Cedars - Opinion: Battle for CHRISTmas is Misled

My first and only op-ed of the semester appeared in the December issue of Cedars. Should we really trying to keep Christ in Christmas? Do we even need to? Read it here.

Cedars - In Court: The Next Four Years

For the December issue of Cedars, I did a story on what might be happening in the Supreme Court during Obama's second term.

In Clifton, Lazorski has deep connection to parents

CLIFTON – Paula Lazorski has traveled to Canada, Brazil and Europe. She has worked as a traveling nurse, taking three-month assignments in different places. And prior to that, she spent 10 years off and on doing medical work at a Navajo and Hopi Native American reservation in Arizona.

But now, Lazorski is back where she grew up – in Clifton.

“I came back here when [my] folks started getting older,” Lazorski said, “and I just decided it was a good place to stay. You’re either a small town girl or you’re not.”

Lazorski’s parents, Paul and LaVeda Lazorski – who died in 2006 and 2011 respectively – also thought Clifton was a good place to stay when they first discovered the village before moving there in 1962. And Paul and LaVeda have passed on more to Lazorski than the village they called home for much of their lives.

First is their actual home. The Lazorski family has lived in the same house since they moved to Clifton. When the family first visited the town, they saw the house for sale and really liked it, and Lazorski said her mother got it for her birthday.

“Mom and Dad always wanted a big house to raise all the kids, and so they got it,” Lazorski, who has four siblings, said. “And so I think I was two when we moved here, and this is the only home I know.”

Lazorski said she inherited the house from her mother after she died.

“She left the house to all five children, and because I had taken care of her since 2006 when my dad had his stroke,” Lazorski said, “then she gave me a life residency option, which means I can live here as long as I maintain and take care of it.”

She loves the house.

“I love the sense of belonging,” Lazorski said. “I love the historical factor. I like old homes. Even the architecture, you know, the 12-inch baseboards. You don’t see that. And those were handcrafted. That wasn’t done on a mass machine.”

The house wasn’t built in only three months, like houses are today, Lazorski said. But despite the quality of the home, Lazorski said it is not perfect: the wall corners aren’t square, it has three different styles of woodworking, and the house is hard to heat.

“Are you warm or cold right now because there’s a breeze going through here,” Lazorski said, laughing.

“I like all the quirks,” she said.

The home and all those quirks sit at the top of the hill on the north end of Clay Street. And it is by this hill and the Lazorski family name that some people know the house. She said she just switched insurance agents and when she asked her agent if he knew where she lived, he said, “Yeah, you live on Lazorski Hill.”

And during Lazorski’s childhood, the hill was also the home of Clifton’s mayor, as Lazorski’s father Paul served in the position. Her mother LaVeda was also active in the community, helping to start the historical society, the ladies’ auxiliary group and the senior citizen’s group as well as serving on various school boards. She even served as president of the Ohio School Board Association and eventually the National School Board Association, according to her obituary.

And Lazorski, a two-time village councilwoman, has been active in the community just like her parents.

“I know she cares a lot,” said Sharon Benedict, a village councilwoman who has known Lazorski for about 11 years. “She participates in every activity the village has.”

Benedict, who met Lazorski at Clifton United Presbyterian Church, said when the village is decorated for Christmas, Lazorski’s house has more lights than any place in town besides Clifton Mill.

“It’s not just words,” Benedict said of Lazorski’s love for the village. “It’s actions.”

Krista Harding, who is younger than Lazorski and has known her all her life, said Lazorski was a cheerleader that she looked up to. She also said Lazorski used her piano skills when Harding’s mom, who was the choir director at Clifton Presbyterian, needed someone who could play difficult music really well.

“Paula would be the one she’d call,” Harding said.

Not only is Lazorski active in the Clifton community like her parents were, she said she often hears that she reminds people of her mom LaVeda.

“I’m just like, ‘Okay, I don’t think that’s a bad thing,’” Lazorski said.

Benedict said LaVeda and Lazorksi have similar personality traits.

“She’s strong, she’s opinionated, and she’s very energetic,” Benedict said of Lazorski, saying LaVeda was also strong and opinionated. “She’ll fight for what she believes in, I do believe.”

