Jeff Wilhite had been active in the community for years but had never heard of Family Promise of Summit County when he learned the agency was looking for a new executive director.

“It was one of those things that come along in life, and you learn about, and it is a ‘wow’ moment,” said Wilhite, who has been executive director of the nonprofit agency that helps homeless families for about two months. He replaced former Executive Director Pamela Betty, who resigned last year.

In a way, the agency — formed in 2003 as The Interfaith Hospitality Network and renamed Family Promise of Summit County a few years ago — had been operating under the radar, even though an army of 1,500 volunteers who cook meals and drive vans among other tasks had been helping take care of homeless families at 12 area congregations for 10 years.

Part of the reason the agency might not enjoy a great deal of name recognition, Wilhite said, is that the volunteers are not working countless hours to beef up their resumes. They are doing silent service to those in need, he said.

“It is a life mission for these folks,” he said. “People are doing this because they believe.”

Wilhite is preparing to launch a drive to raise $1.4 million to move the agency to a bigger family center that would allow it to better serve homeless families, create an endowment and set up a micro-loan fund that could provide up to $5,000 to help clients launch a small business.

He also wants to nearly double the number of host churches so that twice as many homeless families can receive care.

Wilhite, 52, said he “absolutely fell in love with the program” when he researched it and learned about the services it provides.

Since 2010, the number of requests for help has increased by 77 percent from families, he said.

The agency in 2012 housed 42 different families with 162 family members — meeting about one-tenth of the demand for help requested.

As of early April, the agency in 2013 already had served 52 families representing 67 parents and 107 children, Wilhite said.

The program moves beds from one church to another church over a 12-week rotation. Families spend the night for a week at a time before moving to the next congregation.

During the day, clients spend the day at the organization’s family center, at 77 W. Miller Ave., in the cramped former parsonage of Miller Avenue United Church of Christ.

While there, social workers help the clients find housing and assist them with other issues.

Along with the 12 host congregations, there are also “support congregations.”

Wilhite is talking to three new congregations that have expressed an interest in being part of a second rotation of host congregations and is looking for up to six more congregations that might want to help as hosts and others that might want to serve in support roles.

He hopes to find an existing building of between 7,500 and 10,000 square feet to buy or lease as a new Family Center.

The Rev. David Loar, pastor of Fairlawn West United Church of Christ, one of the host congregations, thinks Family Promise will flourish under Wilhite’s direction.

“He is bringing a lot of good ideas on how to broaden the role of Family Promise to meet the ongoing, and sadly growing, reality of homeless families, especially among the working poor,” Loar said.

Wilhite’s goal is to bring to central Summit County a new facility large enough to store supplies that are given to families, house a possible food pantry, host various educational classes for families and provide computer access so that children could complete school work while adults look for employment.

A key goal is for more collaboration with existing agencies, from day care and educational facilities to the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank, to better assist the homeless families.

“You go about your business and you may have an idea of homelessness and you never stop and think there are families that are homeless,” Wilhite said.

A waiting list of families wishing to take part in the program exists, Wilhite said. The average length of stay for a family — mother and father and children or single moms and dads with children — is 45 days.

The agency received a $33,000 grant to buy a second van to transport a second rotation of families last year from the Northern Ohio Golf Charities, but the grant was contingent upon the group signing up enough host congregations to double in size.

Wilhite said the agency was unable to meet those terms. It will seek the grant again in the future.

Salvation Army and Family Promise are the only agencies that serve the homeless that serve entire homeless families and keep them together, he said.

Wilhite wants to grow the agency’s annual budget beyond its current $170,000 to add a volunteer coordinator, a development and marketing worker to help raise money from area foundations and a part-time maintenance worker for the new building. His salary is $55,000 a year.

A Roman Catholic, Wilhite said his faith is a large part of his life.

“My real salary or reward through my work at Family Promise will be successfully finding a new home for the organization, stabilizing the financial footing for the organization and collaborating with other organizations to offer our families sustainable and lifelong independence so their families can thrive,” he said.

“Family Promise is a beautiful program with many different denominations working toward one goal. To a person involved, they are living their faith by making this program work and helping families in need.”

Wilhite said he has never done work as important as he is doing now.

“I have met Nobel laureates, inventors of world renown, I have sat with the president of the United States,” he said. “But this is the most exciting, meaningful thing I have ever done in my life.”

And he said he hopes there is a new understanding of the plight of the homeless because of the work of Family Promise.

“But for the grace of God, that could be me,” he said of his compassion to help the homeless.

A Family Promise network-wide meeting and dinner will be held at 6:30 p.m. May 11 at First Congregational Church of Hudson. Cost is $5.

To register, call 330-253-8081 or email pauline@familypromisesc.org.

For more information on the agency, go to http://familypromisesc.org/.

Jim Carney can be reached at 330-996-3576 or at jcarney@thebeaconjournal.com.

He didn’t pick up a wrench until his grandfather passed away in 2009.

“That’s when I really got interested,” says Mason Stormer, an East High School senior in one of Akron Public Schools’ three automotive programs.

It was the trips as a youngster to his grandfather’s shop, Stormer’s Corner in Cuyahoga Falls, that he remembers most. The gas pumps were removed some years ago, but his grandfather serviced vehicles there until he retired in 2008. He died a year later, and the Bailey Road garage changed hands and lost the family name — for the time being.

Stormer, 17, hopes to land a job at a new-car dealership after finishing the two-year Automotive Y.E.S. (Youth Educational Systems) program at East, where he’s earning college credits to transfer to Stark State College.

Then he vows to buy his grandfather’s old car-repair shop.

“I’m gonna keep the original name,” Stormer adds.

It’s a common story among the 25 juniors and seniors in Robert Joseph’s automotive technology class at East: students aspiring to do dirty work.

Joseph, the program’s instructor at East, graduated from Garfield High School with the aptitude to launch his lengthy career in the automotive business. That was before the electronic complexity of fuel-injected motors exploded in the early 1980s.

Now, he’s more of a straight-talking supervisor than a teacher. And the students are more like employees — rebuilding front ends, draining transmissions, changing tires and performing just about every adjustment in the books. They spend one day a week in class. Wrapped in thick khakis and denim shirts with name tags, they spend the rest of the time ripping apart pickup trucks.

The garage doesn’t accept vehicles off the street, for liability reasons.

The dozen vehicles on lifts are mostly demos from car dealerships. Some belong to Akron school employees. And some, like Colt Lockhart’s father’s white Chevy pickup in the corner, belong to a family member.

“Ever since my dad and I have been working on cars, I’ve just grown attached,” Lockhart, 17, says.

Lockhart works at Market Street Muffler, just around the corner from the high school. “It’s a pretty nice job,” he says of his entry-level, $8-an-hour passion. “Whenever I’m off school, I’m down there working.”

Joseph hopes that Lockhart and the other students land a job at a car dealership while they finish their education at Stark State College. East High’s automotive program, now 40 years old, is designed to knock six months off the two-year degree program there.

The machine-gun thuds subside as Lockhart sets down an air chisel, picks up a large ball-peen hammer and begins to wale on the front end of his father’s truck.

“I love a dirty job,” classmate Emmanuela Redman, 17, says, grinning behind safety glass next to him.

The students just want to know how things work, and they’re not afraid to stick their heads under a wheel well to figure it out.

Most of the grease-smeared faces and hands belong to the sons or daughters of practicing mechanics and handymen. Some are professionals working out of garages and dealerships. Others fill oil pans in driveways and backyards. But with each quart of oil, they forward a legacy passed down from generation to generation.

“Most of us had someone to look up to, and that’s why we got interested,” says Joe Kubeck, who has worked on classic Buicks with his father since he was 10 years old.

Kubeck and the others work together, passing tools back and forth or wrapping their collective hands around a pry bar to loosen a rusted bolt.

“We all learned this together,” Kubeck says. “And now they’re some of my closest friends.”

Rebuilding the truck isn’t easy work, “and I’ve got two today,” he says, rushing from one vehicle to the next, barking out instructions.

Kubeck arrives at the other truck, a dented Chevy 2500 that belongs to an Akron schoolteacher.

“One thing about these old rusty pickups: You gotta beat your brains out to get them apart,” Kubeck says, motioning to a 17-year-old girl with red hair pulled tightly into a pony tail.

“Knock yourself out,” he tells Amanda Hessick, who leans into the open wheel well where the tire has been removed. A rooster tail of sparks fly over her shoulder as she drives a grinder between the wheel studs on the truck’s rusty hub.

“It was either this or cosmetology,” Hessick says. “This pays better.”

Doug Livingston can be reached at 330-996-3792 or dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com.

Leave the backpacks at home.

They won’t be allowed at Rockin’ on the River events in Cuyahoga Falls this year.

