Co-op People

Making a mark

sbradford — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 13:53:56 +0000

Making a mark

September 1, 2026

Richard Cowdrey, the New York Times bestselling illustrator of Bad Dog, Marley!

One of the things Richard Cowdrey enjoys most about the acclaim that has come with being a New York Times bestselling illustrator is the opportunity it has given him to interact with young artists.

After the picture book Bad Dog, Marley! (2006) and other books in the Marley series, which he illustrated, hit the Times list, Cowdrey began receiving calls from schools throughout the country whose students were enthralled with the mischievous Labrador retriever.

He says he felt called to share his love of drawing with schoolchildren of all ages, to help them embrace reading, writing, and their own affinity for making art.

“A lot of the kids say, ‘I can’t draw that well.’ So I make sure to tell them, ‘An artist designed your shoes, your clothes, your chair. There’s an artist behind everything,’” Cowdrey says. “I love those lightbulb moments, when you see them get it.”

Cowdrey has lived in the Knox County village of Gambier for 30 years, where he’s a member of Newark-based The Energy Cooperative — though he tells people he’s been drawing “as far back as I can remember.”

As a child growing up in Cincinnati, he says he lacked direction. He drew constantly, but it wasn’t until his high school art teacher noticed his talent and helped him secure a scholarship to study illustration at Columbus College of Art and Design that, in his words, “everything clicked.”

“I was now in an environment of art and artists,” he says, “and it was like putting on the glove that just fit perfectly. Here, I could refine my talent.”

After graduation, Cowdrey worked briefly for Hallmark Greeting Cards in Kansas City, Missouri, but he soon moved back to Ohio and married his college sweetheart, Cindy. The couple then moved to a mountaintop cabin in Vermont, where Cowdrey began his 40-year (and counting) career as an independent freelance illustrator — drawing for newspapers, magazines, and small design and advertising agencies.

During his early years as a freelancer, he drove from Montreal to Boston, drumming up work and taking last-minute gigs to cover other artists who had missed deadlines. “I stayed up many a night and got my foot in the door,” he recalls.

Wanting to be closer to family, the couple and their four children moved back to Ohio, specifically to the Knox County village of Gambier. He works in quiet — surrounded by nature in the former garage that he converted long ago into his art studio and wood shop.

He joined Illustrated Alaskan Moose, a group of illustrators in Westerville, and while working there, he had the opportunity to create illustrations for high-profile clients such as the NHL and Honda. For the NFL, he drew the artwork for all media for Super Bowl XXXII in 1998; for the Longaberger Company, he created a decade’s worth of calendars featuring the company’s iconic baskets. “They would give me the baskets and say, ‘Have at it,’” he chuckles. “That was my master course in painting.”

Cowdrey has extensive experience creating illustrations and book covers for publishers. He illustrated author Pam Conrad’s Animal Lullabies (HarperCollins Publishers), his first full-length children’s picture book, in 1997.

In 2006, HarperCollins tapped Cowdrey to illustrate Bad Dog, Marley!, the children’s book version of author John Grogan’s tremendously popular 2005 memoir Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog. More Marley books soon followed, including A Very Marley Christmas in 2008, bringing Cowdrey renown and a flood of offers to illustrate other children’s books, including Kathryn Lasky’s Guardians of Ga’Hoole series.

Then came Fiona. Yes, that Fiona: the resilient baby Nile hippopotamus at the Cincinnati Zoo. She had been born six weeks premature in 2017 and had not been expected to survive. But, against the odds, she pulled through and eventually thrived. All the while, the zoo shared constant updates about her condition on social media, and soon, the plucky hippo gained worldwide fame and many adoring fans.

Cowdrey had often visited the Cincinnati Zoo as a child, and he became intrigued by Fiona’s story. He called the zoo and pitched his idea of creating a children’s book about her, and the rest is hippo history. Fiona the Hippo (2018) quickly became a New York Times bestseller, followed soon after by A Very Fiona Christmas (2019), Fiona, It’s Bedtime (2020), and several others.

Since the Fiona series, Cowdrey has illustrated Nate Davenport and Luke Freshwater’s Bryson, the Brave Bison (2023) and has begun focusing on creating commissioned pieces, including horses and pet portraiture.

He still makes time for a school or community speaking event at least once a month, though. During those events, he often holds a “Draw-Along” for students, walking them through creating their very own picture of Marley or Fiona. “They get to go home with a masterpiece,” Cowdrey says, smiling. “I like that I’m encouraging young artists.”