Lazorski’s mom left her more than just these character qualities. She also left her a love of Clifton history. Lazorski said her mom was always interested in history and was very well read, so when the family moved to Clifton, LaVeda started finding out about the village’s past.

“She just had a lot of resources available to her,” Lazorski said, “and I just stuck by and tried to pull it out of her.”

Lazorski said her mom would always take her and her siblings to historical locations and that LaVeda even did some historical work with Fred Marshall - a Greene County historian who died in 1974, according to the Fred F. Marshall Papers at Wright State University.

Lazorski said one aspect of Clifton history she has enjoyed is the village’s relationship to the Shawnee Native Americans.

“I did a lot of that study, which actually led me to when I wanted to go to the reservation and work was because of those early interests,” Lazorski said, “and a lot of the Native Americans around the area.”

But while Lazorski caught her mom’s love for Clifton’s past, her sister, Lisa Pyon, did not.

“I’m interested in history. She isn’t,” Lazorski said. And Pyon said she does not feel like she had to be interested in Clifton history or the family’s lineage because Lazorski always was.

“I like to hear when she learns about it,” Pyon said, “but I don’t have that.”

Lazorski, who was on the village council from 1991-1994 and then joined again this year, said her knowledge of Clifton has come in handy in this work with the village. While she is not on the village planning commission, she attends the commission meetings.

“They want me there because I can remember, you know, a couple generations of people who’ve come and gone through here,” Lazorski said, “and what houses were where.”

Benedict said Lazorski’s knowledge of Clifton is helpful when the council is talking about whether to repair a house or tear it down. If the house is historically significant, this will play into their decision.
And if it is significant, Lazorski will know, Benedict said.

While Lazorski has inherited a lot from her parents, she isn’t the only one living in her house that has been influenced by family. Her cat, Millie, inherited the name from Lazorski’s Aunt Millie.

“She was your typical little old rich lady that had 50 cats,” Lazorski said.

But the feline Millie is not one of those cats.

“That was my mother’s cat,” Lazorski said. “I inherited her, too.”

About Paula Lazorski

Birthday: Nov. 24, 1959
Birthplace: Richmond, Ind.
Occupation: Homecare nurse
Hobbies: Cooking, gardening, playing piano
Siblings: Sherry, Rebecca, David and Lisa

Cedars - Irish Music Festival coverage

This past Friday and Saturday, Cedarville's music and worship department hosted their first Irish Music Festival. I spent the weekend covering the event.

Preview: Irish Music Festival in Cedarville This Weekend - I did a preview of the festival a few days before it happened.
Video footage: Irish Music Festival: Guest Trio at Master Class - After the first night of the festival, I posted some footage of the guest musicians performing for students earlier in the day.
Follow-up: Irish Musicians Enjoy Working with Students at Festival - A few days after the event, I put together a follow-up story and video recap.

Cedars - Dr. Brown's Resignation - Special Coverage - November issue

The day stories for the student news organization were due for our November issue, the president of Cedarville announced that he was resigning at the end of the school year. The editorial staff worked hard to revamp the issue and provide comprehensive coverage on the president’s decision.

Volunteers keep opera house open, house revenue keeps village independent

CLIFTON – The pluck of guitar and banjo strings warming up for a night of bluegrass echoes through the 120-year-old building. Those gathering at the Clifton Opera House find shelter from the wind and rain outside.

But rain isn’t the only thing dripping. Coffee – both decaf and regular – brews in two carafes at the concession counter as opera house volunteers prepare to serve the crowd that is looking forward to an evening of music in the historic Clifton, Ohio, building.

"Patrons need to feel welcome and feel like you're here to serve them,” says Brenda Walter, opera house manager for over three years. “And really, we are, and we want it to be a very pleasant experience for them because they're going to keep the doors open. If they keep coming, our doors will stay open."

And Walter says the opera house’s doors wouldn’t stay open without the volunteers that help sell tickets, manage concessions and clean the building. Just as the volunteers enable the opera house to stay open, the funds the opera house raises for the village are important in keeping Clifton independent, village clerk and treasurer Sue Chasnov says.