Organizer Bob Earley said he and other event planners met with city representatives last week for their annual preseason meeting. During the session, he was asked how he felt about not allowing backpacks at the concerts, which have made some people nervous in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings.

Earley said he didn’t hesitate.

“It’s a win-win,” he said. “There’s no reason to have a backpack or duffel bag anyway. Everyone’s a little scared in today’s world. There can’t be one person against this.”

Backpacks have also become carriers for mobile meth labs, which can be just as explosive as a pipe bomb, he added.

Anyone seen with a backpack will be asked to return it to their vehicle.

The free concert series will begin its 27th year May 24.

Earley said he and the city have a great history working together to keep the event safe and enjoyable.

A couple of years ago, the city implemented a curfew to keep minors not in the company of an adult away from the evening concerts.

Prior to the curfew, hundreds of unsupervised kids, some as young as 10, would hang out at the riverfront during the concerts and festivals. There were more than a half-dozen reported assaults and robberies in the area and fights every weekend.

The curfew cured the problem, Earley said.

“It has been phenomenal. There have been no arrests, no nothing,” Earley said. “We still welcome kids, but they come with their parents.”

Police Chief Thomas Pozza could not be reached for comment.

For a schedule of concerts at Riverfront Centre, visit www.rockinontheriver.com.

Paula Schleis can be reached at 330-996-3741 or pschleis@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/paulaschleis.

KENT: Mary Richards’ patience has run out.

She waited for nearly a year for a Freedom of Information Act request for a report and documentation into the death of her son, Kenneth Liam Richards, 26, at Air Force basic training on Dec. 30, 2010, at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in Texas.

“It feels like they are hiding something,” said Richards, 53, an accountant and Kent resident.

A death certificate she received after the death of her son, a 2003 Kent Roosevelt High School and an Allegheny College graduate, indicated he hanged himself but the “manner of death” was still under investigation.

“I don’t believe he took his own life,” Richards said in a recent interview.

She said Air Force officials told her a 16-month investigation into Kenneth’s death was finished last April.

Richards made her Freedom of Information Act request for the report and all documents related to the inquest in May. Nearly a year later, she said she still has received nothing.

She has even contacted the White House, asking for executive assistance in getting the information she requested.

Richards said it is her understanding that her son died of asphyxiation. The morning of his death, he had taken another recruit to a medical appointment, and when he returned afterward was asked to pull guard duty, by himself, at a barracks that was not his own.

His body was found about noon, with a strap from a brief case around his neck. The other end was tied to the top of a bunk bed, Richards said.

Her son, who was gay, had never made any suicide attempts before, she said.

“There is something there that doesn’t feel right and doesn’t sound right,” Richards said.

In the only letter she received from her son, the only indication that could be taken as a possible suicidal thought — “and that would be a stretch,” she said — was when he was writing about his nephew Tom, who is in her custody and was 2 years old when the letter was written.

“I’ve been very homesick lately, partially because it is sinking in just how little time I will have in coming years to be with the family,” Kenneth Richards wrote. “It’s hard knowing that Tommy will grow up without me.”

He concluded the letter by writing, “I miss you all and love you all.”

Before entering the Air Force, Richards cared for his nephew quite a bit, his mother said.

“I’ve hit a brick wall,” Mary Richards said of her feelings of not knowing details of her son’s death.

Lengthy investigation

James C. Dillard, Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI) Public Affairs spokesman, said that until the Freedom of Information Act request is processed, he would be unable to release any specifics.

“This was apparently a very exhaustive investigation. OSI agents interviewed quite a few people in the process of handling this case,” Dillard said. “We pride ourselves on having thorough and dedicated agents who are trained to pursue every avenue necessary to find the truth in their investigations.”

Dillard explained that the employee who originally was processing the Richards family’s request no longer works for the agency.

“OSI, like many military agencies, has lost contracts and government workers in the past year,” he said. “Unfortunately, we lost several of our folks who process the [Freedom of Information Act] requests.”

Dillard said someone new is handling the Richards’ case now.

“It’s a massive file — more than 1,200 pages,” he said. “That has some bearing on the time it has taken.”

He said the office hopes to have the information to Richards in the next two months.

Family doubts suicide

Rebecca Richards, 31, of Stow, also does not believe her brother would have taken his own life.

“He was not a young, naive teenager who joined the military out on a whim or with the fanatical dreams of changing the world,” she said. “He joined because it was a new branch in his career path. He was excited about his upcoming graduation from basic training and heading to training school.”

Kenneth was “grounded and knew what to expect before he stepped on the plane to Lackland,” his sister said. “The thought of him taking his own life to me is preposterous.”

Paul Richards, 56, of Akron, said his son was happy when he spoke to family members on Christmas Day — five days before his death.

“He was excited about seeing us for the upcoming graduation,” he said, adding that he does not believe his son took his own life.

He said it is his understanding that since his son’s death the Air Force has employed a “buddy system’’ throughout basic training. The day he was found dead, Kenneth had been left alone for four hours guarding the barracks, Paul Richards said.

Mary Richards said Kenneth was days away from graduation and going to school for aircraft maintenance, making the ordeal difficult for the entire family to understand.

“None of us is really certain about what happened with Kenneth,” she said. “Nothing is going to bring him back. The question that lingers is: Is there someone we should be holding accountable? And that is the question I just can’t even begin to answer.

“It is the last piece in the process we can’t get to because we don’t know.”

On her son’s military marker at Standing Rock Cemetery in Kent are words that described him perfectly, his mother said: “He was sunshine.”

Jim Carney can be reached at 330-996-3576 or at jcarney@thebeaconjournal.com.

WADSWORTH: When John Grom decided to do something about incivility in society, he got a lesson about government bureaucracy and unintended consequences.

It left him biting his tongue after frustrating delays trying to obtain tax-exempt status for his fledgling organization.

Grom, a retired executive head hunter, is executive director of Right and Left Inc., a Wadsworth organization that seeks to promote civil discussion of political issues. Every month, he and three or four other people sit down at the city’s public-access television studio and respectfully discuss — and disagree on — current events.

On Thursday, they talked about presidential executive orders. Participants were Bryan Laubaugh, a financial consultant and member of the Medina County Republican Executive Committee; Patty Haskins, a Wadsworth City Council member and former teacher; Jerry Ritzman, vice president and partner of Ritzman Natural Health Pharmacies; and Ronald Chamberlin, a retired chemist.

Grom has big dreams for the project and figured it would be easy to convince the Internal Revenue Service that it merited tax-exempt status, a key step in attracting grants.

He was wrong.

Grom sent an application and $850 to the IRS in October. He received notice that the application was in process Oct. 29 and figured it was just a matter of time.

He’s still waiting, however, and now figures it could be months, or even years, before he hears an answer.

An IRS website indicates the agency only now is processing applications received in March 2012.

The television show is produced for free, but Grom dreams for much more.

It started when he and his wife were talking about what he would do in retirement.

“At the age of 73, I was wondering what I would do with the rest of my life, and she said, ‘Well, what’s your passion?’ ” he said. “My passion is to try to get people to speak sensibly to each other about politics.”

He decided to pattern the group’s organization after Mothers Against Drunk Driving. That means local-access TV shows across the nation, a speakers bureau, local advertising, a presence at community activities and Internet advertising.

He especially wants to upgrade the primitive website he set up at www.rightandleft.org.

“I want to generate a million dollars a year; that’s my vision,” Grom said.

He knew it is impossible for foundations to donate money if a group doesn’t have tax-exempt status, so he turned to the IRS. What he didn’t know was that a recent law had sent the tax agency into turmoil.

The problem started in 2006, when Congress passed a law requiring tax-exempt organizations to file revenue statements.

An IRS newsletter says “any organization — large or small — that failed to file a required return or notice for three consecutive years would lose its federal tax-exemption.” So far, 450,000 organizations have lost their status. Many of them immediately reapplied, creating the backlog.

IRS, which usually handles about 60,000 tax-exempt applications a year, was overwhelmed.

Only 30,000 of the previously rejected organizations have successfully reapplied.

“I expect government to be slow, but this is over the top,” Grom wrote in an email to the Beacon Journal. “We are at a standstill until we can raise funds.”

Reaction from IRS

Getting explanations from the IRS was slow, and answers were contradictory. Calling Ohio’s U.S. senators and U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci, R-Wadsworth, produced some information but no help speeding the paperwork along.

Calls and emails from the Beacon Journal to the IRS only produced links to standard Web publications. The agency declined to answer questions and is prohibited by law from discussing individual taxpayers.

Yianni Varonis, spokesman for Sen. Sherrod Brown, made the following statement: “Senator Brown is concerned about the backlog and its effect on Ohio’s workers. That’s why he’s urged the IRS to expedite its process so that local organizations providing important services get the tax-exempt status they deserve. Sen. Brown will continue to fight so that workers and organizations can focus on serving their communities and not the red tape of the IRS.”

