Sarah Webster Vodrey is the Director of the East Liverpool Museum of Ceramics.

“…doorknobs, inkwells, piggy banks, pie pans – it was very utilitarian at first and then as time when on people were able to combine utility with beauty. And even from the very start, the human impulse is to make it attractive.”

Hundreds of potteries operated here. There are a couple of reasons why. The first is transportation. It’s right on the Ohio River and when the potteries started in the mid 1800s the thousands of settlers moving west needed things that were made out of pottery.

“There was a guy named James Bennett who came from Staffordshire in 1839. We give him credit for being the father of our pottery industry because he was the first English trained potter to come to East Liverpool.”

One reason East Liverpool is the Crockery capital is the natural abundance of clay. It drew immigrant potters here.

“He wrote to his brothers in Darbyshire and Staffordshire and they came. They wrote back to other potters and said come here. Come give this a try.”

Betsy Chetwynd grew up in East Liverpool and worked at Hall China, one of the last potteries in East Liverpool.

“I’m descended from a long line of English potters. As is everyone out else in this community.”

“95 percent of the people here are from England. And from the same part of England which is amazing. Stoke. Everyone is from Stoke. And people from Stoke come to visit and they say.

“I just feel like I haven’t left home. The mannerisms are the same, the streets are the same, the names are the same.”

Many of the potteries here were family owned and operated.

“In the early years it was a husband and wife and a few kids,” says Sarah Vodrey.

Other than there is mechanization the ware is made pretty much the same way,” Betsey Chetwynd says.

“It went from Ma and Pop operations and got bigger until when the jigger machine came along in the 1870s, says Sarah Vodrey. “When that machine was introduced into the whole process it moved it into the realm of mass production.”

Vodrey says pottery making became a part of the community in other ways.

“We had Potter’s Bank and Trust, we have the East Liverpool Potters. Every single sports team coming out of East Liverpool school system has the word Potter in it.

Pottery even influenced the official town game.

“We made more doorknobs here than anywhere else in the county,” Vodrey says. “Ceramic doorknobs were a big thing here. There are going to be ones that don’t come out well.

But the East Liverpuglians found use for them.

“Eventually somebody figured out ‘hey, a doorknob is like a ball. Let’s make a game out of this.’ So now we have a doorknob tossing game.”

Doorknob tossing, the official game of East Liverpool is played annually in June at their Pottery festival. The Museum of Ceramics is open year round.

You can download this and other audio tours at seeohiofirst.org
The New Ohio Guide is produced by the Ohio Humanities Council, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

If you happen to enter a local Somali restaurant, mosque or civic center you might notice a petition circling the room. It’s from local Somalis from the city of Balanballe one of the areas thought to be under Ethiopian control. They plan to send the petitions to Senator Mike DeWine and Senator George Voinovich’s. They hope the effort will lead to US or international intervention.

The head of the Somali Community Association, Hassan Omar, says many activists leading the petition drive and organizing demonstrations have ties to Balanballe.

“They American residents. They live here but they have relatives who suffered from the civil war and live in that town. And most of the people are very upset, really,” says Omar.

Mohamed Dini is a katib, or lecturer at local mosques and head of the Somali Public Affairs Committee. He says the weak central government in Somalia lead activists in Columbus to pick up the issue.

Dini says, “we’re willing to take this to every level because we’re the voice of people who don’t have one. We’re talking about folks who are struggling to get what they will eat tonight for dinner. We’re talking about a family of 11, 14, 15 people who don’t have a drop of water in their homes. This is the type of problems that we’re dealing with.”

Dini says the petitions will be collected and presented to Ohio Senators before the mid-term elections. Magbaily Fyle, Professor of African and African American Studies at Ohio State has studied African activists’ movements. He says focusing on US government figures is a smart move for the local activists because the US government carries a lot of weight.

“For example, what happened in Liberia with Charles Taylor before they came to have a civil government. When President Bush stepped in and said ‘Charles Taylor must step down!’ over and over again, it began to have an impact. People have a sense that they must provoke that sort of attention. And they’re becoming aware now that much is that is in Washington, DC. They can raise the profile of concerns they have in the Horn of Africa,” says Fyle

There are several pressing African issues also vying for national attention such as the situation in Darfur, conflicts in the Congo and regional famines and droughts. Fyle says simply raising awareness will not bring intervention to Somalia.

