Saturday, June 23, 2012
Noah Smith puts aside limitations to help a group in need.
Some might look back at 10-year-old Noah Smith’s life and see a trail of pain and hardships. Others though, look at the happy Avon Lake fourth-grader and see a life of perseverance and triumph. When he was 9 months old, the tow-headed baby with a big smile was given a heart-breaking diagnosis: he had developed cerebral palsy after he suffered brain damage because he was born two months early. Little Noah’s prognosis, including whether he would ever walk or talk, was unknown. Subsequent years were filled with speech and occupational therapy, Botox injections in his leg muscles and surgeries to cut and lengthen his heel cords. Nonetheless, Noah never complains. Rather, he has displayed a spirit that not only helps him overcome his limits, …
Thursday, June 7, 2012
A former teacher leads the way for a city's first community garden
Dale Cracas is standing alone in a patchwork field of rich brown mounds of dirt. The 72-year-old retired Avon Lake High School government teacher is dwarfed by the half-acre community garden that is set to open June 1. Rake in hand, he is widening the four-by-eight-foot beds that he hopes will be popping with crops by mid-summer. For a moment, a passer-by might feel a morsel of sympathy for Cracas, toiling away in the hot sun all alone. But only for a moment. Within 10 minutes a pick-up pulls up to deliver Bruce Peepers, also retired, who dons some work gloves, grabs a rake and starts helping. This is how it goes for the next half-hour as workers from the Avon Lake Municipal Utilities department show up to check on the newly installed …
41.500435
-82.039562
Troy Intermediate School
237 Belmar Blvd, Avon Lake, OH
/articles/a-community-builder-finds-a-patch-to-grow
1074318
/locations/7154594
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Avon resident is a nominee for the Northern Ohio chapter of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Woman of the Year
While running a half-marathon for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society at Walt Disney World in January, Lori Hopkins saw what runners often call "the wall." "I was wondering, 'Why am I doing this?'" Hopkins said. She looked around and saw the answer in the photos other runners had on them as they ran. They were photos of loved ones who had either beaten cancer, or had died from it. "That's when I knew as long as I could do this, I'd continue," Hopkins said. Hopkins, who lives in Avon, is one of the nominees for the Northern Ohio chapter of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Woman of the Year. Helping others has long been a part of Hopkins' life. After becoming a single mother of two children, Hopkins went to school to study nursing, getting her …
Friday, December 23, 2011
Chicks Against Hunger continues to grow
A year and a half ago, Kim Krall was doing the thing many laid-off people do: Networking to try and find job opportunities. Instead, an opportunity to make a difference came her way. Krall met someone while networking who volunteered at Second Harvest Food Bank of North Central Ohio. A comment he made while they were chatting was an inspiration to Krall and she, along with longtime friends Sherry Lunt and AnnMarie Nyikes formed Chicks Against Hunger. The three Chicks have held food drives in Avon to help people in need in Lorain County. "(The Second Harvest volunteer) said that there weren't many donations from the Avon area," Krall said. That hit home for her because, being out of work at the time without any immediate prospects, she …
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Love-A-Stray volunteer turned her barn into a cat shelter
This was not what Ellen Quimper had in mind when she began volunteering to foster a few rescued cats in her Avon home for Love-A-Stray. But nine years ago, the organization found itself in a dilemma. A homeless woman living in her car had a chance to get into a facility. But she had 25 cats that could not come with her. Trying to find foster homes for 25 cats at once seemed impossible for Love-A-Stray to take on. The solution could be seen from Quimper's kitchen window: The century barn on her land. "We brought them here, and the rest is history," Quimper said. That decision led to Quimper's barn becoming Love-A-Stray's cat shelter, where cats awaiting foster or permanent homes can live, where cats who have been fixed can recover before …
Friday, October 14, 2011
This Avon High School junior is on the board at Community Resource Services, and spent the summer volunteering at Safety Town.
Some teens fill their time outside of school with extracurricular activities, or a part-time job, or hang out with friends. Jamie Budhan does all that. But the Avon High School junior also manages to do volunteer work, play saxophone in a church sax band, and serve on the board of Avon/Avon Lake Community Resource Services. "Jamie's just lights-out, the total package," said Avon High principal Kristina Dobos Buller. Budhan, 16, was named to the board last month as a student liaison after former schoolmate Katy Trentel moved to Texas and suggested he replace her. After learning about the services CRS provides for the Avon and Avon Lake communities -- a food pantry, emergency assistance, and help in getting social services -- he decided to …
Julie A. Short
2:10 pm on Friday, December 23, 2011
Way to go neighbors! Keep up the good work!!! more ›