Grom remains frustrated but still dedicated to attacking incivility.

Parallel to public smoking

He points to changes in attitudes toward smoking as an example of how seemingly impossible tasks can be accomplished.

At one time, he said, people smoked in airplanes, restaurants, hospitals and other public places and thought it would always be that way. But society changed.

“Who would have ever thought that that kind of a social change would take place?” he said. “In my vision, having pundits and commentators on television yelling and interrupting and calling each other names is going to seem just as out of place as smoking on an airplane. I think it can be done. I think civility can win out over time. I think most people want to be civil, they just don’t know how.”

The television show can be seen at http://my.pegcentral.com/.

Dave Scott can be reached at 330-996-3577 or davescott@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow Scott on Twitter at Davescottofakro.

AKRON

Forum on veterans

AKRON: The University of Akron Military Veterans Association and Concerned Veterans for America will hold a roundtable discussion on the needs and challenges facing returning veterans.

The meeting will be at 7 p.m. Monday on the seventh floor of InfoCision Stadium.

Pete Hegseth, chief executive officer of Concerned Veterans for America and an Army and Iraq veteran, will speak, along with Ohio Sen. Frank LaRose, R-Copley Township, also an Iraq veteran, and William M. “Mike” Sherman, UA’s senior vice president, provost and chief operating officer.

Drill at high school

AKRON: Firestone High School was the site of a safety drill early Friday morning.

Akron Police Department officers were on the grounds, and the school was placed in a mock lockdown for training.

There was no actual emergency, according to a police spokesman.

CAMPAIGN TRAIL

Jeff Iula benefit

CUYAHOGA FALLS: The Jeff Iula Council-At-Large committee will host a fundraiser Monday to support the councilman’s re-election bid.

The event will be at the Funny Stop Comedy Club, 1757 State Road. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. with an hourlong comedy show beginning at 7 with local entertainers and a special emcee from the local media.

Admission is $25 per person or $40 per couple and includes an hors d’oeuvres buffet and soft drinks. A cash bar will be offered.

For reservations or more information, email iulajeff@yahoo.com.

COVENTRY TOWNSHIP

Board will meet

COVENTRY TWP: The Coventry Local school board has scheduled a special meeting for 8 a.m. Tuesday in the administrative offices at 3257 Cormany Road.

The purpose is to ratify a contract with the Ohio Association of Public School Employees union.

NORTH CANTON

Arsonist sentenced

NORTH CANTON: A North Canton woman was sentenced to three years in prison Friday after pleading guilty to charges of arson and insurance fraud after she set her home on fire.

Rose Ann Butts, 41, was charged with setting fire to her McKinley Avenue home in April 2012. The fire spread to two nearby houses before firefighters brought the blaze under control.

No one was injured.

She was arrested in February after an investigation by North Canton firefighters and police as well as the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the State Fire Marshal’s Office.

Debris from the fire was analyzed and an accelerant was detected. Arson was determined as the cause, authorities said.

Butts subsequently was charged with three counts of aggravated arson and one count of insurance fraud.

PORTAGE COUNTY

Fund for late teen

KENT: A memorial fund has been established in the name of Devon Conwell, 15, a Kent Roosevelt student who died this month after he collapsed while playing basketball.

Donations can be made to the Devon Conwell Memorial Fund at Portage Community Bank, 1532 S. Water St., Kent.

STATE NEWS

Obama to speak

COLUMBUS: The White House says President Barack Obama will deliver the commencement address at Ohio State University on May 5.

The university says it will be Obama’s fifth visit to the campus in little more than a year.

Last May, Obama kicked off his successful drive for re-election with a rally at the university.

He also won the political battleground state in the 2008 and 2012 elections.

Obama’s other commencement speeches this season are scheduled for all-male Morehouse College in Atlanta on May 19, and at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., on May 24.

— Associated Press

Summit county

Trail to be dedicated

AKRON: Metro Parks, Serving Summit County will hold a dedication ceremony of the first 4.2 miles of the new Freedom Trail, at 11 a.m. May 1 at Lions Park, 245 Northeast Ave., Tallmadge.

The 4.20-mile trail runs from Middlebury Road in Kent to Tallmadge Circle. It is on land owned by Metro Regional Transit Authority and follows an unused railroad corridor.

For more information, call 330-867-5511 or visit www.summit­metroparks.org.

The Summit County National Day of Prayer Task Force is calling community members to prayer at noon Thursday on the steps of the Summit County Courthouse, 209 S. High St. in downtown Akron.

The prayer program is in observance of the 62nd annual National Day of Prayer. The day, designated by the United States Congress, is a time when the nation’s faithful come together to pray.

The local courthouse event, which focuses on a need to pray for America and her leaders and citizens, is a Judeo-Christian expression of the national observance.

In addition to the prayer gathering, the local task force will also sponsor its annual Bible reading marathon and prayer vigil.

The vigil and reading, which takes place on Cascade Plaza in downtown Akron, begins at 4 p.m. Sunday and continues around the clock until shortly before Thursday’s prayer gathering. A concert of prayer and praise for teens is 7 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at Arlington Church of God, 539 S. Arlington St. in Akron. For more information about task force events, call 330-996-0602.

Other National Day of Prayer observances include the annual Community Prayer Breakfast at 7 a.m. Thursday at Grace Brethren Church, 3970 S. Cleveland–Massillon Road, Norton. The keynote speaker is the Rev. Kenneth D. Price, a second career pastor who serves as a certified trainer for the Bridges Out of Poverty program. Tickets are $10 and must be purchased in advance. For more information, call 330-825-7676.

The National Day of Prayer dates back to 1775 when the Continental Congress encouraged prayer from the colonists while they were building a nation; it was made official in 1952 by President Harry Truman, who signed it into law. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan established that the day of prayer would be celebrated on the first Thursday of May. It has no government funding and organizing is left to private groups.

This year’s National Day of Prayer Task Force theme is “Pray for America.” The scripture chosen to highlight the theme is Matthew 12:21 — “In His name the nations will put their hope.” More information can be found at nationaldayofprayer.org

In other religion news:

Events

Akron Area Interfaith Council — at Unitarian Universalist Church, 3300 Morewood Road, Fairlawn. 3 p.m. May 5. The fourth annual AAIC Hunger Walk will be held, with more than 300 walkers expected to participate. Registration is at 2 p.m. Walk starts and ends at the church. A hot soup social will follow. The 2½-hour walk is on the sidewalks of West Market Street, with police support at crossing points. It is a fundraiser for the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank. People of all faiths welcome, free and open to the public. Children welcome with parent approval, as are pets. 330-329-5132.

Centenary United Methodist Church — 1310 Superior Ave., Akron. 4 p.m. Sunday. The Ushers Anniversary will be held. It will be a worship and praise service with the Rev. Vaughn Gleaves. 330-376-9648.

Emmanuel United Church of Christ — 1480 Eastwood Ave., Akron. 8 a.m. today. Church members will participate in a denomination-wide program called Mission 4:1, in conjunction with Keep Akron Beautiful activities. They will meet at Brittain Road and Newton Street to clean up Reservoir Park, expected to take about 1½ hours. Mission 4:1 is an outreach ministry of the church, from March 31-May 19, when congregations are encouraged to become involved in activities that promote the care and stewardship of the earth.

The church has also announced the Rev. Steven Lashbook will be the new pastor. Lashbrook has been pastor of First Congregational United Church of Christ in Manistee, Mich., the past 10 years. He is a native of Iowa, and a graduate of Yankton College in South Dakota and Andover Newton Theological School in Boston.

Faith United Methodist Church of Brimfield — 1235 Tallmadge Road, Brimfield Township. 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. today. A rummage sale will be held. Clothing, books and perennials in pots or bags among the sale items. Proceeds benefit Henderson Mission Team, Building a Better Brimfield, Open M hot lunch program and school supplies for Brimfield Community Cupboard.

Family of Faith United Methodist Church — 800 E. Market St., Akron. 5 to 6:30 p.m. Friday. Creamed chicken/biscuits and Swiss steak dinner. Adults $9, ages 4-12 $5. Carryout available. 330-376-2141.

Good Shepherd Baptist Church — 853 Copley Road, Akron. 7 p.m. Monday through Friday. Annual Spring Revival, led by the Rev. Horace L. Drake and the Rev. Rodney McNab Sr. of St. Mark at Bethel Baptist Church in Pittsburg, Calif. 330-762-6795.

Grace and Glory Fellowship — 2128 Front St., Cuyahoga Falls. 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. Sunday. Ruckins McKinley, international prophet and Christian entertainer with G.O.D. (Generation of Demonstration) Ministries from Irvine, Calif., will be ministering. 330-922-4871.