Bluegrass is the genre usually performed at the opera house.

Before Walter started managing the opera house in 2009, the facility only had performances on Saturday and only from April to November. Walter added a Friday night show and extended the performances to be almost year-round. To keep this full schedule, Walter says she needs at least two people to work each performance.

Walter, who lives in Clifton and is paid by the village for managing the opera house, says she has tried working nights by herself but that it gets hectic.

“You really need two people,” Walter says. “That way the patrons get the attention they need, too.”

Carol Walker, who has been volunteering with her husband Bill since September, says that those who come to an event such as those at the opera house expect to be served.

“It’s part of the whole ambience,” Walker says. “You need to have a ticket person. You need to have popcorn. You need to have soda pop, and you need to have people to sell that.”

According to the October opera house financial report, the opera house had brought in $9,538.07 in net profit for the year so far. Sources of revenue include concessions, the $7 ticket fee and what the opera house gets when they rent the facility to people for special events. Treasurer Chasnov says she hopes the opera house will bring in over $10,000 dollars by the time the year is over.

And while taxes are the main source of revenue for Clifton, the money from the opera house helps to make up for decreases in funding the village of Clifton receives from other governments, such as the state and county, Chasnov says. This funding is expected to be around $5,000 in 2013, Chasnov says, which is about 10 percent of the total revenue the village brings in from all sources. In 2011, total village revenue was $57,000, Chasnov says.

What opera house volunteers do is important because the money raised is helping to keep the village independent, Chasnov says.

“I think without the opera house fund, that wouldn’t be the case,” she says, saying without the money the village may be taken over by the township or county and cease to be independent. She says the reason she volunteers is because the village needs the money. This money goes toward expenses such as village building utilities, repairs and maintenance to the opera house and the old Clifton Union School building, and more.

Despite the benefits opera house funds provide for the village, Walter has had trouble finding enough volunteers. She says she has had people say that they might show up, but she can’t depend on this.

“For the most part, it’s a commitment,” Walter says. “People have to make a commitment when they volunteer to actually show up and hang in for the evening.”

The Clifton Opera House is home to Friday and Saturday performances all year.

Walter has toured the opera house in South Charleston, and she says she was told the reason that venue does not have a busier schedule is because of a lack of people to work at events.

As far as the Clifton Opera House is concerned, two former volunteers used to work every Friday and Saturday night but those volunteers moved away, Walter says. Most current volunteers are actually from areas outside of Clifton.

“Clifton only has a population of 152,” Walter says. “There just aren’t that many people interested in the arts in Clifton.”

Volunteers Carol and Bill Walker are from Jamestown.

“You step out and say, ‘What do I want to support in my community?’” Carol Walker says. She and Bill both enjoy volunteering at the opera house.

While the Walkers are relatively new to volunteering at the Clifton Opera House, not everyone is. Belle Bennington started volunteering at the opera house about 40 years ago.

“They don’t have much of a crowd here like we used to,” Bennington says. She says when she started, she volunteered to help in anyway she could and did not expect any pay in return.

Bennington, who does not volunteer much at the opera house anymore, says she used to bake pies and sell them at the performances. All of the money went to the opera house.

Such pies have not been forgotten.

“They used to have wonderful pies,” says Pat Cain, an opera house patron whose husband plays in the Springfield Banjos & Brass Band that performs at the opera house. “Remember? Oh, the pies.”

Other current volunteers include Walter’s husband, Michael Smith, and her son, Matthew Brown. The two usually take care of certain tasks at the end of each show, including taking out the trash and removing the signs advertising the performances.

Carol Walker says volunteers are the lifeblood of organizations such as the Clifton Opera House. She says all the opera houses in the area, such as Clifton’s and the one in Cedarville, are historically important.

“They’re vibrant pieces of the fabric of the area,” Walker says.

Manager Walter says for the opera house to be open and successful, it needs volunteers who are dedicated.

“If it was closed, it would be a very sad thing for Clifton, for the county, for the state,” Walter says. “There aren't very many little opera houses like this."

Cedars - Service Dog Org to Begin Next Fall

Here is a Cedars story of mine from the November print edition. A student is finally getting involved with fostering service dogs - and she's making a new org out of it, too.