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author

books

artist

Meant to be

sbradford — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 16:20:28 +0000

Meant to be

August 1, 2026

Margie Wuebker

Co-op People

Dalton Hesson made his singing debut with a rendition of “Folsom Prison Blues” at the North Star Community Picnic in Darke County when he was 6 years old. He took piano lessons for more than four years and his parents gave him a guitar when he was 12.

Delaney Moore, meanwhile, firmly believes she sang before she talked. She says her parents supported her musical interests from the start, with years of vocal training, and have always been her biggest fans as she sang at church, school events, and community theater.

Hesson grew up in Darke County, where he and his family are members of Darke Rural Electric Cooperative; Moore hails from Fairfield County, where she and her family are members of South Central Power Company.

Both joined Future Farmers of America at their respective high schools, and both attended the national FFA convention in 2022, where, as fate would have it, both entered the talent competition. Hesson strummed his guitar and sang his way into the top 15; Moore finished third.

Soon, they were Dalton & Delaney, performing at clubs and events with a mix of covers and original songs that span the musical spectrum.

“Growing up, we approached music from different angles,” Moore says. “I’m so glad Dalton came along. What we once did differently, we now do together.”

“We had to go all the way to Indianapolis to meet,” Hesson says with a smile. “I may write the songs, but Delaney brings them to life with her beautiful voice.”

The first few years after that fateful meeting have been busy with plenty besides music. Hesson attended Edison State College and then Franklin University and now works as a loan officer at a bank in Greenville. Moore is currently studying agricultural communications and public relations while working at a communications firm in Lancaster. In June, they got engaged.

In addition to balancing their careers, the duo performs at various venues across the state. Gigs generally take place on Saturdays, but occasionally the weekend stretches to include two or even three performances.

Hesson enjoys the challenge of writing original songs like “The Country Girl in Me,” which celebrates their involvement in agriculture and life in a rural area. Another of their originals, “Here’s to You,” often evokes a mix of emotions — and not only from the audience.

“I wrote it in the course of one night as a tribute to my cousin’s fiancé, who died in a farming accident,” he says. “Not all songs flow that easily.”

Moore, who also wants to try her hand at songwriting, is convinced music connects with people and helps them deal with challenges and uncertainties in life. She hopes their collaborative efforts will lead to professional recordings in the future.

It’s already led to a performance at one of the premier music events in the country. From the time he was young, Hesson says, he dreamed of performing at the annual Country Concert, which takes place in Fort Loramie, about 20 minutes from where he grew up, and draws nearly 80,000 fans over the course of a weekend.

That dream came true after the couple won a “Get the Gig” competition last year.

“I knew I wanted to play one of the stages out there, but I never thought that was possible,” he says. “We are so grateful for all the people who showed up and supported us to make performing at Country Concert everything we dreamed it would be and more.”

Moore was amazed at the size of the crowd, which included many relatives and friends. “Dalton’s parents rented a big party bus and showed up with 40 to 50 people on a Wednesday night,” she says. “It was so awesome.”

To learn more, visit www.daltondelaneymusic.com. New bookings are being added all the time, usually announced on the Dalton & Delaney Facebook page.

Tags

South Central Power

Darke Rural Electric Cooperative

music

Sew gangsters

sbradford — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 15:55:10 +0000

Sew gangsters

July 1, 2026

Margie Wuebker

Co-op People

Pat Mangen Cochran still remembers the time a former classmate recounted undergoing chemotherapy for recurrent bladder cancer. The classmate, Dennis “Red” Seger, told her how he had to remove his shirt at each of his infusion appointments so nurses could access his port and administer the medicine.

Cochran, a Versailles native who now makes her home in Beavercreek, looked online to find a shirt with a suitable port access — but everything she found was drab and lifeless. Wanting to give him a shirt that didn’t make his tough situation even more depressing, she decided to make it herself.

She sat down at her sewing machine and made three shirts, each with both a flap to access his port and a whimsical design sure to boost his spirits.

She had no idea her good deed for a childhood friend would spark an ambitious project that now continues to benefit cancer patients of all ages throughout the state and beyond.

“Red wore the modified shirts to The James Cancer Center in Columbus and the nurses went crazy,” she says. “I made more in different sizes for Red to take in — not just once, but quite a few times. They wanted more that they might distribute at all seven treatment centers in their system.”

Realizing the profound need, Cochran rounded up willing volunteers in the area and organized the Gang of Seamstresses in 2018. As the group grew in number, so did its output of shirts. Soon, the gang of 20 seamstresses was donating to hospitals and treatment facilities in Columbus and throughout the Greater Dayton area.