“That’s not enough, you have to bring that correct information to the quarters where it matters, to the people who can make noise, use it and raise the profile of that event and therefore attract the right kind of attention that can help ameliorate the situation there, says Fyle.

So far Omar says the petition drive has brought more than 1-thousand signatures in the last 4 weeks. But he says he has heard from local Somalis frustrated with the situation. He says many are ready and willing to return to Somalia to protect their home cities.

“I have seen so many people say ‘If Ethiopia takes over Somalia then we will go back’, says Omar.

Dini says he hopes progress on this issue will lead to some stability for Somalia.

Sabrina Hersi-Issa, WOSU news

In a woodshop, twenty-six 8th grade middle school girls work in small groups, sawing, hammering and drilling their projects. Wearing safety googles and shouting over the loud machines, the girls put together their own hovercrafts. Supervised by women engineers, the middle school girls were part of a week-long Future Engineers Summer Camp.

The camp is part of a large effort encouraging young women to pursue engineering careers. For Hilltona Middle School student Brittany Frazier, the program is giving her support outside a typical classroom. Frazier says she loves science and math but has heard the subjects are not for girls. She says learning from other women engineers gives her role models.

“I heard it in school sometimes because they don’t think girls are as achieving as boys and I hear it in my house because of my Dad. Its showing that girls can do the exact same things that most men can do,” Fraizer said.

Westerville Middle School student Lauren Johnson says the camp is much more interesting than a typical classroom.

“Most of it is stuff from textbooks and if it’s activities it’s activities that come from the books,” Johnson said.

Johnson says she likes working with other young girls who share her interests.

“You don’t have any guys being like ‘Oh, you’re a girl, you can’t do all this’ and everyone here seems interested,” Johnson said.

Bexley Middle School students, Becky Sigal and Ruth Hay say engineering is not a subject they would traditionally learn in school.

“This is cool! It’s like you don’t do this in school,” they said.

After putting the final touches on their hovercrafts, the students plugged in their ShopVac’s and tested out their new creation. It worked.

While this is not your traditional summer camp, these middle school students did not mind getting a piece of science in the summer.

During the meeting, City Council members heard from local residents and got their own questions answered about the Big Darby Creek Master Plan.

Recently, Columbus city officials changed policy positions on an aspect of the Big Darby proposal. Once opposed to the use of septic systems in the Darby, Council Member Maryellen O’Shaughnessy says the city now supports using septic systems.

“This plan allows for selective use of certain systems but under certain guidelines, that I believe need to be impeccable,” O’Shaughnessy said.

O’Shaughnessy says the septic systems will be built under strict guidelines. She says additional standards for oversight and monitoring for the systems are still being developed

“They will have standard set that’s higher than usual and there will be vigorous monitoring of the streams to make sure there is no environmental degradation. They are still in the process of putting together these additional standards for these alternative waste water treatment systems. And I just want to make sure we have an opportunity to shut these things down if there is any evidence that alternative waste water treatment systems begin to pollute the Darby,” O’Shaughnessy said.

Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman says he thinks the Big Darby plan strikes a balance between environmental preservation and development

“We came together as a region really to focus on two goals; one was to protect the nation’s most pristine, most endangered watersheds. The second goal was to plan for future growth. And utilized the concept that we can both our environment and have responsible development,” Coleman said.

Columbus City Council is scheduled to vote on the Big Darby Master Plan July 31st. Columbus will be the first of the 10 jurisdictions affliated with the Big Darby project to bring the proposal to a vote.

A revolving door marks one of the entrances to Columbus State’s Center for Workforce Development. Inside one of the center classrooms, Instructor Jim Cowan teaches an Introduction to Construction Trades course. The class has 12 students, 9 male and 3 female, some old and some young. The course is part of Columbus State’s Orientation to Trades and Apprenticeship Program (OTAP) that leads to guaranteed apprenticeships and jobs to those who finish the program. Most in the group are individuals tired of revolving from job to job and repeated lay-offs. Cowan says the Center helps students get some much-needed job security.

“I emphasize the fact that these trades are a transferable, portable skill. You’re not going to be downsized, right-sized or capsized, overseas. You know, nobody in India or China are going to do your job,” Cowin said.

