number of days that pass before the policy benefits start to pay, say 30, 60 or 90 days.
An inflation rider can be added to your policy to try to keep up with the inflation of care costs. Typically, the benefits are increased by 5 percent per year so that the amount of benefits you purchase today will not be as insignificant in the future as health care costs go up.
To qualify for the policy to start paying, you typically must need help with two of what are called “activities of daily living (ADLs).” These are eating, bathing, dressing, transferring and continence.
Should you buy traditional long-term care insurance? Maybe, maybe not. You should definitely meet with a professional to analyze your situation. If you wait too long, health or age may exclude you from obtaining insurance. There are other creative ways and newer types of nontraditional long-term care insurance products that may help you address this issue.
You can go to www. retirementguysnetwork.com to get more information. Bottom line —
look into it right away.
Maumee Valley expands iPad program
Maumee Valley Country Day School (MVCDS) students stream through hallways between classes in chatty clusters, but their arms aren’t loaded with textbooks and their shoulders aren’t hoisting heavy backpacks. Many carry only a slim case containing their school-issued iPad.
After the success of a pilot program with last year’s seventh- and eighth-graders, MVCDS expanded its one-to-one iPad initiative through 12th grade this school year. A classroom set of iPads was also added to each preschool through sixth-grade classroom.
“We did a major investment of iPads this year,” said Melissa Kuhl, MVCDS’s director of marketing and communications. “Middle-schoolers had them last year and they were really our trial group. We soon learned they were teaching us how to use them. They were taking it that much further than we expected, which was great. We soon went in the Middle School to a whole cloud environment, where document-sharing was happening within the classroom from peer to peer as well as from student to teacher, so it was a really good collaborative experiment.”
Many textbooks and required readings are downloaded directly to the devices and teachers and students alike are encouraged to explore and experiment with apps, Kuhl said.
“It’s really teacher-driven, the app usage. We make recommendations, but we don’t really hold back what teachers find and use,” Kuhl said. “And the kids have ideas too. They’ll say, ‘Oh I’ve seen this app and it’s educational’ and we use it. So it’s working out really well.”
MVCDS enrolls about 490 students: 200 in the Upper School, 80 in the Middle School and 210 in the Lower School. The $156,000 iPad initiative was paid for by the school. Tuition was not increased, but parents pay a technology fee that covers iPad insurance, Kuhl said.
Middle school Spanish teacher Kelsy Grefe was part of last year’s pilot program and said she’s happy the school decided to expand the program.
“I really see the value in an iPad education and I wouldn’t want to go back to the way it was before,” said Grefe, a 2003 MVCDS alumna. “It enables students to be more empowered and involved with their learning. The possibilities are pretty limitless.”
Grefe’s students access Spanish-English dictionaries with audio pronunciation aids, conjugation practice apps and more. They also created original illustrations for a story they wrote in Spanish, recorded themselves reading it, “published” the digital audio book online and then shared the story with younger students.
Grefe’s first homework assignment was to explore the app store.
“The kids are going to be innovative and teach you new things and show you apps you might not have thought of using,” Grefe said. “I picked up a few apps from the kids that way. It’s awesome they can be a part of it.”
Grefe said some students will take photos of textbook pages they need to study or notes on the board rather than carrying home a textbook or taking notes on paper. They can also record audio of Grefe explaining a homework assignment or teaching a lesson.
“Some people think it’s negative to put them in front of a screen all day, but they learn a lot and interact with each other,” Grefe said. “It’s not holding them back from being functional members of society. Society has evolved to this and we have to evolve with it. It’s normal to them. They are digital natives. In some ways I am too, but not in the same way they are.”
Head of Upper School Gareth Griffith came to MVCDS from an independent school in his native Greensboro, N.C., which has had a one-to-one laptop program for 12 years.
“As a classroom teacher, I can’t imagine teaching in an environment that doesn’t have that access to a broader world through an iPad or a laptop, that doesn’t have the capacity to collaborate with other students who are not necessarily in the room with you, that doesn’t have the capacity to create in multimedia as you can with an iPad,” Griffith said. “Having come from an environment where you could do that, I can’t imagine teaching in an environment that doesn’t, to go back to a pen and paper world.”
Even the school’s youngest students can benefit educationally from iPads, said Early Learning Center Director Heather Benson.
The students used iPads to experiment with nature photography on a recent fieldtrip and teachers often use the devices to record students explaining a picture they drew or a story they wrote.