Grace United Church of Christ of Loyal Oak — 3285 Cleveland-Massillon Road, Norton. 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. May 4. Rummage sale. Vases, dishes, toys, books, home decor and more. 330-825-3259.

Green Valley United Methodist Church — 620 E. Turkeyfoot Lake Road, Green. 5:30 p.m. May 4. Mother-child banquet. Adults $6, ages 6-10 $3, ages 5 and younger free. All proceeds go to church missions. 330-896-4357.

Journey Covenant Church — 2679 North Haven Blvd., Cuyahoga Falls. 6 to 7 p.m. April 30. Free, hot dinner to local residents on the last Tuesday of every month. Christ Kitchen Dinners are open to the public. 330-923-8021.

Mount Carmel Missionary Baptist Church — 401 Robert St., Akron. 4 p.m. Sunday. Fellowship with members of Mount Haven Baptist Church. At 7 p.m. Friday, a women’s fellowship service will take place. Elder Ezella Ford will be guest speaker.

New Mission Missionary Baptist Church — 150 Wayne Ave., Akron. 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. Sunday. Celebrating the 34th annual Women’s Day. Morning service guest speaker will be Cynthia Taylor of Faith & Prayer Outreach Ministries, and the afternoon speaker will be the Rev. Keisha Bell of United Baptist Church. 330-724-3254.

Our Lady of Grace Church — 1088 Ridge Road, Hinckley Township. Second annual Bloom N’ Book Sale will be Thursday through May 5. More than 10,000 books and 1,000 potted plants from about 175 varieties of flora will be offered. Casual wine and cheese tasting will be from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, $10 admission. Call 330-278-4466 for reservations. The weekend sale (free admission) is open to the public from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday and May 4, and 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. May 5 with luncheons, raffles and giveaways. For information, call 330-278-4121.

Providence Baptist Church — 458 Madison Ave., Akron. 10 a.m. May 4. Annual Jennie C. Payne Rainbow Tea. Everyone welcome. Free to the public.

Redeemer North Hill United Methodist Church — 265 East Cuyahoga Falls Ave., Akron. 4 to 6:30 p.m. Friday. Souper Supper fundraiser. Homemade soups at $5 each with crackers, bread, beverage and dessert. 330-923-1191.

River Church — 634 Canton Road, Akron. 6:30 p.m. today. Opening celebration service for a new church. 330-690-3854.

Shiloh Missionary Baptsit Church — 700 Market Ave. S., Canton. 6 p.m. May 4. The 88th church anniversary will be observed with an anniversary banquet at Windsor Hall, 2651 Columbus Road NE. Speaker is the Rev. Robert L. Golson, pastor of Prince of Peace Baptist Church in Akron. Adults $25, ages 12 and younger $12. 330-456-3660.

Trinity United Church of Christ — 3909 Blackburn Road NW, Plain Township. 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. today. Annual rummage sale. Household goods, clothing, furniture, jewelry, electronics, tools, exercise equipment, toys, antiques and more. Donuts, coffee, hot dogs, chips and soda available for purchase. 330-492-3383.

Westminster Presbyterian Church — 1250 West Exchange St., Akron. 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. today. Flapjacks and Flowers. The Kiwanis pancake breakfast will be held to support the Akron Youth Symphony. Adults $6, ages 10 and under $3.50. A plant sale will be on the church patio. 330-836-2226.

Performances

Calvary Temple — 3045 Albrecht Ave., Akron. 7 p.m. today and 11 a.m. Sunday. A drama, The Mercy Seat, will be presented. Some intense scenes not suitable for children under age 12. The play was written and directed by Wanda Walker. 330-628-5753.

Church of Our Saviour — 471 Crosby St., Akron. 4 p.m. May 5. The Parish Choir Does Broadway, with the choir and soloists. Includes medleys from The Sound of Music and A Chorus Line. 330-535-9174.

Cottage Grove Evangelical Congregational Church — 3133 Cottage Grove Road, Coventry Township. 6 p.m. Sunday. Christ Unlimited will be singing.

Speakers, classes,

workshops

First Baptist Church of Massillon — 20 Sixth St. SE, Massillon. The Coming Alive Women’s Conference will be held Friday and May 4. It is a 1½-day event for women by women. Speakers are women leaders who have learned to rise up against hardship, addictions, adversity and tragedy to live with peace, joy and purpose. Included is Massillon native Tina Miller-Levene, author of a newly released book titled Let Your Lessons Become Your Blessings. For tickets, call Rob at 330-737-1031 or go to www.riseupconferences.org.

First Friday Club of Greater Akron — at University of Akron Martin Center, 105 Fir Hill. Noon May 10. Dr. Paul Lakeland, professor of Catholic Studies at Fairfield (Conn.) University, will be guest speaker. His topic is The Vatican II Church: Lay Ministry, Lay Leadership. Luncheon cost is $15. Doors open at 11:15 a.m. For more information, call 330-535-7668 or visit www.firstfridayclubofgreaterakron.org.

Mogadore Christian Church — 106 S. Cleveland Ave., Mogadore. 10:30 a.m. Sunday. Joe Tucker will be guest speaker at morning worship. His topic is the April mission focus on South Street Ministries, which has been assisting the people of the Summit Lake and South Akron areas. The effort includes Bible studies, tutoring programs, summer camps and sports programs. 330-628-3344.

The deadline for Religion Notes is noon Tuesday. Items must be in writing. Please fax information to 330-996-3033, email it to religion@thebeaconjournal.com or send it to Religion, Akron Beacon Journal, 44 E. Exchange St., Akron, OH 44309.

Akron-Canton residents may empty medicine cabinets, bedside tables and kitchen drawers of unwanted, unused and expired prescription drugs today.

A total of 27 drug collections will be held in the region as part of the National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day organized by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to ensure drugs are disposed of safely and properly.

The Akron Police Department will accept old drugs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the visitors’ parking lot at the Metro Regional Transit Center, 631 S. Broadway.

The service is free and anonymous.

The Akron collection is being organized by the Summit County Community Partnership.

For more information, call 330-374-0947 or 330-322-5007.

In October, the Akron site collected 102 pounds of medications. It ranked 17th of the 88 collection sites in Northeast Ohio.

Nationally, Americans turned in 244 tons of prescription drugs at more than 5,200 sites operated by the DEA and local and state partners last October.

Five collections have been held, and the total collected tops 2 million pounds, officials said.

Other Summit County collections, all from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., are:

• Summa Health System will accept drugs in parking Lot 1, off Adams Street, on the Summa Akron City Hospital campus.

• Bath Township Police Department, 3864 W. Bath Road.

• Copley Police Department, 1280 Sunset Drive.

• Springfield Township Police Department, 2465 Canfield Road.

The Summit County Health District operates a permanent collection system with 14 locked boxes at local police departments. That system began in late 2010. It has collected 5,546 pounds. For information, call 330-926-5659 or go to www.schd.org.

There will be three collection sites today in Portage County. They are:

• Portage County Water Resources, 8116 Infirmary Road, Shalersville Township. It is organized by the Portage County Sheriff’s Office.

• Ravenna Police Department, 220 S. Park Way.

• Robinson Memorial Hospital’s Medical Arts Building parking lot, 6847 N. Chestnut St., Ravenna.

The Medina County Drug Task Force has arranged three sites in Medina County. They are:

• Wadsworth Police Department, 120 Maple St.

• Walgreens parking lot, 805 N. Court St., Medina.

• Lodi Community Hospital, 225 Elyria St.

In Stark County, there are 16 collection sites:

• Mercy Medical Center, 1320 Mercy Drive NW, Canton, organized by the Stark County Sheriff’s Office.

• Aultman Hospital, main entrance at 2600 Sixth St. SW, Canton. Sponsored by the Canton Police Department.

• North Canton Police Department, 145 N. Main St.

• Jackson Township Police Department, 7383 Fulton Drive NW.

• Plain Township Hall, 2600 Easton St. NE. Sponsored by the Stark County Sheriff’s Office.

• Canal Fulton Police Department, 1165 S. Locust St.

• Anytime Fitness, 5119 Tuscarawas St. W, Perry Township. Sponsored by the Perry Township Police Department.

• Massillon Recreation Center, 505 Erie St. N. Sponsored by the Massillon Police Department.

• Hartville Police Department, 202 W. Maple St.

• Marlboro Township Police Department, 7344 Edison St. NE.

• Alliance Police Department, 470 E. Market St.

• East Canton Police Department, 130 S. Cedar St.

• Fairless High School, 11885 Navarre Road, Brewster. Sponsored by the Beach City and Brewster police departments.

• Louisville Police Department, 215 S. Mill St.

• Sandy Township Fire Station, 8285 Waynesburg Drive SE. Sponsored by the Waynesburg Police Department.

• Minerva Police Department, 209 N. Market St.

There are no collection sites listed in Wayne County.