Cedars - Election 2012 Coverage

For my journalism class Covering Political Campaigns, we all covered the 2012 election for the student news organization, Cedars.

I worked with another student to write a few stories from the local polling place:

Why People Are Voting: Cedarville residents cared about this election. What brought them to the polls?
Ready for the End: Voters were tired of election season by election day.

Also, check out our Storify story on the election, which includes our other coverage as well as posts and stories from around the web on the election as it progressed.

Cedars - Dr. Brown to Step Down as President

William Brown, PhD, announced today that he will step down as president of Cedarville University at the end of this school year. Read my Cedars news story here. Included is a Storify story, which you can also view here.

OSU's Hayes born in Clifton, and that is all

CLIFTON – Woody Hayes was born in Clifton. But don’t expect to find much else about the former Ohio State University football coach’s time in the village, and don’t expect Clifton residents to claim much else, either.

“What’s known of Woody Hayes is obviously vast because of his football career at Ohio State,” said Alex Bieri, Clifton mayor. “He was a well-known coach for many reasons, and he was a, as I understand it, pretty distinct character and had some specific techniques and things he was known for that helped him make a name for himself.  But where Clifton is concerned, it’s always been, ‘Well, he was born in Clifton, and that’s it. That’s all we know.’”

According to his birth certificate, Woody, who would have turned 100 this winter, was born to Wayne and Effie Hayes on the evening of Feb. 14, 1913, on the Greene County side of Clifton, which is split between Clark and Greene counties. Woody lived in Clifton for only the first years of his life before his family left in 1916 for Newcomerstown, Ohio.

Clifton residents hesitate to claim more of Woody than they have right to given that his only relationship to the village is that he was born there.

“The fact that he was born in Clifton I think is significant in that he was a prominent historical figure for us,” Bieri said. “But beyond that, since none of his life's work really took place in Clifton or had anything to do with Clifton, then I think it is a little silly, if you will, for Clifton at this point to try to piggy back on his legacy or take credit for anything that has to do with his life's work, other than the fact that he was born here."

Former mayor Steve McFarland said Clifton is not significant to Woody but Woody is to Clifton.

“He’s the most recent person that had great impact elsewhere that was actually born in the village or had some kind of contact in the village,” McFarland said.

Paula Lazorski, a Clifton village councilwoman whose family moved to Clifton in 1962, said the relationship between the village and the 1951 to 1979 Buckeye football head coach is not significant because Woody claimed Newcomerstown, not Clifton, as his hometown.

And it is there, not Clifton, where several people have said Woody’s life is based. 

“The Woody story seems to be pretty well-grounded in Newcomerstown,” said Jerry Holt, who wrote the play “Woody,” which was performed in Clifton in 2007.

However, Brian Richards, the actor who played Woody in the Clifton performance of Holt’s play, said Woody felt connected to everywhere he spent time and that he spoke of how significant Clifton was to his parents and so then also to him. Despite this, most Clifton residents said either they do not believe Woody ever came back to visit Clifton or are unsure if he did.

According to an Associated Press article in March 1987 — the month Woody died — he did return to Clifton, or at least to Greene County. Just before Clifton Union School closed in 1962, Woody spoke at a class reunion there, even though he did not graduate from the school.

And Lazorski said her father Paul, who is a former mayor of Clifton, tried to get Woody to speak at the village’s former Memorial Day ceremony. 

“We just always thought Woody Hayes would be a good one,” Lazorski said, saying the village had representatives from Congress speak at the ceremony, which Clifton no longer holds.

Woody never came.

In a letter in 1968 responding to a request to speak at the Memorial Day ceremony, Woody said he would have loved to speak but couldn’t because he was planning to travel to Vietnam, which he had done the previous two years.

“If I had a definite date for that trip then I could definitely tell you if I could be with you, but I probably won’t know until after our spring football practice as to the exact date I can go,” Woody wrote in the letter. “For that reason I cannot accept your thoughtful invitation.”