Unfortunately, the need only continued to grow — but so did the Gang. One of Cochran’s friends, Bonnie Bey of Versailles, started the Up North Gang of Seamstresses in Darke County a year ago and 25 volunteers stepped right up to help, and they began supplying shirts to hospitals in Coldwater, Greenville, and Lima, as well as the Veterans Administration Center in Dayton.

“I figured we would modify a thousand or so shirts and that would be it,” Cochran says. “Boy oh boy, was I wrong! We have finished more than 30,000 since 2018.”

Many of the members of the Gangs are members of Piqua-based Pioneer Electric Cooperative or Greenville-based Darke Rural Electric Cooperative. Normally, the seamstresses work from home, using their own sewing machines. “Volunteers generally work at their own pace when they work at home,” Bey says. “They pick up bags containing 20 shirts and all the necessary supplies, with no timetable for when the finished ones need to be returned.”

Occasionally, the groups organize “sewing bees” in Beavercreek or Versailles — bringing portable-machine-toting volunteers together for enjoyable days of enthusiastic sewing, packaging, eating, and chatting.

Cochran also occasionally conducts “Zipper School” sessions to teach new volunteers how to install zippers, which extend from a shirt’s neckline diagonally to the arm hole, giving patients the opportunity to proceed to treatment without having to disrobe. Each “newbie” completes two shirts during the training sessions.

Word of the Ohio “gangs” has even spread outside the state. Cochran has instructed women from Florida, California, and Arizona on the process — and some have subsequently organized groups to provide shirts for treatment centers in their respective areas. She hopes to establish a new gang in northern Ohio to satisfy the growing need there.

Since each patient is provided with three free shirts, donations are an essential part of the project. They come in the form of new T-shirts, long-sleeved shirts, sweatshirts, and hoodies, as well as zippers, thread, and interfacing. Needed sizes range from toddler to 4X or larger. “Shirts have to be new to reduce the likelihood of infection and allergic reactions from laundry products or pets,” Cochran says. “We can take shirts with designs and wording, but nothing of a religious or political nature.”

Monetary contributions defray the cost of postage for shirts that have to be mailed or need to be purchased in an unavailable size. Volunteers handle deliveries to hospitals and treatment centers around the state, leaving bundles of 250 shirts at a time.

Recent donations include stacks of 2025 shirts from Eldora Speedway in Darke County and 23 cases of shirts from the Pelotonia bike race to benefit cancer research.

Seger’s widow makes an annual donation in his memory, and longtime project ambassador Carl Stuck requested the Gang of Seamstresses set up a display at his celebration of life to encourage more participation. Additionally, some church groups now collect needed items like zippers and thread.

“Sometimes I find bags of shirts on my porch and have no idea where they came from,” Bey says. “We are grateful for each and every one we receive, because it means we can help more people in their time of need.”

For more information about the Gang of Seamstresses, on donating shirts, or obtaining a port access shirt, email gangofseamstresses@gmail.com or check out www.facebook.com/gangofseamstresses.

Tags

Pioneer Electric Cooperative

Darke Rural Electric Cooperative

Cream of the crop

sbradford — Tue, 26 May 2026 15:16:16 +0000

Cream of the crop

June 1, 2026

Theresa Ravencraft

Co-op People

Though they also raise corn, soybeans, and hay at Ayars Family Farm in Mechanicsburg, John and Bonnie Ayars are, at their core, dairy farmers.

John’s parents, Jack and Gladys Ayars, started the farm, which they called Land of Living Farm, when they arrived from Kansas after the Dust Bowl. John and Bonnie took over after they married in 1972 and grew it into one of the larger such operations in the state. They’ve been passionate advocates for agriculture in Ohio and beyond ever since.

But it’s not just milk or even the marketing of genetics from their purebred cattle that’s at the heart of the business. From the start, it’s the educational aspect of the farm that appealed to Bonnie and John, who are members of Piqua-based Pioneer Electric Cooperative. Each summer, the Ayarses welcome hundreds of local elementary school students to the education center they built on the farm. Visitors get to meet and touch famous cows like Buckeye Bessie, Honeybun, and Bravo. They feed calves, try to milk a cow, and sample ice cream made on the farm.

Bonnie, who graduated from Ohio State, has been a dairy specialist with OSU Extension, where she teaches dairy cattle selection and evaluation courses, since 2006. “I love teaching and being with kids,” she says. “It regenerates you. Nothing will keep you as young as working with kids. It’s a part of my life now and I couldn’t live without it.”

