The Westlake Kiwanis Aktion Club won the Tom E. Crawford Award at the Ohio Aktion Club Convention in Ashley, Ohio, on August 28, 2010. This award is presented to the Ohio Aktion Club which performed the best service project each year. The Westlake Aktion Club prepared and served a meal at Ronald McDonald House in Cleveland along with donating more than a hundred pounds of ring tabs to Ronald McDonald House to aid with their free care fund. The club received a plaque along with a $100 check.

A Bay Village artist donated his talent recently to help brighten a very special home. Bill Mannion, a watercolor artist whose canvases have graced galleries and decorated fine residential and commercial spaces, created an original, vivid rendering of a house called Maggie’s Place, The Zechariah House. One of five Maggie’s Place houses throughout the U.S., the Parma home provides shelter and support for needy pregnant women and new moms.

Zumba….have you heard about it? Its hypnotic Latin rhythms and easy-to-follow moves create a one-of-a-kind fitness program. The routines feature interval training sessions where fast and slow rhythms and resistance training are combined to tone and sculpt your body while burning fat and having lots of fun doing it.

Our instructor, Sheri Lugo, has developed a program for the "in-between or silver adults" – a dance/exercise class that you will be able to do at your own pace, not too fast and not too slow. This is not your mother's or daughter's Zumba class!

We are having a free demo at the Dwyer Center (300 Bryson Lane – just off of Lake Road, west of Dover Center) on Wednesday, September 8, at 5:30 p.m. We hope you will join our Zumba Fitness Party! Wear exercise clothes and bring a friend. For more information, call 835-6565.

The Compeer Program at Far West Center in Westlake needs adult volunteers that can give one hour per week to offer friendship and encouragement to an adult in recovery from mental illness. The Compeer Program is a branch of Compeer Inc., an international nonprofit organization (www.compeer.org). Compeer has been serving the Cuyahoga County community from Far West Center (www.farwestcenter.com), a nonprofit community mental health services agency, for almost twenty-one years.

Being a Compeer Volunteer is very rewarding and can easily fit into anyone's busy schedule. Compeer Volunteers are trained about issues regarding mental illness, isolation, and mental health services. Volunteers are matched one to one with a same gender adult who is in recovery from mental illness and is ready to get back out into his or her community.

To honor the memory of her good friend and former boss, Judge Harry E. Pickering, Penny Dolski, a Bay resident and senior center volunteer donated a Bay Village Bicentennial Flag to the Dwyer Memorial Senior Center on Bryson Lane in Bay Village. Penny worked for Judge Pickering for more than ten years while he presided in the U.S. Attorney’s Office and as the Administrative Law Judge for Health and Human Services. Judge Pickering was a resident of Bay Village for over 50 years and a member of the Bay Village Historical Society.

If you or your group would like to become involved with the Bicentennial celebration, call The Bay Village Historical Society  - Carole Roske at 440-871-4797 or Dave Tadych at 440-835-1815. Bay's Bicentennial will be celebrated on October 10, 2010 or 10.10.10.

For the 49th year, the Bay Village Kiwanis Club has sent outstanding Bay High School seniors out into the world with money for school in their pockets.

On July 27, Kiwanians handed out $16,500 in academic achievement awards to 18 members of the class of 2010 in supper ceremonies at Bay Lodge. Students and parents applauded as Bay School Superintendent Clint Keener read their achievements as the students came to the podium one by one to receive their checks.

Department awards in technology, English, drama, music and business went to students whose teachers feel they are outstanding in their fields. They include Michael Washington, Sarah Chen, Jacob Faile, Erin Stevens, Rebecca Fyffe, Andy Meyer and Meredith Horrigan. An award for the most inspirational students went to Nicole Craft.

Kiwanis and Key Club awards went to Nate Campbell, Elizabeth DiFiore, Meredith Liedtke, Rachel Stone, MaryKate McHugh, Sarah Lipperman and Alexandra Puntel. The Ronald L. Dezember Memorial Music Award, named for a club founder, went to Katelyn Waddle.

A new honor this year, the Randy N. Stang Good Neighbor Award, was awarded to Andrew Brandt and Jessica Kuh. The award is named for the late Randy N. Stang, a beloved Kiwanian and community leader who exemplified the Kiwanis commitment to serving children. It was co-sponsored by the Bay Village Education Foundation and the Kiwanis Club.

The Bay Village Community Services Office offered its thanks and tribute to the volunteers who have given of their time and talents at the Dwyer Center. A patriotic picnic lunch on July 6 was hosted by Chef Jim from Avon Lake’s Towne Center, hot dogs provided by Hot Dog Heaven.

Entertainment was sponsored by Right At Home In Home Care and Assistance and featured Frank and Dean and More. Swooning was evident as these fellows delighted the audience with their amazing renditions of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin songs. So delighted were the audience, that many plan on listening to the duo sing on Monday nights at the Savannah Bar and Grille in Westlake.

The main focus of the day was, of course, the volunteers. Many found it difficult to sit still and be waited on since they are the ones who always take care of everyone else. It takes 25 volunteers a week just to run the Meals on Wheels Program that delivers meals to shut-ins residing in Bay.

As the recipient of a great deal of support from others during his son’s battle with leukemia, Bay Village resident David Chudzinski and his family believe in giving back to the community.

Dave shares that commitment with the people who work at his local business in Westlake, where the whole staff puts that belief into action by getting involved with charitable organizations and events.

On a regular basis, the team at Peppi’s Pizza provides food for the local American Red Cross blood drives, feeding the doctors, nurses and blood donors, and sends each donor home with a coupon for free chicken wings.