“Instead of the old methodology, the low-tech methodology, in which the teacher would write under the student’s writing or picture what they said it was about, the student is telling in their own words,” Benson said.
The iPads can also help monitor developmental progress, Benson said.
An easel app, for example, records the strokes a child uses to draw a picture, allowing teachers to check if a child draws a line in one continuous stroke that crosses the mid-line or if they draw half from the right and half from the left.
“Once the drawing is completed on a piece of paper, you can’t tell what came first or how the student drew the line, but the iPad can record exactly the strokes and movements a child made,” Benson said. “It’s a really handy tool to be able to show a parent a skill a particular child needed to develop.”
Kuhl said the iPads are not used all the time or in every subject.
“At school, we’re very careful to make sure it’s used at appropriate times. We say, ‘OK, it’s time to close the iPads. Put them away. We’re going to do this now,’ or ‘Pull out your iPads. We can use these for research in this area,'” Kuhl said. “We also coached parents on how to control screen time in the home environment, about using the iPads appropriately for homework or research as needed and then closing them. Many families already had them, so it wasn’t new technology we were introducing into their lives in the evenings.”
Although collaboration is encouraged, cheating is not tolerated and almost nonexistent at MVCDS, Kuhl said.
“On the cloud, everything is documented so you can tell who has made what modifications to documents. It’s tagged with their username, so you can see very easily who has contributed,” Kuhl said. “I have never once heard of any issues in the building. Students take their work very seriously. They are here to learn and we make learning really fun.”
Embracing the new technology will help students in college as well as their future jobs, Griffith said.
“This is a place that is truly thinking about preparing students for the 21st century, asking them to collaborate and network and create creatively in ways that their working world will require,” Griffith said. “It’s very exciting.”
For more information, visit www.mvcds.org.
Students, PRO team to construct accessible home
Seventeen-year-old Val Taylor lives in a little green house on Cason Avenue. The only door that Val’s 400-pound wheelchair fits through in her little green house is the front door.
Her parents must carry her if she needs to leave the front room. The driveway that leads up to the house is unpaved and Val’s chair sometimes gets stuck in the muck. When Southview High School students observed their fellow classmate and her parents having difficulty getting her out the door and on the bus, they decided to do something about it.
“I thought how cool that kids would even think about such a thing and notice a need in someone,” said Veronica, Val’s mom, a paraeducator. Val has cerebral palsy, epilepsy, asthma, glaucoma and other disorders.
Southview students decided to use their annual fundraiser Dance for a Chance (D4AC) to help make the home more accessible for the Taylors. D4AC was started in 2004 and has raised more than $150,000 since then. Every year, students identify an issue in society and work to raise awareness for that cause through their fundraiser, where students are divided into four teams, compete in various contests and must be on their feet for 12 hours. On March 31, 300 students raised more than $30,000 for what they dubbed Project Haven (Home Accessibility for Val’s Exceptional Needs).
But, the student body realized it couldn’t stop there and got the Professional Remodelers Organization (PRO) on board. The group, the largest, independent remodelers organization in the country, decided to help through its President’s Project, which connects remodelers to community projects. The President’s Project began in 2010 and PRO has been around for more than 40 years.
“Originally, our plans were to add an addition to previous home,” said Rick Morel, PRO’s executive director. However, the group realized that wouldn’t work with the house’s poorly aged structure.
“What we did was make a conscious decision that the best way of doing this was to knock down the existing structure and just build a new one,” Morel said.
He added, “I don’t know how [the Taylor family does] it. I really don’t. I just don’t know how they’ve done it all these years. They don’t complain … they just keep getting after it. Those are the kind of people that you like to help.”
A crowd gathered Sept. 5 at the Taylor house for a groundbreaking ceremony. Despite the rain, high school band members, baton-twirlers and cheerleaders showed up to support Val, who is known for her school spirit.
Catie Sack and Logan Griesinger, both seniors, are part of the school’s ambassador committee involved with D4AC. Through the project, they got to know Val and realized she has many of the same interests as other teenage girls — Katy Perry, Britney Spears and nail polish.
“Most of all, [the project] taught me even though there’s road bumps, there’s always a way to get around them,” Sack said after the ceremony.
Some of those bumps included dealing with a mortgage on the property, Morel said. Metamora State Bank was able to lend a hand in that department and several other community groups have also come on board. Still, more material and cash donations are needed. Depending on materials provided, the new house could have a garage and deck for Val to watch the birds on.
“People in Northwestern Ohio, generally speaking, have always been known as generous and we need a little bit more involvement to complete this project the way we’d like to,” Morel said.