That passion for ag education started early. “I was 9 years old the first time I showed a calf at the Ohio State Fair,” Bonnie says. “I coach dairy judging teams and have taught judging classes for 53 years. We have a long history with the Ohio State Fair.”

In fact, the couple was inducted into the Ohio State Fair Hall of Fame in 2011. The National Dairy Shrine honored Bonnie with its Pioneer Award in 2021 in recognition of her contributions to the dairy industry — noting particularly Bonnie and John’s efforts over the years in breeding and developing one of the nation’s finest Guernsey herds at their farm, which has produced more than 20 national champions. She’s one of only a handful of women to have earned the award. “If I was supposed to find a glass ceiling, I must have missed it,” she says.

John and Bonnie have been honored with the American Guernsey Association’s Distinguished Service Award and are in OSU’s Dairy Science Hall of Service. Bonnie was Ohio Agriculture Woman of the Year in 1993 and the World Dairy Expo Woman of the year in 1994. Along with state and national events, both have judged dairy shows all over the world, including the World Dairy Expo.

However, it’s John and Bonnie’s youngest son, Lucas Ayars — part of the fifth generation of farmers in the family — who is responsible for the farm’s most widespread recognition outside of the industry. While attending Ohio State University, he developed a capstone project for producing, marketing, and selling homemade ice cream made with the family’s pasture-fed Guernsey cow milk. The family put his plan into action in 2010, and now Ayars Family Farm Ice Cream is sold at more than 30 local markets in western Ohio. Popular flavors include chunky cookie, brownie cow, and buttercup, as well as seasonal favorites such as peaches ’n’ cream in July, Buckeye Bessie in August, and pumpkin in October.

“If you want to be successful on a dairy farm, you can’t focus on the milk alone,” Lucas says. “You must look for ways to use the milk to make high-demand items, like cheese and ice cream — consumers typically eat more milk than they drink.”

Their farm also was the first stop on Luke Bryan’s 2018 Farm Tour, the country music superstar’s concert series to benefit farmers. That show drew more than 20,000 fans to the Ayarses’ hayfield.

Of course, while the Ayars family has experienced success over the years, they have also had their share of hardships as well. “There is good and there is bad in life, and we have walked both paths,” John says. “It makes us stronger and makes us appreciate where we are today. We have come a long way, and we are grateful for it all.”

Tags

Pioneer Electric Cooperative

farming

dairy

A tradition of showing up

sbradford — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 12:46:41 +0000

A tradition of showing up

May 1, 2026

Jill Moorhead

Co-op People

Roger Bender doesn’t think much about the number. From his farm outside Fort Loramie, where he’s a member of Piqua-based Pioneer Electric Cooperative, he’s been showing up to blood drives for more than 50 years. A pint here. Platelets there. Time spent in folding chairs at St. Michael Hall, sleeves rolled up, watching as the same people come through the door.

Over time, it’s added up to hundreds of donations — gallon upon gallon — and a mountain of T-shirts to mark them. Reds, blacks, faded grays, they sit in drawers and closets, each one stamped with a message: “Give blood. Give love.” “Find the hero in you.” “Be the good.” Some mark milestones, others came from small-town drives meant to thank donors and draw in new ones.

Bender keeps his favorites; they’re a regular part of his wardrobe. But he also gives them away: to neighbors who can’t donate anymore, to friends, to anyone who might wear one out into the world and make someone else think twice about passing by the next blood drive.

He doesn’t give blood for the shirts. He does it for what happens inside St. Michael Hall, the recurring home to Fort Loramie’s drives.

Behind the scenes

Hours before go-time on the day of a blood drive, St. Michael’s is already awake. The Fort Loramie Community Service Club (of which Bender is a member) handles the setup. Tables are lined up in neat rows, and volunteers move with quiet efficiency to prepare the space.

National Honor Society members from the local high school arrive early to help, taking care of the heavier lifting. The American Legion Auxiliary prepares food for the donors — hot sandwiches and homemade cookies are available for those who give (a step up from the usual bagged snacks available at blood drives).

Roughly one in eight of the town’s residents (somewhere around 200 people) will pass through the hall over the course of the day. It’s more than just a routine for many in the community; it’s become something deeply personal.

Everyone has a reason

Bender has seen it happen again and again. He recalls the story of a young couple who never miss a drive, often bringing their three children along. “Her mom had cancer,” the man says. “And that used a lot of blood.”