The Cleveland Idols is a group of dentists/hygienists/auxiliaries who united their efforts at The Free Clinic of Greater Cleveland to save masses of silent sufferers of the Cleveland community during the darkest hour after last year’s recession – a pool of 8,000 patients.

The Free Clinic-Dental Department, with its new director, Dr. S. Ridha (a Westlaker), opened the clinic’s potential to the providers helping more patients under the lines of: "A day of action worth months of hoping," "Live and let live" and "Will vs. wish," working a bigger dental safety net. In addition, the clinic will offer a wider range of dental services: full mouth x-ray, complete exam, cleaning, deep scaling, fillings, extractions, emergency care, referrals and more.

All of this is made possible because of the time and services donated (10,500 procedures in one year).

Since 1990, KeyBank has been committed to various communities and “Making the Difference” through an annual day of volunteer community service. Key employees contribute their time and talents to non-profit community organizations. 

Once again, a dozen Key volunteers brought their shovels and rakes to participate in the cleanup of the grounds around Rose Hill Museum and the Osborn Learning Center in Bay Village. This sprucing-up effort is invaluable to these sites as preparations begin for upcoming summer events. The Historical Society’s 41st annual Country Festival is scheduled for Saturday, June 19, 2010. Also, the Bay High School Class of 1965 will honor their classmate, Sgt. Kenton Henninger, with a ceremony in Cahoon Park on July 17. 

Both Rose Hill Museum and the Osborn Learning Center will be open for tours after the Memorial Day Parade on May 31.

Students work together to pull garlic mustard plants at the third annual Bay Village Waterways Clean Up on May 15. Over 50 volunteers from Bay High, the Project Earth club and the city's Green Team removed the invasive species, as well as items of clothing, tires, lawn furniture, golf balls and other trash from green spaces around the city. The event, coordinated by Bay High teacher Eryn Whistler, was hosted by Project Earth and The Village Foundation. The city provided trash bags and gloves, and picked up the full bags at the end of the day.

Click to see more pictures of the clean up.

"Flip-Flops for Haiti," an idea conceived by Fairview Park's Josie Katzbach following a trip to help the people in Haiti, has grown into a community effort. 

Katzbach's goal is to collect 2,000 pairs of new flip-flops in a variety of sizes to provide for the men, women and children in the mountains of Haiti, many of whom have only hand-me-down shoes or are barefoot.

The students and staff at Dover Elementary School in Westlake are participating and have already donated 150 pairs of flip-flops to the cause.

With every event and fundraiser, Bay Village’s Team Dori hopes they get one step closer to a cure for mitochondrial disease.

Named for and inspired by Dori Szelesta, a first grader at Normandy School in Bay Village who has mitochondrial disease, Team Dori recently joined her on a one-mile walk at the Wild For a Cure Walkathon for the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation (UMDF) on Saturday, May 8, at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo.

In addition to providing love and support for a brave little girl, they helped Wild For a Cure Walkathon raise over $90,000 for UMDF and boost awareness about the frequently misunderstood and misdiagnosed disease.

To address the needs of the local population in transition, Lutheran Metropolitan Ministries created Furniture Connection, a program that provides furnishings for men, women, and families leaving homeless shelters into housing. We collect donated furniture and provide our clients with the basic essentials for their new dwelling.

In most instances we provide this service completely free of charge to our clientele, including delivery. Since our inception in July 2009, we have served over 150 households.

In partnership with Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, we are holding a furniture drive June 5-June 19 at 28455 Center Ridge Road in Westlake. The truck will be on the church property and accessible during the hours of 7:30–9:30 a.m. and 5-7 p.m. or by appointment, 440-871-5565.

Students from St. Paul Lutheran School in Westlake are working on an ongoing service project with Freely... Freely, a non-profit community outreach organization in Avon. The project is called "Buddy and a Book in a Bag." The students' job is to match stuffed animals, or "buddies," with an appropriate themed book and bag them together.

These packages are then distributed through Freely... Freely to schools or organizations trying to help with literacy issues, encouraging children to read. A child who receives the bag can, in one example, read a book about frogs to a stuffed frog
buddy. Reading to a stuffed animal is like reading to a friend, and can help students gain confidence in their reading ability.

St. Paul students greatly enjoy this service opportunity and have chosen to continue working on this project as more stuffed animals and books are donated to Freely...Freely. To donate, please call 440-937-3999.

Operation Baking Northern Ohio, a group of local bakers, mothers, families and others who bake once a month for Ohio servicemembers stationed overseas, is looking for soldiers to receive homemade care packages.

The bakers work independently or with a group of friends, baking in their home kitchens and packing and shipping the treats to soldiers selected by the Operation Baking coordinator. There are currently 120 volunteers baking for three soldiers per month. Many soldiers receive very few care packages, and the baked goods offer a taste of home and dose of support.

“It's boxes like this that keep our morale up during rough times which are frequent over here,” wrote Spc. Ryan Flynn, a soldier stationed in Afghanistan. “Thanks again for your support, it is people like you that give us a sweet reminder of why we fight.”

Late afternoon sun washes across the deep salmon-colored bricks and green shutters of the Georgian colonial in a watercolor painting that hangs above Gary Richards' fireplace. The home depicted in the painting is the very house in which it hangs—the 97-year-old home on Lake Ave. near 116th St. that Richards spent years restoring.

When the dust settled, Richards chose to have his finished project immortalized by watercolor artist Bill Mannion of Bay Village, a painter whose other collections Richards had seen and admired. “It was something I did because I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished restoring the house,” Richards says.