Other information is online at www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/drug_disposal/takeback/index.html with collection sites and details.

Leaving the Summit County Courthouse after sitting down with Maurice Terrell for only five or six minutes was never disappointing.

All anyone had to do for an instantly warm, gratifying feeling, those who knew him said, was look down at the sidewalk.

The brightly shined shoes staring back from your feet would make your day.

Cynthia Lee, who has been a sheriff’s deputy for 20 years, said she will never forget her first meeting with Mr. Terrell some 13 years ago when she began her courthouse security beat.

“I had only been here for a couple of days, and he did my shoes. He said he was doing it on the house, because he wanted to show me how good he was,” Lee said.

Mr. Terrell, who ran a shoeshine stand at the courthouse since 1977, according to Beacon Journal archives, died April 19 after a long illness. He was 78.

Mr. Terrell, who would hang a “Gone Fishin’ ” sign on the chair above his cast-iron shoe rests every year when the winter weather came, spent his entire life in Akron.

He attended Akron Public Schools, then enlisted in the U.S. Army and served in the Korean War. He also was a chef at the Summit County Jail and at Akron’s Holiday Inn.

But to his scores of friends and legal professionals at the courthouse, he was so much more than that.

“What a wonderful man. I think he had the pulse of the courthouse,” attorney Walt Benson said.

“Every day here,” Deputy Lee said, “he always gave me a hug. I never missed a hug from him. He was just such a kind, giving man.”

A memorial placard, with a farewell wish and dozens of signatures from courthouse workers, lawyers and his many friends, was posted on a partition Friday near his stand in the old basement entrance near the elevator.

It said simply:

R.I. P.

Maurice

Enjoy the fishin’

Defense attorney Patrick Summers was one of many who signed the card, recalling Mr. Terrell’s fondness for fishing.

“See you by the peaceful waters in heaven,” Summers wrote.

One of Mr. Terrell’s best customers, attorney Kerry O’Brien, often left a bag with four or five pairs of shoes at the stand as a long day in the courtroom began.

“I might have been one of several who did that, because he could really give a good shoeshine,” O’Brien said. “He could make that rag pop so loud, you could hear it up on the third floor. He was really an artist.”

Talking to Mr. Terrell about life or sports, or just about anything that happened at the courthouse, attorney Eddie Sipplen said, also could make you smile.

“He’d seen a lot of attorneys come and go, and a lot of people come and go, and he was the hub. If you wanted to know what was going on, just stop down and get your shoes shined and you’d be caught up, real quick,” Sipplen said.

A memorial service was held Friday afternoon at Stewart & Calhoun Funeral Home on West Thornton Street in Akron.

Mr. Terrell is survived by two sons, two daughters, a sister, two brothers, nine grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren and four stepchildren.

Ed Meyer can be reached at 330-996-3784 or at emeyer@thebeaconjournal.com.

BARBERTON: Friday morning, Barberton students took social studies instruction from a panel of foreigners who injected life into lessons through humbling and poignant tales of their childhood and home.

The lecture was part of an ongoing collaborative that began three years ago between Barberton schools and the University of Akron, which had launched the program with Akron schools nearly two decades ago.

UA hosted the forum — part of a curriculum developed by UA graduate student Jessica Petersen and undergraduates in the education department. Five international undergraduates from the allied, chastised or sometimes disenfranchised countries of China, Saudi Arabia, Japan, South Korea and Cuba led the discussion.

The lecture engaged 42 Barberton students through a question-and-answer discussion that drew on the personal lives of the UA international students, who talked passionately about culture, religion, life, stereotypes, misconstrued perceptions and seemingly troubled foreign relations.

“We are complete enemies,” said Emmanuel “Manny” Gonzalez, a 30-year-old aspiring Spanish teacher from Cuba.

He sat below a 12-foot projection screen while describing the schools he attended growing up in Cuba. The better ones came equipped with glorified typewriters that would be considered outdated, boxy computers in America.

Gonzalez grew up in a community where kids used their hands instead of baseball bats and fashioned basketball hoops out of bicycle rims and lamp posts.

“Everything is what you can make with your hands,” he remembered.

At 15 years old, students who normally undertake driver’s education in America are thrust into the military in Cuba.

That’s when Gonzalez moved to the United States, a place he said no one speaks of in Cuba for fear of being punished by the Communist regime.

“Everything is controlled by the government,” Gonzalez said, elaborating on the two-channel televisions that provide filtered news of only crime and corruption in America. It wasn’t until 1997, when the Pope visited Cuba, that the citizens were allowed to congregate in church, a hotbed for organized thinking, he said.

“The government controls everything.”

Barberton students gasped at the prospect of a two-channel cable service and no Internet. As they listened, they found more about their lives they take for granted than they realized.

From 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.; that’s how long Lu “Lucy” Han and other children in China attend school each day. Students are assigned to a Chinese soldier and taught how to march and follow orders.

In neighboring Japan, Yukie Tanii rides a bicycle for a half-hour to the train station, then catches a train for 10 minutes before walking another 20 minutes to school. And it’s not just the commute that burdens her days.

Nearly 70 years after the atomic bombings, some Japanese refer to American helicopters still stationed near Okinawa as “human killers” and “widow makers,” Tanii, 21, said.

But she sees that times have changed. She said American and Japanese emotions must change, too.

“Japanese have bigoted feelings,” she said, noting her own negativity toward the U.S. military.

Each of the five panelists voiced a misconception they had of American culture before their arrival. They said ignorance of the U.S. pervades some countries, like China, Cuba and Saudi Arabia, where government controls media and media controls minds.

“All these terrors that they create in your head,” Gonzalez said.

“If you believe in that, then they are manipulating you. Try to see many perspectives,” Han said.

It wasn’t until after Abdul AlGhamdi offered coffee and dates to the students — a hospitable custom among Saudi Arabians — that he began to speak about his misconception of Americans.

“We don’t have a clear view about the American citizen because of the bad media,” he said.

Crime, murder and drugs that blanket U.S. movies funneling into Saudi Arabia had altered AlGhamdi’s view of the typical American. They are “hard-working” people, he now says.

After viewing American media from inside the United States, he said he sees why some might think of him — an olive-skinned man in traditional garb — as someone capable of terrible things.

“In everywhere there is good people, bad people and extremists. So don’t judge people based on the media,” AlGhamdi said.

“Meeting him, he’s nothing like they say,” said Justyce Smith, a 10th-grader in the audience. She now realizes that her hair, dyed in an unnatural crimson hue, would be unacceptable in some schools abroad. It’s a head of hair that would be hidden beneath a black abaya in AlGhamdi’s homeland.

After the lecture, Smith exchanged phone numbers with a South Korean woman who presented her life alongside a Cuban national studying to be a Spanish teacher, a Chinese polymer science major, a Japanese marketing exchange student and an Islamic secondary education major.

“Media sometimes destroys the image of countries,” AlGhamdi said.

“They hold back what is true and tell you what they think you need to know,” Smith said, reciprocating the sentiment.

Doug Livingston can be reached at 330-996-3792 or dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com.

Metro Parks, Serving Summit County is looking to gain in popularity one click at a time. And two area shutterbugs are helping the park district garner followers in cyberspace.

West Akron photographer Bob Roach is on the front line just about every day of the week looking for just the right shot to gather those sought after “likes” and clicks on the park district’s Facebook page.

The 82-year-old is partial to the Seiberling Nature Realm, Firestone Metro Park and the Manchester Road Trailhead on the Towpath Trail.

He favors birds, butterflies and dragonflies and provides about 25 photos a week to the park district from the 150 or so photographs he is likely to take.

His shot of a partially camouflaged eastern screech owl in the Firestone Metro Park quickly became a Facebook hit attracting about 12,900 page views in just a few weeks.

Another popular volunteer photographer is Jerry Cannon of Stow.

Cannon, 69, typically provides a dozen photographs a week to the park district from the 500 photographs he is likely to take. He is typically in the parks with his camera six days a week.

“I’m just looking for something out of the ordinary,” he said. “Taking pictures in the park has become a real addiction for me.”

And clicking on his photographs has become somewhat of an addiction for followers of the Metro Park’s Facebook page.

A snapshot of a colorful collection of cardinals at the Firestone Metro Park quickly attracted about 8,000 views.

Cannon said he and the other photographers get a kick out of the reaction they get from followers of the Facebook page — particularly when someone clicks the “like” button.

“When that happens, we get a good feeling, a rewarding feeling,” Cannon said. “The number of likes I get makes me feel good.”

While the photographers look for “likes,” park district officials long for more followers.

The Summit County park district has garnered a total of 11,244 likes or friends since it joined Facebook in mid-2009.

Spokesman Nate Eppink said this includes 1,480 new followers just in the first three months of 2013.

“People pay attention to the pages,” he said. “It’s something that has great value.

