Need for ‘Baskets of Love’ is Never-ending

By Dorothy Markulis

 
The need for food doesn’t end with the holidays and one Akron church is tackling that need daily, head on.

Akron Bible Church, 783 Brown St., started delivering holiday food baskets in 1980 with a distribution of 12 baskets.  Now that ministry has grown to thousands of baskets delivered all year.

“In 2009 our pastor had a vision of a year-round ministry of providing food,” said Henri Etta Fletch-Lockhart who with her husband, Rev. Larry Lockhart, directs the ministry. She and her husband are the primary volunteers.

Kindergarten Readiness

 

Story by Lyndsey Schley

Preparing a child for a successful career starts even before they begin formal schooling. The first step the Summit Education Initiative, or SEI, has identified in their Cradle to career pipeline is Kindergarten Readiness.

SEI chairs a team that created strategies to increase Kindergarten Readiness. SEI Executive Director Derran Wimer said the team has been focusing on three strategies. These are expanding and filling the capacities of preschools, increasing communication between preschools and kindergartens and defining what it means to be ready for kindergarten.

Community Activists Using Design for Sustainable Improvements

Community organizer Beth Vild shares some sustainable ideas picked up from her recent trip to Portland at last week’s Greater Akron Innovation Network for Sustainability (GAINS) meeting.
(Photo: Svetla Morrison)

 

Story by Connie Williams

 

Many Akron residents are working diligently toward a sustainable community, but the tools we need could already be around us, with potential ideas like front-yard gardens and edible landscapes to help sustain healthy neighborhoods.

At last week’s Greater Akron Innovation Network for Sustainability (GAINS) meeting at Uncorked Wine Bar in the Musica Complex on Market Street, community activists Beth Vild and Jessica Myers focused on their recent trip to Portland, Ore., for City Repair’s 15th annual Village Building Convergence.

City Repair is an organization that uses urban permaculture, civic engagement and placemaking to foster cooperation and interaction within the community. Permaculture is a way to garden and landscape that takes advantage of natural elements and meets all the needs of its inhabitants.

The Summit Education Initiative Overview

Story by Lyndsey Schley

 

The Summit Education Initiative is an organization that brings together a broad coalition of community partners with the goal of improving education in Summit County. The group uses data to track the progress of current programs and helps schools predict early in a child’s education whether they are likely to achieve later on. This helps educators help children who are falling behind. This group not only works with public schools, but also private, parochial and charter schools, along with community organizations.

International Institute Hosts Citizenship Ceremony for Nearly 50 New Residents

Nearly fifty men and women from 30 different countries took an oath
of allegiance at the Akron-Summit County Public Library and became U.S. citizens
June 30 as part of a naturalization ceremony. (Photo: Chris Miller)

 

Story by: Yoly Glez M Heisler Courtesy the Akronist

 

About 50 residents were officially given their U.S. citizenship on Tuesday. The Naturalization Oath Ceremony, held at the Akron-Summit County Public Library’s Main Library auditorium, awarded citizenship to people from India, South Korea, Burma, Canada, Hungary, Belarus, China, Lebanon, France, Peru, Mexico and Cameroon, among a few dozen other countries.

The International Institute of Akron (IIA), the event host, was on hand to celebrate the naturalization of these citizens. Elaine Woloshyn, executive director of the agency, served as the event moderator, which was fitting considering all the work the IIA has done to help prepare these and other new citizens. The International Institute has helped immigrants and refugees for almost 100 years. Akron has a wealth of agencies to help these residents, including Asian Services in Action (ASIA Inc.)