Bender sees another man at a table across the way — someone who, by his own admission, hates needles. Still, Bender says he comes to every drive. “If my wife could go through what she did for three years of cancer treatment,” the man told him, “I can deal with this.”

There’s the story of a young man who suffered severe burns and needed transfusions to survive. Before it happened, he had already donated more than 70 times himself. When word spread, the community responded the way it always does, by showing up.

A point of community pride

Years ago, a retired nurse named Irene Boerger helped build the local blood donation program into something lasting. She encouraged people not just to give, but to return, and to bring others with them. Over time, that persistence shaped the culture of the area. At one point, it became one of the highest donor regions in the country on a per capita basis.

It doesn’t matter to any of them that the blood collected doesn’t necessarily stay in Fort Loramie. It goes to supply hospitals across an 18-county area. The need is constant, with the blood being used for cancer patients, trauma victims, and surgeries that can’t wait.

To meet that need, the drives have expanded. What used to be three per year in Fort Loramie is now six. Nearby communities have done the same, creating more opportunities for people to step forward.

Do what you can

For years, Bender donated whole blood, a process that took 10 minutes or less. But after retiring from teaching in 2011, he was encouraged to switch to platelets and plasma, which are especially important for cancer and burn patients. The process takes longer. Blood is drawn, separated, and returned in cycles. Sometimes it keeps him in the chair for more than an hour.

Last year alone, he donated 28 times. It sounds like something worth bragging about, but Bender is more proud of the community effort than he is his own contribution. “I’m just fortunate to be healthy enough,” he says.

There are still small rewards. T-shirts. Sweatshirts. Coffee mugs. Tokens meant to thank donors and maybe catch someone’s attention out in public. For Bender, it’s more about what he leaves behind.

Tags

Pioneer Electric Cooperative

Community

Concern for Community

Riding for a cause

sbradford — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 15:58:49 +0000

Riding for a cause

April 1, 2026

Mary Mogan Edwards

Co-op People

Jason White still works every day to manage the symptoms and struggles that came home with him from Operation Desert Storm in 1993. Difficult as it can be, though, he knows that the love of his family makes him one of the lucky ones.

“My wife, my daughter, and my granddaughter are my support system,” says White, an Army veteran with a 100% disability rating based on traumatic brain injury and PTSD. “If I’m having a bad day, they’re having a bad day — they absorb that for me.”

Many struggling veterans aren’t as fortunate, and the consequences are dire: On average, 22 veterans die by suicide every day in the U.S.

White has long done what he could to help fellow vets — for years, he donated modest proceeds from his YouTube channel to veteran-related causes.

In 2022, he told his wife, Angela, “I want to do something big for veterans.” Nearly four years later (their efforts were delayed temporarily when Jason had a heart attack shortly after his inspiration), the couple is an organizing powerhouse as the full-time volunteer operators of Riding 22 in 22 VSA, a 501(c)(3) organization that marries their desire to help veterans with their love of motorcycle road-tripping.

They’re currently preparing for year two of their centerpiece event: a group ride across 22 states in 22 days — hence the name — that connects vets across the U.S., raising awareness about suicide risk and helping many get the intensive mental-health treatment they need.

Angela contacts local news media, arranges police escorts in and out of towns, and makes sure every day features an event. It’s often a dinner hosted by a local veterans service organization or motorcycle dealership, with proceeds to benefit the cause.

Jason scouts potential routes for stops of interest. Most days feature four to five hours of riding, with stops every hour to hour and a half. The fundraising comes from suggested participant donations of $20 per rider and $10 per passenger, as well as dinner proceeds, corporate donations, and individual contributions made throughout the year.

Those efforts paid off last year when their premier event raised $11,000, which they donated to STRIVE — Ohio State University’s Suicide and Trauma Reduction Initiative. STRIVE conducts research and provides clinical treatment to people at risk of suicide. Riding 22’s donation has been used to pay travel and lodging expenses for veterans coming to Columbus for R&R, the initiative’s two-week intensive intervention for veterans with trauma and suicide risk.

The relationship with Riding 22 — not just the funding, but raising awareness among the veteran community — is critical to STRIVE’s success, according to Dr. Rosie Bauder, an OSU clinical assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral health and principal investigator for the R&R program. “Community engagement is so important in suicide prevention,” Bauder says. “It means so much, all of their work to spread the word in ways that we wouldn’t be able to.”

Much of the proceeds from this year’s ride will again go to STRIVE, but the Whites also hope to simply help more veterans to join future rides. “Riding is therapy for a lot of veterans,” Angela says, but not all can afford the lodging and meal expenses of a three-week outing.

