Mary Cinquina had help from 15 volunteers working on the traffic islands at the intersection of North Bend, Belmont, Kipling and Banning roads during the recent Great American Cleanup in College Hill.  They cleaned up two bags of trash, pulled/dug out ten bags of weeds, dug, smoothed and applied four cubic yards of mulch, fertilized and pruned. 

Mary says, "The entire island looks wonderful! Our community just loves what we've done--they honk and thank us.  District 5 is particularly helpful watching over our efforts so everyone can enjoy the lush growth and lovely flowers.  We're enticing more birds and butterflies, our trees were flowering and full of bees!  We'll be putting a birdbath and a sculpture there soon."

Local United Church of Christ members recently hosted a group of VIPs all the way from Kenya, Africa.  This spring, four visitors affiliated with Rubate Teachers College in Chuka, Kenya, stayed with UCC members Roger and Belinda Perna on Reid Avenue.  While they were here, pastor Dan Weyand-Geise and his wife hosted an impromptu block party for church members and neighbors on Meryton Place so that members of the community could meet the Reverend Julius Mwamba and Rubate Dean of Curriculum Jamlick Mutua. 

For the past six years, a local UCC group (the Southern Ohio-Northern Kentucky Association of the United Church of Christ--SONKA) has been partnering with Rubate Teachers College. Local church member teams have visited the village in Kenya.  This year, people from Rubate were able to pay a return visit to our "village" of College Hill.

Rubate College trains teachers not only in general education but also in moral leadership.  These teachers go out into their community to educate and also shape the personal growth of their students by instilling them with spiritual principles and in having "faith as a mustard seed."   Faith apparently is working wonders right now since the villagers are not only eagerly pursuing their primary and secondary educations, but are also building roads, clinics, schools and homes out of what many Americans would probably think of as "nothing," all with financing and resources provided largely by American churches.  

The top picture shows Jennifer Weyand, Jake Weyand and baby Zoe Weyand with Mr. Mutua. The lower picture shows, from l to r, the Rev. Dan Weyand-Geise, Jamlick Mutua, the Rev. Julius Mwamba and Roger Perna.

From Sarah Mann, President of the College Hill Historical Society: 

On Saturday, June 9, all day, the College Hill Historical Society and anyone else interested in saving a historic, beautiful Samuel Hannaford building will be painting the trim and windows at Town Hall on Larch and Belmont Streets. 

There are big jobs and small jobs of all skill levels and mostly we just need lots of hands working together.

Please RSVP by email (s_mann@tcbinc.org) or by phone (513-884-6497) if you can help out.  We'll be there from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm and the sooner we get going, the sooner we'll get done. 

Paint the Town will also be in College Hill that day; we're trying to make the Town Hall project part of the big day. 

Thanks to the enthusiasm and hard work of Marty Weldishofer we have sponsorship commitments from Al Neyer (the developer for the up-and-coming Linden Commons), the College Hill Historical Society, the College Hill Forum, CHCURC and from Elizabeth Sherwood.

Memorial Day marks the beginning of swimming season at most pools. If you're new to College Hill, here are the closest swimming pools:

Cincinnati Recreation operates the shallow pool outside College Hill Town Hall, which offers refreshing wet fun but no swimming. Residents can buy inexpensive summer passes at the Belmont Ave. Rec Center. See here for more information.

North Hills. For 45 years, North Hills Swim and Tennis Club has been a favorite for College Hill and Finneytown families. Located on Daly Road opposite McEvoy Park, the private club has a water slide, shelter, and snack bar; offers swimming and tennis lessons; and has children's swim and tennis teams. Membership required for entry; lessons available to non-members. For more information see here.

Colonial Racquet Club: Located just north of College Hill on Hamilton Avenue, Colonial is a private club offering swimming, tennis, and raquetball. Summer camps for children and many other activities available. For information click here.

North College Hill: Located off Galbraith Road just north of College Hill, the NCH municipal pool has a water slide and snack bar; children's swim lessons; and family nights. The large baby pool is for North College Hill residents only, but non-residents can pay day admissions to the pool or buy affordable family, single, student, and senior passes. For information see  here.

The Crossing the Bridge program coordinated by Joan Pack-Rowe at Aiken University High School is featured in an article in Education World, a national educators' resource website.  "Crossing the Bridge evolved out of the realization that kids had to be present, both physically and emotionally, to do well academically," Joan Pack-Rowe observes. "It's one of those things you know but you really don't know until you experience it."

When Ms. Pack-Rowe arrived at Aiken ten years ago, she found a school with critically unacceptable rates of attendance, dropping out, suspensions, and expulsions. Crossing the Bridge is a program designed to improve those areas by providing support and guidance to incoming ninth graders.

Read the article here.

The North Hills Swim and Tennis Club announces summer tennis lessons for youth and adults.

Youth lessons will be offered in three 2-week sessions: June 4-15; June 18-29; and July 9-20. They will be taught by Austin Brett, a senior at Roger Bacon High School, where he plays varsity tennis. He has taught or helped with the North Hills tennis program for six years.

Adult lessons will be taught by Lance White, who plays for the University of Cincinnati Club Tennis Team. Group lessons (Monday and Wednesday evenings, June 11 - July 13) and private lessons are available.

North Hills is a private pool and tennis club located on Daly Road, opposite McEvoy Park. Bonded and non-bonded memberships are available for families, couples, and singles. Tennis lessons are open to non-members.

For more information call Jim Benson at 513-541-3545.

The Enquirer recently profiled College Hill resident Tim Kraus, incoming president of the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers.  According to the article, Kraus worked as a machinist, a filmmaker, a radio talk show host and a visiting artist who taught media production before becoming a full-time CPS teacher in 1998.

Read the whole article here.

McAuley High School has been hard at work forming a new technology plan which will be finalized by June 2007.  The goal of the plan is to increase student access to technology to supplement an already strong academic curriculum.  

McAuley pioneered the use of electronic Blackboard technology and then taught it to seven other archdiocesan high schools.  Teachers have had laptop computers for the past six years and will begin using tablet pc's in the fall.  More tablet pc's for student use will be added in the fall at no additional cost.  McAuley has been wireless for the past two years.