Steve Stolte was a civil engineering student at Ohio State University when the Silver Bridge, which connected Gallipolis to Point Pleasant, West Virgina, on busy U.S. Route 35, collapsed into the Ohio River.
After the collapse, Ohio began to require that all bridges in the state be inspected once each year. Seeing an opportunity to both make some money and potentially save some lives, Stolte and some of his college friends started up a new business.
They attended classes during the week, but on weekends they traveled into rural counties throughout the state to perform those mandated bridge inspections.
“We learned quickly to drive across each bridge prior to doing our inspection, because we often didn’t want to drive across after seeing the condition they were in,” he says.
Kyle Hicks, the new senior government affairs analyst at Ohio State University’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, hadn’t always planned to pursue a career in public policy — he wanted to be a teacher.
Hicks decided to apply to take the trip after hearing about the experiences his mom and sister had when they went on Youth Tour in 1994 and 2017, respectively. South Central Power selected him as one of its delegates as he was finishing his junior year at Amanda-Clearcreek High School, and that summer, he boarded a D.C.-bound bus with 30 other Ohio students who had been sponsored by their own co-ops.
What do a church, a brewery, and an elementary school have in common? Each is home to art installations created by the Artifactory, a partnership between two Delaware County artists who work with those groups to create intricate mosaic pieces from recycled materials.
Now she and Corwin teach groups in central Ohio and beyond to create those free-form mosaics that are then installed as permanent works of art.
On the morning of November 14, 2023, 16-year-old Brynn Goedel was in great spirits, traveling on a charter bus with fellow band members, teachers, and chaperones from Tuscarawas Valley Middle-High School.
That stuck door saved Brynn’s life, says her mother, Danielle Goedel. Brynn was standing in the aisle when a semi-truck loaded with batteries plowed over an SUV and slammed into the back of the bus, obliterating the bathroom she had been trying to enter. The collision threw her forward and ignited a massive fire. When Brynn came to, she was surrounded by flames; the bathroom door was on top of her and she was unable to move. Eventually, the band director and a good Samaritan pulled her from the bus as batteries from the truck continued to explode.
The idea first came to Steubenville business owner Jerry Barilla in 2015, when he thought that the sight of empty storefront windows deterred folks from coming to the downtown area to do their Christmas shopping.
Visitors to the Nutcracker Village encounter just about any character they could imagine in nutcracker form — from whimsical storybook heroes and cartoon characters to real-life movie and television stars; from historical legends and religious leaders to first responders and service members from the various branches of the military.
If you know someone who’s really ready to raise their birding game in 2026 (even if that someone is you), a spotting scope might be just the thing.
“We began as a small gift shop and watch-repair business in 1976,” says Hershberger, who owns the shop. “So next year will be our 50th year in business. We always had a few pairs of binoculars for sale, and I began birding when I was a teenager, so the optics side of the business grew out of that hobby. Today, we carry 18 brands of optics, with 200 to 300 pairs of binoculars on display, and 20 to 30 spotting scopes, as well as telescopes for stargazing.”
When Francis de Sales Brunner, a Catholic missionary priest from Switzerland, first came to what is now Mercer County in the mid-1840s, one of the substantial number of religious artifacts he brought with him was a depiction of a miracle in which the Virgin Mary is said to
His original collection, expanded through acquisitions and donations over the years, has grown into one of the largest collections of holy relics in the country, and today, the Maria Stein Shrine of the Holy Relics draws visitors from around the world to pray and reflect among more than 1,200 documented pieces displayed in a series of three hand-carved wooden altars and assorted glass cases.
December is a special time of year. The days may be shorter and colder, but there’s a lot to like. College and pro football start to get really interesting as rankings and playoff hopes take shape, and most of us aren’t too tired of the weather (yet). Christmas music can be heard everywhere, and for those of us who love it, especially the deep cuts or new songs just being released, it brings a lot of positive energy to the season. I look forward to discovering new Christmas music each year and love listening to favorites I haven’t heard for the last 11 months.
Todd McMullen’s dream was to buy a Ford Mustang Cobra convertible and take his family on rides at dusk underneath a sky ablaze with color.
But that dream hinged on a more serious goal: First, he had to beat his glioma.
Glioma is a fast-growing type of cancer that affects the brain and nervous system. Its survival rate varies widely depending on the specific type and how early it’s caught. He immediately began treatment — he followed the specific protocols his specialists ordered and underwent multiple surgeries — and it worked. Periodic follow-up MRIs indicated no suspicious growth.
Todd and Sara started a family — sons Colin and Corey were born a few years apart — and lived each day as a special gift.
The Mustang