This year’s ride, set for May 22 to June 12, heads south to Louisiana and follows the Gulf Coast for a bit before turning north all the way to Maine, then back to Ohio for a closing ceremony. Anyone who wants to support it can join, including by car. “If you want to come with us for a day or a couple of days, for one gas stop or go for the whole 22, that’s all great,” Angela says. As the effort has gained recognition, they’ve attracted more sponsors — Harley-Davidson and Polaris are on board this year — and the Whites say those are getting generally easier to secure. This year’s goal: $22,000.

Angela knew their project was on the right track from the first night of last year’s ride, when a waitress at the kickoff dinner asked what the gathering was for. “We explained the goal,” Angela says, “and a man diagonal from our booth was listening. The couple got up and both came over to us. They were both in tears. The woman opened her jacket and her T-shirt had a military insignia and the ribbon that stands for veteran suicide awareness — they had lost a son to suicide. We’re faith-based people, and for me it was a sign from God that this is what we’re supposed to be doing.”

Tags

veteran

fundraising

Island art space

sbradford — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 18:37:39 +0000

Island art space

February 1, 2026

James Proffitt

Co-op People

Like many Kelleys Island residents, Charles and Cindy Herndon spent their childhood summers in the bucolic setting on western Lake Erie before returning decades later to live there. But they didn’t just come back to fade away into retirement.

Charles, 79, and Cindy, 74, established the Charles Herndon Galleries and Sculpture Garden, a sprawling art campus that includes two galleries, working studio spaces that have served as a sanctuary for art since 1999, and a sprawling garden with cedar woods with trails for visitors to walk around and view the art.

Charles is a retired professor from Columbus College of Art and Design. He is a sculptor, painter, and photographer whose work is intimately connected to the lake — and to the sprawling 10-acre garden on its shore.

“The lake is a provider for paintings using propagation, waves, the stones it brings to shore, its movement, repetition, and variety,” he says. “The natural world is important to my soul and its creative juices.”

Before he painted, Charles mostly sculpted, and the garden portion of the campus is home to about 150 pieces ranging from smaller works to massive creations 7 or 8 feet tall. Some are wood, steel, or bronze; others are pieces of glacial erratic (granite) and limestone, many quarried from the island.

“The granite came down from the Wisconsin glacier, and you can see it’s gone through the molten process, so there are veins where it was really, really hot,” Cindy says. “They’re very hard and you have to use diamond tools to carve those. And the limestone from Kelleys has all kinds of interesting patterns, so the fossils really show through.”

While the Herndon galleries themselves are seasonal (a no-brainer on Lake Erie islands), the studios serve as creative “hotspots” year-round — a term that’s quite literal for one of the two island artists whose work is born there.

“Jackie Polofka is our glass artist and does amazing things in the studio Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays during the season,” says Carmen Smith, the gallery’s manager. “She used to blow glass in different places around the island with a trailer.”

Polofka’s yearning for a larger and more permanent working space eventually led to a perfect marriage with the Herndons’ desire to have artists working on
the campus.

“It’s a huge draw for the gallery and people love her work,” Smith says. “She blows a lot of touristy things you can hang in the window and cute little birds — fun stuff — but also pieces like goblets with extremely fancy stems. Those are stunningly gorgeous.”

The other artist whose work regularly rises from the studios is Smith herself. “I’m a jeweler and also work in fibers, sewing, weaving, and things like that,” she says. “I have a loom where I can make textiles, but I do a lot of wall hangings, more artistic-leaning than functional weaving. I also use a lot of clothing and other textiles that I find, both for the environment and the price.”

Smith says soaring silver prices have cut into her jewelry work, though she’s still a working jeweler with the know-how to mill silver. That’s the process of taking raw silver and forming it into sheets, shapes, wires, or whatever form is needed to create original pieces. She also does free-form casting, in which liquid silver is poured into materials such as beans, water, rice or spaghetti to create one-of-a-kind shapes; she says it’s quite the crowd pleaser.

“It’s fun because it’s visual and so I do it as a demonstration down at the gardens sometimes,” she says. “It’s just very fun to work with.”

The gallery and gardens are free and open to the public during the season, and while the space is located at the eastern end of the island, away from the downtown bars and restaurants, it still sees regular traffic from summer revelers — many with drinks in hand, which Smith says has never caused an issue.

“We like to share the art and garden with visitors, especially our community members,” Charles says. “We enjoy it and feel it’s important to our society to give explanation to some of the stone carving processes and welding of steel. And we always encourage young children to enjoy the outdoor work — we have games they can play to seek a better understanding.”