In addition to speaking at a Clifton Union School reunion, Woody has another connection to the school. His father, Wayne Benton Hayes, served as superintendent there from 1911 to 1916. This fact along with the name of the physician on Woody’s birth certificate provide insight into what house the Hayes family lived in while in Clifton.

According to a Columbus Dispatch article from 2007, Clifton resident Chris Rainey, who now lives in Lebanon, thought his house at 45 S. Jackson St. was Woody’s. Rainey found out about the possible connection from a village councilwoman who told him that her mother had said the house on Jackson St. was where the Hayes lived.

“She claims that her mother had known the Hayes,” Rainey said.

Rainey said his house on Jackson Street is where the superintendent of the Clifton school lived for a while. Since Wayne Hayes was the superintendent when his son Woody was born, Rainey said it makes sense to assume that his former Jackson Street home is where Woody grew up. 

However, the Xenia and Greene County Directory from 1913, the year Woody was born, lists a W.B. Hayes as residing on Clay Street, not Jackson. And this is where councilwoman Lazorski has heard Woody Hayes lived. 

“I was always told it was down on Clay Street. That’s what my mom always told me,” Lazorski said.

Woody does have some connection to Jackson Street. F.C. Adams, the physician who delivered Woody, lived on Jackson, the 1913 directory said.

“That would make sense if he was actually physically born there but didn’t live there,” Lazorski said of Woody’s relationship to Jackson Street.

The 2007 Columbus Dispatch article on Rainey’s house was written the weekend of Old Clifton Days, the village’s former annual festival. The village had other Woody-related events and activities that weekend. 

Rainey headed up the dedication of North Street — also Route 343 — in honor of Woody. A red street sign reading “Hayes Way” in white letters now adorns a telephone pole on the corner of North Street and Clay Street.

“Some folks thought it was fun and folksy,” Rainey said, although he said he did not get a whole lot of feedback on the sign. Former mayor McFarland said not many residents came to the dedication.

North Street in Clifton was dedicated as Hayes Way in 2007.

“I really don’t know if they cared one way or the other,” McFarland said.

One surprise guest at the dedication and other festival activities was Woody’s niece, Mary Hayes Hoyt, now Mary Hayes Hemmer. Rainey said Hemmer helped unveil the Hayes Way sign.

“I didn’t know she was coming along,” Rainey said. The festival also included a parade with a Woody Hayes impersonator serving as grand marshal.

With 2013 being Woody’s 100th birthday, it may be a year Clifton officially recognizes Woody again with an event, such as in 2007. The village council discussed having an event for Woody on his Feb. 14 birthday, but Mayor Bieri said at this point, they probably are not going to do that. But Woody may get mentioned either at a Clifton Opera House event or at the Clifton Gorge Music and Arts Festival in late summer, Bieri said.

Both Rainey and McFarland said Clifton should do more to highlight that it is Woody’s birthplace.

“Personally, I wish there was a little more notoriety,” Rainey said.

Bieri said most of what he hears from Clifton residents on Woody’s relationship to the village is simple comments about how he was born there. He said he knows OSU fans that feel a connection to Woody.

“Woody Hayes is definitely a character kind of emblazoned in their consciousness, and for other people he’s not,” Bieri said.

For Marie Pascarella, who is renting Rainey’s former house at 45 S. Jackson Street, Woody is not.

“A lot of people come around here and talk about how this is Woody Hayes’ house,” Pascarella said. 

Her response?

“Oh.”

Cedars - Students Discuss Wide Range of Issues at Mock Debate (includes video)

I just wrote a recap for Cedars of the mock debate that I recently did a preview on. Included is a video with highlights of what the speakers said. Read and watch here.

Cedars - Students to Portray Candidates' Wives and Running Mates in Mock Presidential Debate

My latest story for Cedars is a preview of a mock presidential debate students in a political science class are putting on. Read it here.

Cedars - Video: Cedarville Students Minister by Holding Open Chapel Doors

The Cedars campus news online editor and I just finished a video story on students that have been holding the doors open every day for students going to chapel. Watch it here.

Cedars - Wikipedia: To Use or Not To Use?

My latest story for the Cedars, the student news publication at Cedarville, looked into how faculty and students view and use Wikipedia. Read more here.