Part of the requirements for unemployed workers receiving state assistance for retraining programs is that they be trained in areas where there is a demand for work, such as healthcare or construction.

Assistant Director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, Bruce Madson, says for unemployed Ohioans, gaining new skills is essential to get back into the workforce quickly.

“What we’re seeing in Ohio, I think we’ve seen a shift in the kinds of jobs that are available that don’t necessary line up well with the skills of those who are being laid off. That produces a situation where expectations are going to be for a longer duration of unemployment and maybe taking lower paying positions unless they obtain the training that matches their skills up with that growth is occurring within the economy,” Madson explained.

Instructor Jim Cowan says his course teaches both the skills and the attitude needed to get and keep a job.

“Look to see what you can do to make things better. I mean just showing up and putting in your time is one thing. Better show up, stay late, clean up when the other guys are taking off. So it’s a lot of attitude that we’re trying to convey to the learners,” Cowan said.

34 year-old laid-off truck driver Dereck Boone gets ready for the 5-hour lesson back in the Introduction for Construction Trade. He says it is not easy transforming from worker to unemployed and now to student.

“That part of it I wasn’t prepared for but thats the part I do like the most, just being able to get back into that. And hopefully doing well on the tests and show I can do the work at home and not just while I’m sitting in class,” Boon said.

48 year-old Toni Ingram says one thing she is looking forward to after she completes her construction training is job security, something she says she never got from her previous temp jobs.

“I’m looking forward to basic job security, to be able to have a decent home… after awhile, to be able to live comfortable and not have to suffer like I’m doing right now,” Ingram said.

Boone says he wants to remodel old houses after he finishes retraining. He says he’s excited but does not want to be laid-off again.

“Hopefully, this is my last stop in terms of starting all over again so thats the best part of it,” Boon said.

Coleman adds people still did not want to pay to recycle. Even though the 15 cents per bag cost was less than the 5 dollar a month charge for a curbside recycling bin, not enough people used the blue bags.

So Mayor Coleman is setting his sights on a new market. The new focus is on businesses which, Coleman says, produce most of the city’s waste in the first place. The effort supports businesses that take their commercial waste to recycling plants rather than dump it at the city landfill.

At a private recycling plant on Jefferson Pike, trucks line up to process piles and piles of recycable cardboard. Materials that was once destined for burial in the city landfill. Plant owner Steve Grossman, explains businesses can save money recycling waste.

Incentives are also in store for businesses that recycle. While not finalized, Coleman says, the participants could see lower tax bills.

Only 3% of Columbus households participant in the city curbside recycling program. Coleman says he is not abandoning residential recycling programs. The city plans to add 100 recycling drop-boxes at local schools.

At the Little Gym of Dublin, 7 kids ages 4 to 6 and two instrustors run around on mats, climb through obstacle courses and work on tumbling while parents watch through large viewing windows. The children dance to the loud music in between exercises. At gyms like this, kids can kick, tumble, run and learn sports.

Gym programs for children are nothing new to the fitness field, but with childhood obesity rates rising more parents are use children’s gyms as a way to introduce fitness and prevent obesity at an earlier age.

Yvonne Tate says she brings her 4 year old daughter to the Little Gym so her child can get a realistic idea about exercise

“…You need to watch your body and make sure you’re getting nutrition and that you stay healthy so you can do the fun things. And exercise doesn’t have to be boring, it can be fun and you can learn a lot.”

Little Gym of Dublin owner Jeannete Donohue says the key to using gyms to promote fitness and prevent obesity in kids is making activity fun says younger kids. Donohue says kids can develop healthy habits in gyms that are key in the preventing obesity later in life.

“Nowadays with a lot of schools taking out physical education, we just want the kids to be active…and if we let them succeed and have fun at a young age, they will carry those healthy habits with them the older they get,” said Donohue.

But Dr. Robert Murray, Director for the Center for Healthy Weight and Nutrition at Columbus Children’s Hospital says kids gyms are unnecessary to keep young children fit. He suggests parents of younger children skip the gyms and just get kids outdoors and off the couch.

“Little kids are programmed to be active…they’re going to burn off a lot of calories just running around so I don’t think that that’s necessary… Those gyms may have an effect [in] the older child… they already have an established habit of sedentary behavior and what you need to find for them is other things that entice them away from sitting and doing nothing.”