“We try to brighten up people’s days.”

The park district is not alone in adding social media as a way to interact and attract park visitors.

Cleveland Metroparks has more than 44,000 Facebook followers. The Ohio state parks have 27,750 followers.

Locally, the Cuyahoga Valley National Park has more than 2,000 Facebook friends or likes since mid-2012. Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park has 2,452 friends.

The Stark County Park District has 2,017 friends or likes on its page. The Portage Park District has 532 friends or likes. The Medina County Park District has 41 friends or likes on its Facebook page. The Ohio & Erie Canalway has 1,150 friends or likes.

Such Facebook pages help nurture the community of park lovers and keeps people engaged in the park district, Eppink said.

“The pages enable us to be current and present and reach out to community members,” he said. “It enables people to connect to Metro Parks even when they’re not here. The pages let them learn more about the parks and our plants and animals.” The Facebook pages have proven to be helpful in answering questions and providing accurate information to park users, he said.

The goal, he said, is to keep the pages interesting without overdoing it.

The park district’s Facebook page has evolved since it started, Eppink said.

It went from a few short park announcements to dominating photographs posted by a cadre of about 15 talented volunteer photographers including Roach and Cannon.

Typically, three or four photographs are posted on the Facebook page every day including weekends.

This requires a steady stream of high-quality photos, plus some work to get everything posted in a timely fashion, Eppink said.

The most popular photographs are landscapes, sunrises and sunsets and birds.

Eppink said historical photographs are also popular. Photos typically get anywhere from 1,000 to 4,000 views.

Among the most popular ever is a collage showing a piebald or white-colored deer in Stow by Gena Williams. It has garnered well more than 15,000 views.

“The talent pool is incredible and what we are getting are truly awesome photos that showcase the park district,” Eppink said.

It’s not unusual for a single photograph to get several hundred likes plus additional comments on Facebook.

The park district began its Facebook pages after realizing that unofficial pages were popping up, Eppink said.

Metro Parks, Serving Summit County, added Facebook pages in late 2011 and early 2012 for specific trails and individual parks.

The Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail has a total of 1.023 followers and the Bike & Hike Trail, 161 followers. Goodyear Heights Metro Park in East Akron has the most followers with more than 1,069. Silver Creek Metro Park in Norton has 899 followers and Sand Run Metro Park in Northwest Akron has 821 followers.

The second-fewest friends are linked to the newest site like the Freedom Trail that is still being built from Tallmadge to Akron. It has attracted 125 followers since it was started in early March. Only O’Neil Woods Metro Park with 110 followers has fewer.

Eppink said he would like to see the park district have 15,000 friends or followers by the end of the year for its main Facebook page.

“If that happens, we would be thrilled,” he said.

Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.

“Father Sam” is a free man.

A spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons said inmate No. 56055-060 was released Friday morning from a minimum-security federal facility in Morgantown, W.Va.

The Rev. Samuel R. Ciccolini, a well-known Roman Catholic priest from Akron, received that inmate number in late October, when he checked in to serve a six-month sentence for cheating on his taxes and committing bank fraud in 2003.

Ciccolini also admitted to embezzling $1.28 million from the Interval Brotherhood Home Foundation, but paid it back, when he was being investigated by federal authorities. He was never charged with theft.

A subsequent independent audit of the residential drug and alcohol treatment center found no misappropriation of public funds nor any fraud.

Ciccolini could not be reached for comment Friday.

The 70-year-old priest founded IBH in 1970 in Coventry Township. He headed the facility until retiring in December 2010, amid his legal woes. He initially stepped away from his post as executive director in July 2010, but continued as a counselor until his retirement.

Online state records show that Ciccolini’s two-year license as a supervising professional clinical counselor expired March 17, 2012, and that he did not renew it, making him ineligible to practice as a counselor in Ohio. His license had been suspended for six months after he pleaded guilty to the income tax crimes. That suspension ended July 20, 2010.

As a priest, Ciccolini is prohibited from public ministry (saying Mass, hearing confessions) in the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland. His technical status with the diocese is priest “awaiting assignment.”

Robert Tayek, spokesman for the diocese, said Bishop Richard G. Lennon will meet with his advisers to determine the status of Ciccolini now that he has been released from prison. Pending a decision, Ciccolini is permitted to return to his residence at Immaculate Conception in Akron.

The Rev. Michael B. Smith, pastor at Immaculate Conception, said he will welcome Ciccolini back and awaits the bishop’s decision on his assignment.

“It’s over — at least the incarceration is — and we’re all glad about that,” Smith said Friday. “He has satisfied his responsibility to the court. Now it’s up to the bishop to determine where he goes from here.”

Previous efforts to assign Ciccolini were thwarted because a felony conviction prohibits him from employment at facilities that receive public money.

Ciccolini is five years away from the Cleveland diocese’s retirement age for priests of 75 years old, but a priest can apply for early retirement.

His arrest in 2010 and the release of information that he had personal funds of more than $5 million shocked many in the community.

He and federal prosecutors both appealed his original sentence of one day in jail, a $350,000 fine and the payment of $3.5 million in restitution to the Interval Brotherhood Home Foundation, the agency’s fundraising arm.

In the end, Ciccolini was sentenced to six months in prison and fined more than $830,000 for banking and personal income tax crimes.

The banking charge against Ciccolini came after he made 139 individual bank deposits of less than $10,000 to avoid federal reporting requirements in 2003, authorities said. The tax violation was linked to a false tax return in 2004, but the priest admitted that other years were inaccurate, too.

The U.S. Justice Department in March denied the Akron Beacon Journal’s public request to examine the records in Ciccolini’s case. The newspaper sought the information to help with unanswered questions, like why the priest was investigated and why he was charged seven years after the crimes were committed.

The newspaper is appealing the denial.

Colette Jenkins can be reached at 330-996-3731 or cjenkins@thebeaconjournal.com. She can be followed at https://twitter.com/ColetteMJenkins.

COLUMBUS: Gov. John Kasich’s pick to lead the Ohio Republican Party was elected Friday over a conservative challenger who warned party leaders they are dangerously out of touch with the party’s grass-roots base.

The GOP State Central Committee voted 48-7 to elect Matthew Borges chairman over Portage County businessman and tea party leader Tom Zawistowski. There were three abstentions.

Borges, 40, said he believed his victory put to rest criticism he had faced about a past misdemeanor conviction and tax liens. He pledged to pull together all Republicans, including tea party activists who applauded loudly throughout Zawistowski’s campaign speech.

“Sometimes family fights are the roughest fights of all. You might say something to your cousin or your brother that you wouldn’t say to anyone else,” Borges said. “But at the end of the day, you’re still family and you work together and you do what you know is right for the state. And in this case, what’s right for the state unequivocally is getting John Kasich re-elected governor in 2014.”

Zawistowski is a leading figure in a conservative and tea party backlash against Republican leadership. His camp raised questions about Borges’ suitability for the job, Kasich’s support for Medicaid expansion under the federal health-care law and U.S. Sen. Rob Portman’s recent reversal in favor of same-sex marriage.

Before the vote, Zawistowski talked about the tea party and other conservatives forming a third political party if Borges were elected. He didn’t back away from that possibility after the vote.

People have dismissed the idea for a third party, believing it was impossible or illogical because it would split the conservative vote, he said.

“But that [thought] has changed,” Zawistowski told the Beacon Journal. “There is an overwhelming desire for a third party. ... The fact of the matter is that neither the Republican nor the Democratic Party are parties. They are election machines.

“They don’t have anything to do with policy. The problem we’ve had, the anger that we’ve had, has come from the fact that we thought they were political parties.”

Zawistowski said he will meet with his coalition partners in the weeks to come to discuss opportunities to attract independents. Still, he also said he plans to work with Borges to try to keep the rift from leading to a party split.

“Now, we don’t think that’s the way to go, but we have people who are not satisfied with the results they get from these people they elect,” Zawistowski said. “And that’s what it’s all about.”

Despite his convincing victory, Borges said he recognizes that pulling the factions together is a must.

“Whatever the message was in that room today is a message that we’ve known for a long time,” he said. “And whoever the next state chairman was going to be was going to have to take on the very serious responsibility of working together, building coalitions.”

Susan A. Thompson, a Taco Bell cashier from Findlay who attended the meeting to support Zawistowski, said she will “not give one more dime or moment of my time to the GOP here in Ohio.”

She said Kasich’s support for Medicaid expansion was a slap to volunteers who spent two years gathering signatures for a ballot initiative opposing government health-care mandates — and Borges’ election effectively validates that stance.

Borges replaces veteran chairman Bob Bennett, who returned to the party’s helm last year after Kasich allies took control of the central committee and forced out then-chairman Kevin DeWine. Bennett retires May 31.