The Herndons are members of North Baltimore-based Hancock-Wood Electric Cooperative, as are all residents and businesses on Kelleys.

“We have great people on the island here, absolutely,” Cindy says. “That’s another story in itself, just the people that work on the island. It’s a great co-op and we’re happy with things and if we’re ever not, they’re always responsive.”

Island rescues

While Charles Herndon paints and sculpts, plucking ideas and forms from ancient stone and colors and patterns from palettes with a searching mind and heart, he also will occasionally be called upon to transform dark to light in a more metaphysical sense.

In 2007, a small plane crashed into Lake Erie about a half-mile out from his gallery and sculpture garden at the eastern end of Kelleys Island. He launched his small rowboat and saved a young boy whose father and brother had perished in the crash.

Years earlier, he and Cindy were fishing south of the island when they came upon another fishing boat that had sunk and they rescued two anglers from the water — though a third person aboard did not survive.

Tags

Hancock-Wood Electric Cooperative

Lake Erie

artist

Building bridges

sbradford — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 20:11:07 +0000

Building bridges

January 1, 2026

Theresa Ravencraft

Co-op People

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.

He had been inspired to study civil engineering while he worked at his father’s construction company in high school, but he didn’t start focusing on bridges until that 1967 disaster, which killed 46 people.

“The collapse of Silver Bridge impacted me significantly,” Stolte says. “It heightened my interest in bridge construction and changed the course of my career.”

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.

The experience broadened his knowledge of construction and fueled his burgeoning passion for bridges — particularly the covered bridges of Union County, much of which is served by URE–Union Rural Electric Cooperative.

After he graduated in 1969, Stolte took a job in Union County and soon became a partner in the engineering firm of Fleming, Page, and Stolte. One of the other partners, Jim Page, an environmental engineer, worked together with Stolte to create the grid system that numbered all the homes in Union County. It was a massive undertaking, but it gave him a better understanding of the area.

In 1984, Stolte decided to run for county engineer. “It was time for change,” he says. “I wanted to be more progressive and apply for grants to make improvements.”

He would serve in that role for nearly 25 years, working tirelessly to update both equipment and infrastructure throughout the county. Later, he was elected as a county commissioner and served another 10 years in office. In that time, the county replaced more than 200 bridges, widened 100 miles of road, improved traffic signage, and installed thousands of feet of modern guardrails.

But one aspect of his tenure stands out: his work on covered bridges.

“We discovered the covered bridges in Union County when we inspected them in college,” Stolte says. “I’m most proud of building two new covered bridges, Buck Run Covered Bridge and North Lewisburg Covered Bridge. We also elevated all covered bridges from 5 to 8 tons to a higher load limit, so school buses and farm equipment could go over them.”

The Buck Run Covered Bridge, built in 2006, spans Darby Creek and is the longest single-span wooden bridge in Ohio at 160 feet in length. The two-lane North Lewisburg Covered Bridge was completed that same year to replace the original 1868 Pottersburg Bridge, which was relocated and restored — and dedicated to Stolte in 2022.

Together with his wife, Mardy, Stolte still devotes his time and efforts to educating visitors about covered bridges through local events, such as Dine on a Covered Bridge, designed to showcase and celebrate the history of covered bridges in Union County. The event draws hundreds of people from across the state. From July through October every year, visitors are offered guided tours, lunch or dinner made with locally sourced ingredients, and live music on the bridge.

After spending the bulk of his life restoring the old and building the new, Stolte is convinced it was the right thing to do. “Covered bridges are a link to the past, a past that was simpler and slower-paced,” he says. “They are also a link to our transportation history. They were the very first bridge that saw widespread use in Ohio. And they are still valuable today.”

Want to visit the covered bridges of Union County? Find more information at www.dineonacoveredbridge.com and www.unioncountyoh.com.

Tags

Ohio history

co-op member

Union Rural Electric Cooperative

Dreams at sunset

sbradford — Wed, 26 Nov 2025 15:18:18 +0000

Dreams at sunset

December 1, 2025

Margie Wuebker

Co-op People

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.

Todd had grown up in rural Darke County. He and his wife, Sara, were married in 2010, and he had found success working in the insurance field. But he began feeling unexplainably dizzy and had a lingering headache, and in 2012, doctors gave him the news that no one ever wants to hear.