For Kristy Turner, gyms for younger children are still helpful for parents like her who not only want to get their kids active but also keep them in a safe.

“With society, you don’t want to let the kids run around and play like we did when we were small…I feel better having her in structured activities where I can keep an eye on her and I know that they’re not going to get into any trouble.”

Back in the gym, that approach is working with 4 year old Gracie who is busy having fun, perhaps not realizing that she’s also getting exercise.

According to a national industry group, children ages 6 to 17 make up 11% of health club memberships.

For First Impressions, a black-owned barbershop off East Livingston Avenue, this is a typical scene: loud conversations compete with buzzing razors and a blasting stereo. Customers can spend hours talking with friends and getting a haircut. Now, a local HIV/AIDS awareness group is using the atmosphere to get its message out. The Tobias Project is trying to prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS in the minority communities. Project workers go from shop to shop spreading their message. With just a laptop and small Powerpoint projector, two project workers recently gave presentations at a local barbershop on HIV, AIDS and Syphillus while customers got haircuts. It is based on a program called “Popular Opinion Leader,” or POL. Tobias Project Director, Preston Mitchell, says POL is all about spreading HIV messages through people you trust, including barbers

He explained in his presentation, “…this man right here with this big bald head, and I know him, I can talk about him, he’s getting his haircut. In order to for him to let this guy cut his hair, that barber has to have be credible. He has to have a certain amount of trust for him. So thats what make barbers really, Popular Opinion Leaders. They’re popular. You guys are credible. And you’re considered to have integrity. That means you’re not going to cut a line in someone’s head where they don’t want it. So if you have all of that then you got a jump on these people they know automatically that they trust you.”

In the middle of the busy barbershop, Mitchell clicked through Powerpoint slides. He used the shop’s Venetian blinds for a screen.

“67% of all new cases are African-American women. So that’ alarming. We have to think about that as constituents, as barbers, as African-Americans in the community,” Mitchell said.

The talk lasted more than an hour. In that time the crowd listening in the shop grew from six customers to 18. One customer, Randy Soublot, 21, says he did not expect to get a health lesson with his haircut. “I didn’t know the stats on African Americans and this HIV thing. It shocked me. Its stuff they don’t teach you in school, really,” Soublot said.

First Impressions is the first barbershop in the country to use the program. Co-owner, Laymond Morris says he agreed to hosting HIV awareness talks because he sees himself as a role model. “To me it just was something else that would bring awareness to the neighborhood. And by us dealing with a lot of black men, I thought it would be appropriate… for them to come to the barbershop and not only get cleaned up but be informed also of different diseases and what else is out there. We all need to be aware, we all need to be supported and kinda give back. I guess the older, the more I notice a generation of young men out there who are really walking around blind,” said Morris.

Tobias Project Director, Preston Mitchell, started the barbershop program in January. He says barbershops are like small community centers and a perfect place to teach HIV prevention. “You know when they come in here they’re going to tell you what they did last night, what their woman did last night, how the drink was and everything else. I said don’t you think you can give them a great deal of service by saying ‘Hey dude, that sounds like a wonderful thing you did last night, but did you think about protecting yourself? Did you think about what we’re dealing with out here in the public,” Mitchell explains.

The barbershop program is being expanded to other local shops. Mitchell is even giving HIV education lessons to barbers going through the Ohio State School of Cosmotology.

But last Thursday, charity leaders say they discovered the former treasurer had stolen up to $250,000 from the association’s savings account. Associate board member Joe Caligiuri says he became suspicious when she refused to turn over a check for $325,000 she was supposed to invest.

“I was met with much avoidance. And then eventually I was able to make telephone contact with her at which time I was met with much resistance” Caligiuri explained.

Caligiuri says, once she admitted to the theft, the charity took action.

“I made immediate contact with the Columbus Police Department in the Economic Crime Unit and spoke to a detective. This detective… instructed me to contact Chase Bank Head of Security,” Caligiuri said.

WOSU is not reporting the treasurer’s name because she does not face criminal charges or civil court action.

The charity suspects the theft took place over several years. The stolen funds were meant to be used to support the association and its clients. A former IRS criminal investigator is working with the charity to recover the funds. Attorney for the charity, Mark Landis, said the Down Syndrome Association is taking steps to prevent future thefts.

“We want the money back. We want to make sure that this never happens again.”