Borges also had faced criticism from some establishment Republicans, including statewide officeholders, for not making known to them tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid state and federal tax liens.

He ultimately paid the bulk of the liens — about $150,000 worth — ahead of Friday’s election. He said he accrued the debts while fighting a 2007 lien. At issue was how income was counted from the sale of a $575,000 home, he said.

On Friday, Borges said he wouldn’t talk about the issue anymore — though Democrats continued to press it and even some Republicans remained upset by it.

Arlene Dye, a Montessori teacher backing Zawistowski, said the liens bothered her.

“I had a lot of issues with it, because if that were me, I’d be in jail,” she said. “How can you lead people and have that going on? That’s not honest; that’s dishonest.”

Tim Rickus and his four daughters really hit it out of the ballpark in designing a special party for his wife and their mother, Teresa.

It was an evening like no other, one that covered all of life’s good bases: faith, family, friendship, love, hope, courage, joy and generosity.

“It’s not going to be an ordinary surprise birthday party.” Rickus had earlier promised.

He didn’t disappoint.

The cavernous party room at Chenoweth Country Club in Green was packed Wednesday night with more than 200 well-wishers from all walks of life, even the doctor (oncologist/hemotologist Ronald Sobecks) and nurse (Elaina Corbett) who had tended to Teresa Rickus at the Cleveland Clinic after life tossed her a curve ball.

After her 18-month journey fighting the same diagnosis as ABC’s Good Morning America anchor Robin Roberts, it was cause to pull out all of the stops.

The challenge this evening became how to harness the crowd’s enthusiasm to a hush so as not to send Teresa into shock when she walked into the room and everyone yelled “surprise!”

They managed — albeit with lots of bear hugs and tears of joy.

“One year ago on April 24, 2012, when my wife, Teresa, should have been out enjoying her milestone 50th birthday, she was in the Cleveland Clinic fighting for her life,” Tim Rickus said.

“On that day she underwent a stem-cell transplant that was donated by her sister, Jacqui [Clark of Manchester]. This was the only potential cure for a disease known as MDS (myelodysplastic syndrome) that turned into acute myeloid leukemia.”

Teresa is not quite out of the woods yet, as she could develop graft-versus-host disease from the transplant.

Robin Roberts, you may recall, was also given stem cells from her sister, Sally-Ann Roberts, to treat MDS. Good Morning America has been celebrating her return.

Thanks to sister

The Rickuses — Tim, Caitlin, Hannah, Gabriel and Emma — aptly called Wednesday’s event “A Celebration of Life.” And not just of Teresa’s life, but also that of her sister, who made it all possible.

“My goal is to bring awareness to Jacqui’s wonderful gift, and celebrate life with my wife on her 51st birthday or rebirth,” Tim Rickus said, in keeping with the evening’s overriding theme of promoting the National Marrow Donor Program: Be the Match, encouraging people to help save a life like Jacqui did. Learn more and register at http://marrow.org, he implored in his open love letter.

The party’s guest list was “full of wonderful people who supported the Rickus family through this time of total uncertainty,” Tim Rickus continued.

They were there in the flesh, yes, but also well represented by hundreds of cards of support sent to Teresa at the clinic. She saved them all, and they lined the party room’s windowsills and a huge table.

This was a party like no other on yet another level, as Tim’s second cousin, John Schmitt, of Stow pointed out: “You will find more transplant stories in this one room than you could ever imagine,” including his own.

Schmitt was diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease (PKD) and received a kidney transplant 18 years ago from his brother Paul of Arizona.

A family history

The Rickus family has a long history of PKD. Tim Rickus himself donated a kidney in 2000 to his sister Theresa Cerney of Dallas. Their father, the late Bernie Rickus, had a successful kidney transplant from his brother Don.

Mary Ann Rickus of Tiffin, Tim’s aunt, received a cadaver kidney transplant 13 years ago.

“It was a six-point out of a six-point match. What a blessing it’s been!” exclaimed Mary Ann, who had been on dialysis for a year before the transplant.

Tim’s mother, Maggie Frame of Tallmadge, has stood watch and been a tower of strength for all of them.

Sprinkled around the room were others intimately involved and happily embracing the transplant journey.

Kim Forsythe (Teresa and Jacqui’s first cousin) of Cuyahoga Falls, diagnosed with bladder cancer, is a three-year bladder transplant recipient.

City of Medina service director Nino Piccoli of Sharon Center, who attended with his wife, Jennifer, and daughter Alexis, underwent an autologous stem cell transplant (his own cells, harvested earlier) at the same time as Teresa, but at nearby University Hospitals. He had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

“How blessed we are,” Tim said, speaking for the entire room. “To have a room so full of people who can share their faith, values and true friendship is just another blessing on this road to recovery.”

His grateful wife, a woman of a few words who shies from the spotlight, agreed.

Retired Cleveland Diocese auxiliary bishop Alexander James Quinn underscored that same message of gratitude in his prayer: “Each year as we celebrate another birthday we recall the gift of life which we have received from God. This year we add the unique gift of life that Teresa’s sister Jacqui gave to Teresa.”

Father William “Bill” Brown, parochial vicar at Holy Family Parish in Parma, and stepfather of Teresa and Jacqui, also was on hand to offer special prayers.

Night to remember

But mostly it was an evening of merriment, memories and music.

One song in particular comes to mind for those on the transplant journey and those holding out hope. And that’s Fleetwood Mac’s Don’t Stop (Thinking About Tomorrow): “Open your eyes and look at the day / You’ll see things in a different way.”

If you doubt it, just ask Teresa, Jacqui, John, Mary Ann, Tim, Theresa, Kim, Nino and all the others!

Jewell Cardwell can be reached at 330-996-3567 or jcardwell@thebeaconjournal.com

Community

Several Suffield Lions Club members received chevron pins for their years of service. They were Harry Smith, Ernie Rufener and Carl Rufener, all with 40 years; George Taylor, 35 years; Dale Williams, 20 years; and Bob Gower, 10 years.

Debra Manteghi received the Literacy is Life Award from This City Reads. She is the homeless liaison for Akron City Schools and manages Project RISE (Realizing Individual Strength Through Education), which provides supplemental educational services to children in shelters.

The Akron Bar Association presented its Liberty Bell Award to former Summit County Probate Judge Todd McKenney for his Good Deeds Project, which encouraged homeowners to automatically transfer their homes to their children or others at their death. The association’s Public Service Award went to the late Kathryn Motz Hunter, a businesswoman and civic leader who became president of the First Akron Corp. in 1990 at the death of her husband.

Education

Patricia Nugent, principal of St. Joseph Catholic School in Cuyahoga Falls, received the 2013 Distinguished Principal Award from the National Catholic Educational Association for outstanding leadership of elementary education. She has spent 22 years as a principal at three schools. She was one of 12 educators nationwide to receive NCEA’s top honor.

Three Akron students received awards this spring from Xavier University: Margaret Woods, who received the Athletic Director, Dean’s and Academic Excellence Awards; Megan Milo, who was inducted into the Jesuit Honor Society Alpha Sigma Nu; and Maria Libertin, who received the Athletic Director and Dean’s Athletic Awards.

Two Akron students were finalists in a writing competition at Malone University — Akash Negi, a junior English major, in nonfiction, and Joshua Graber, a junior creative writing major, in poetry.

Malone University President David King was elected to a three-year term on the board of directors to the Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Malone University students employed by AVI Fresh were the first-place winners in the intercollegiate Platinum Chef Ohio competition this month. Participating chefs included Brooke Gifford, a junior social work major from Doylestown; Amber Benson, a sophomore middle childhood education major from Louisville; and Hillary Danko, a junior intervention specialist-education major from Doylestown.

Senior Timothy M. Pfeiffer of Clinton received the Academic Excellence Award in Accounting at Wilmington College. Pfeiffer, who is majoring in business administration and accounting, is a 2009 graduate of Manchester High School.

Military

Airman Christopher D. Mourton, son of Gary and Suzanne Mourton of Akron, completed Air Force basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. He is a 2011 graduate of Coventry High School.

Marine Pvt. 1st Class Mario A. Caprez, son of Daniel and Patricia Caprez of Akron, graduated from basic training at Parris Island, S.C. He was the honor graduate for his platoon. Caprez graduated from Archibishop Hoban High School in 2011 and is a sophomore at Kent State.

Marine Corps Pvt. Alexander K. Pamula, son of Beth and Barry Pamula of Peninsula, graduated from recruit training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, S.C. He is a 2012 graduate of Woodridge High School in Peninsula

Marine Corps Pfc. Aaron M. Fikes, son of April J. Fikes and Kevin M. Fikes, both of Akron, graduated from recruit training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, S.C. Fikes is a 2012 graduate of Akron Early College High School.