More labor is also needed. “Anybody that can pound a nail straight, I think we’d be open to that,” Morel said.
PRO has some help from the construction class at Southview. “It’s very much hands on and that’s what they need. We’re acting as mentors and laborers at the same time,” Morel said.
The new house will be 1,553 square feet up from 540 square feet. It will have an open layout, two bedrooms and 1.5 bathrooms.
Currently, Veronica and her husband Tom have to carry their daughter to the bathtub, which has become more difficult as Val has grown. The new bathroom will be ADA-compliant and eliminate the fear of dropping Val.
“It will be the most wonderful thing that could happen,” Veronica said of the new bathroom.
“We appreciate everything people have done and appreciate anything people could do. It would be a great opportunity to enrich our daughter’s life and improve her quality of life,” she added.
The value of the project, with materials, temporary hotel housing and more, will exceed $150,000. The house is the largest President’s Project yet, said Milissa Clark, PRO’s marketing consultant. The project is set to take four to five weeks once construction begins.
“It’s just been a very long road, but we will see this thing to the end. That’s what we do,” Clark said.
The school also remains behind the Taylor family.
“Val is one of our most deserving students at Southview High School,” said Principal David McMurray at the ceremony, adding that he is very proud of his students.
To learn more, visit http://www.hireaprotoday.com/ or call (419) 471-0101. Donations can be made to the Professional Remodelers Organization Project Haven account at Metamora State Bank locations.
Owens chosen for program to train baby boomers for jobs
Owens Community College was among 10 academic institutions across the country selected to participate in the national Plus 50 Encore Completion Program designed to train baby boomers for new jobs over the next three years.
The program, offered by the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) in cooperation with its members, will eventually include 100 colleges offering special training programs for students age 50 and older. Owens was the only institution in Ohio selected for a grant to fund its participation in the preliminary phase of the program.
“Owens is honored to be chosen as one of the few community colleges in the country to participate in the Plus 50 Encore Completion Program,” said Michael Bankey, vice president of Workforce and Community Services at Owens.
“We are expecting the official paperwork for the grant soon, but we already formed an advisory committee and are developing a timeline for the program,” he said.
Bankey said Owens will begin formal planning for the program in September and expects to begin offering it to age 50-plus students next spring.
“Education opens doors to endless career possibilities. The college looks forward to working with the American Association of Community Colleges and local organizations in developing an education program that meets the needs of baby boomers throughout the Northwest Ohio region,” Bankey said.
Baby boomers have increasingly turned to community colleges for training for new careers. Since 2007, adults age 50 and older have struggled in a job market with record unemployment. Many find they must reinvent their careers and update their skills if they are going to get hired, according to the AACC.
Careers in education, health care and social services appeal to baby boomers, who often show interest in civic engagement.
Mary Sue Vickers, director for the Plus 50 Initiative at AACC, said the program expects to add an additional 89 colleges in 2012 and early 2013 that will help reach 10,000 baby boomer students by 2015.
“Baby boomers are not like traditional college students. We find that colleges need to adapt how they operate to support their job training needs and educational success,” Vickers stated in a press release about the program.
An independent evaluation of the Plus 50 Initiative found 89 percent of students agreed that college workforce training helped them acquire new job skills and 72 percent attributed finding a job to such training, according to the AACC.
Since 2008, the Plus 50 Initiative has focused its efforts on training programs to get unemployed older adults back on the job. The AACC expects the 100 colleges will use the Plus 50 Encore Completion Program to build on the success of the initiative, Vickers said.
In addition to grant funds, the participating colleges will have access to thousands of dollars in marketing materials such as tool kits and training webinars designed to make reaching out to age 50-plus students much easier.
Bankey said Owens will benefit from the advice of other community colleges that have implemented programs for older students and understand their unique needs.
The Plus 50 Encore Completion Program is funded with a $3.2 million grant to the AACC provided by Deerbrook Charitable Trust. The AACC is a national organization representing nearly 1,200 community, junior, and technical colleges in the U.S.
The other institutions chosen for the first phase include Arapahoe Community College in Colorado, Black River Technical College in Arkansas, Broome Community College in New York, Lansing Community College in Michigan, Pitt Community College in North Carolina, San Jacinto Community College in Texas, Southside Virginia Community College, West Virginia University, John Wood Community College and Waubonsee Community College in Illinois.
More information about the program at Owens will be available at a later date or interested seniors can visit http://plus50.aacc.nche.edu.