Marine Corps Pvt. Dylan J. Levy, son of Karen L. Levy of Cuyahoga Falls, earned the title of United States Marine after graduating from recruit training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, S.C. Levy is a 2012 graduate of Cuyahoga Falls High School.

Marine Corps Pvt. Kyle A. Cranford, son of Teresa Hollingsworth of Loganville, Ga. and Damon Cranford, of Stow, graduated from recruit training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, S.C. He is a 2012 graduate of Archer High School of Lawrenceville, Ga.

Marine Corps Pfc. Christopher J. Boles, son of Yolunda Boxdale of Akron, earned the title of United States Marine after graduating from recruit training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, S.C. He is a 2012 graduate of Timken High School in Canton.

Send notices of student, community or military accomplishments to bjnews@thebeaconjournal.com or fax them to 330-996-3033.

CUYAHOGA FALLS: Clifford Stadium is getting a face-lift, courtesy of the Cuyahoga Falls Schools Foundation.

And the foundation is giving individuals and businesses a chance to be memorialized in brick while contributing to the reconstruction and to a general scholarship fund.

The home of the Black Tigers football team will get a new front entrance and gate, walkway, and a new facade around the concession stand.

Cost of the project is estimated at $150,000. None of the money will be provided by the school district.

On Monday, the Board of Education accepted a $13,000 donation from the foundation to hire an architect.

The first of four construction phases is scheduled to begin in June. Project completion is scheduled for mid-August, prior to the beginning of the school year and the first football game, said Leonard DeChant, director of business affairs for Cuyahoga Falls schools.

Engraved bricks and granite squares that would line the pillars and walkway along the gated stadium entrance can be purchased at www.tigerlegacy.org. Prices range from $100 to $2,500.

The sale of the bricks and granite is expected to pay for the cost of construction, with an estimated $140,000 left over for scholarships and grants, and to otherwise support the school district.

The foundation also is helping school organizations earn money. The Alumni Band, Athletic Boosters, Choral Music Association, Gridiron Club, Instrumental Music Patrons or Parent Teacher Association will keep 10 percent of the sales they sponsor.

Online buyers can support their favorite organization by clicking on that group under “referral” on the payment portion of the order.

“This project will improve the look of the school and develop a sense of community ownership, pride and support for Cuyahoga Falls City Schools,” foundation trustee Susan Durr said.

Gina Mace can be reached at ginamace2@gmail.com. Beacon Journal staff reporter Doug Livingston contributed to this report.

The Northeast Ohio Sustainable Communities Consortium is holding six public workshops including one in Akron and another in Canton as part of its VibrantNEO 2040 program.

The first phase of the project will focus on helping local residents identify what choices can be made now that give Northeast Ohio the greatest chance for success in the future.

The workshops will focus on what’s called scenario planning and participants will get a glimpse of what Northeast Ohio might be like in the year 2040.

The Akron meeting will be Thursday at the Akron Urban League, 440 Vernon Odom Blvd.

There will be a Canton meeting on Wednesday at the Metropolitan Centre, 601 Cleveland Ave. NW.

The workshops will begin at 6:30 p.m. Registration begins at 5:30 p.m.

Prior registration is not required, but is encouraged.

To register for the Akron meeting, go to http://tinyurl.com/VibrantNEO-Akron-050213.

For the Canton meeting, go to http://tinyurl.com/VibrantNEO-Canton-050113.

For more information on the workshops, go to www.VibrantNEO.org/Workshops.

The rest of the schedule is:

• Tuesday, Oberlin Inn, 7 N. Main St., Oberlin.

• Tuesday, John F. Kennedy High School, 2550 Central Parkway Ave. SE, Warren.

• Wednesday, Third Federal Savings and Loan auditorium, 7007 Broadway Ave., Cleveland.

• Thursday, Corporate College East, Warrensville Heights.

Two additional rounds of public workshops will be held in August and September.

The 33-member consortium is largely funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as part of a new federal Sustainable Communities Initiative that involves several federal agencies. The effort is a three-year planning effort to revitalize 12 counties in Northeast Ohio.

The Fund for Our Economic Future provided a $500,000 matching grant. Consortium member organizations have pledged more than $2.35 million in staffing and operating expenses.

For more information, go to http://vibrantneo.org.

Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.

• Tallmadge High School’s Classes of 1967, 1968 and 1969 will reunite July 6. Contact Nina Kyriakedes Eliopoulos at 330-644-0964.

• Norton High School’s Class of 1998 will reunite June 1. Contact Mandy Lucco-Daily at sydneysmom7@gmail.com or visit the class Facebook page.

Send notices of school, company, club and military reunions to bjnews@thebeaconjournal.com or fax them to 330-996-3033.

Mary Thom, who was raised in Akron and went on to become the longtime editor of Ms. Magazine, died in a motorcycle accident in Yonkers, N.Y., on Friday.

A statement issued by Gloria Steinem, Jane Fonda and Robin Morgan — co-founders of The Women’s Media Center in Washington, D.C. — said “the women’s movement and American journalism have suffered an enormous blow. Mary was and will always be our moral compass and steady heart. Writers from around the world have been able to share their words and ideas because of her. Wherever her friends and colleagues gather, we will always ask the guiding question: What would Mary do?”

Ms. Thom, 68, was editor-in-chief at The Women’s Media Center, working with original writing by women journalists on progressive women’s issues.

“We are shaken and reeling at the sudden passing of our irreplaceable editor-in-chief, Mary Thom,” said Julie Burton, president of The Women’s Media Center. “From her work in the early days of Ms. Magazine right up until this week, hers was a clear, strong voice for equality — and her editorial talents lifted so many other voices as well.”

Ms. Thom also authored several books including Inside Ms.: 25 Years of the Magazine and the Feminist Movement, where she described working her way up from researcher to executive editor at the magazine founded in the 1970s by Gloria Steinem.

“We are so very sad to lose our Mary,” her family said in a statement. “She charged through life with a generous and compassionate strength and wisdom, and that is how we will forever remember her.”

Ms. Thom spent her childhood in Akron, but for the last 48 years she lived in Manhattan.

Her family said she was an ardent motorcyclist who never owned a car, often leading family cycling trips to destinations like New Mexico and Glacier National Park during the summer, according to a story on LoHud.com, the website for the Journal News.

“She’s been riding motorcycles for probably 40 years,” the story quoted nephew Thom Loubet, who lived with his aunt for 10 years in Manhattan after college. At the time of Friday’s accident she had just picked up her motorcycle from storage in Yonkers, he said.

According to news reports, the accident happened during the Friday afternoon rush hour. Police say the motorcycle apparently clipped a car, throwing Ms. Thom off the bike and onto the road. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Paul and Susan Thom, and is survived by her sister Susan Thom Loubet, her nephew Thom Loubet and niece-in-law Mariko Silver, and her grand-niece Kumi Silver Loubet.

The first-quarter review of finances for Summit County reveals the general fund is up 2.7 percent compared to a year ago.

But county officials say even though the county is in better financial shape than expected, they will still have to dip into the reserve fund to balance the budget by the end of the year.

“The single biggest reason for this quarter’s growth is casino taxes at $625,000,” said Brian Nelsen, the director of finance and budget for the county. “I mean that alone is more than the whole difference between this year and last in the first quarter.”

The state’s share of casino taxes weren’t available in the first three months of last year. The projected target for casino tax revenue for the year is $2.9 million.

When voters approved the opening of four casinos in Cleveland, Columbus, Toledo and Cincinnati, it called for 51 percent of the gross tax on gambling receipts to go into a pot that would be distributed to counties and large cities. The revenue is distributed quarterly.

There was also a growth in sales and property transfer taxes.

The growth in sales tax is 6 percent over last year and a 47 percent growth in property transfer taxes, which can be attributed to the value of properties increasing.

Nelsen said despite the growth, the county still struggles from the effects of the recession and state budget cuts.

“We had a 40 percent reduction in local government funding that offsets a lot of that growth. The big negative in revenue was the nearly $900,000 drop in local government revenue,” he said.

The local government fund was a pot of money that the state sent to local governments by sharing a percentage of sales and income taxes collected by the state.

“Two years ago, the state cut local government funding to counties, cities and libraries by 50 percent to balance the state budget,” Nelsen said. “In other words, they started keeping more of our money.”

On the expense side, Nelsen said the county is keeping an eye on attorney fees for indigents. So far those fees are running about 12 percent over of budget for the year because of high-profile cases including the trial of Craigslist killer Richard Beasley.

Officials say capital murder trials tend to drive up attorney fees.

“Despite all of the good news with revenues growing, we are significantly below where we were prior to the recession in 2008 and still projecting the need to use some of our reserve balance to balance the budget for this year,” Nelsen said.

The county started out this year with about $29 million in reserve compared to a $55 million reserve prior to 2008.

Marilyn Miller can be reached at 330-996-3098 or mmiller@thebeaconjournal.com.