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

At the time, Todd drove a 1989 Ford Mustang convertible, but decided to sell it shortly before they bought their first home in Columbus. “He always regretted doing that,” Sara says. Later, as the boys were getting older, they enjoyed attending the annual London (Ohio) Cobra Show.

“My husband was a dreamer,” Sara says with a chuckle. “Each year we attended that show, he talked about building three Carroll Shelby Cobras — one for Colin, one for Corey, and one for us. Those were ambitious plans, considering it takes at least a year and a half to build each one.”

And so life went on, including those periodic discussions about that dream car and talks about those sunset drives with the top down. But the dream was interrupted by another dose of reality.

At the beginning of 2024, Todd did not feel well and knew something was amiss. Tests at the Cleveland Clinic confirmed his suspicions — the tumor was no longer dormant, and doctors also found at least three additional disorders that further complicated his condition, and soon he began feeling pain that was unrelenting.

Motivation

Sara, a former service coordinator with the Franklin County Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, used her skills to investigate holistic treatments and other approaches when traditional protocols like radiation offered little relief.

“Todd would get up in the morning and slowly make his way down the stairs to his recliner,” Sara says. “He could no longer drive due to double vision, there were mobility issues on his right side, and he developed short-term memory problems. But he never complained despite the pain and everything else.”

In July of that year, Sara saw the black Ford Cobra sitting in a neighbor’s yard, a “for sale” sign in the windshield. She knew it was the motivation Todd needed. She helped him to their golf cart and a smile flashed across his face as soon as he saw the vehicle with its distinctive Cobra designs on the seats.

“Todd wanted that car,” Sara says.

He spoke a lot about the Cobra during the ensuing weeks, pointing out that Sara would have to do the driving, or planning which shows he wanted to take it to, or deciding whom he wanted to take around on those sunset drives.

The family spent much of the following months at the Cleveland Clinic, where doctors offered little hope after more tests indicated the cancer had spread to fluid around the brain and to the spinal cord. The disease ultimately claimed his life Oct. 24, 2024, exactly 12 years to the day from his initial diagnosis. He was 42.

Signs, and a decision

The idea of buying the car and fulfilling Todd’s wishes came as the family drove home from the Cleveland Clinic after his death.

Sara says a large truck emblazoned with “Ford” seemed to shadow them during the drive, which she, Colin (then 10), and Corey (6) found comforting because they all knew he was definitely a “Ford man.”

But there was also that sky.

Sara’s parents, Dave and Julie Heuing, members of Piqua-based Pioneer Electric Cooperative, were on their way back to their home in Russia (Ohio), and couldn’t help but to be reminded of their son-in-law. “The sunset was unusually beautiful that day and we knew Todd would have loved it,” Julie says. By the time they all got home, she had made a decision.

“I did a lot of praying about buying the car, and I told Sara I wanted to do it for Todd,” Julie says. “I needed to talk to my husband first, but Dave was in agreement that we should do it for Todd and the boys. My dad had two Mustangs when I was growing up and everything seemed so right.”

The Heuings test drove the Cobra and ended up purchasing it this past summer.

“The first time I took it out I could sense Todd in the passenger seat,” Julie says. “I looked over and told him to fasten his seatbelt because we were going for a ride.”

Sara says she and the boys also feel Todd’s presence when they take a ride in “daddy’s car.” Julie says she may take it to some car shows and might even take a spin along legendary Route 66.

“I am keeping Todd’s dream alive while enjoying the car myself,” she says. “When the time comes, I will pass it on to the boys, just as their dad planned.”

Tags

Darke Rural Electric Cooperative

All in the family

sbradford — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 17:57:15 +0000

All in the family

November 1, 2025

Damaine Vonada

Co-op People

Soon after Zac Loomis and his wife, Lauren, purchased the Inn & Spa at Cedar Falls in February 2019, he asked the chef to tweak the menu at its restaurant, Kindred Spirits, so that every dish would be tree-nut-free. “It was the first directive I remember giving the staff, and I did it because our son, Carter, has a tree-nut allergy,” explains Zac. “I wanted him to be able to eat anything we serve.”

Ah, the joys — and challenges — of operating a 75-acre Hocking Hills resort where guests come to bask in the uninterrupted beauty of nature and enjoy high-quality lodging, dining, and spa services. Though they live in the Columbus suburb of Lewis Center, the Loomis family (Zac and Lauren, along with their 13-year-old daughter, Quinn, and 15-year-old Carter) became instant “co-op people” when they acquired the inn, which is a member of Lancaster-based South Central Power Company. Zac, a successful real estate agent and investor, initially went to the inn to help longtime owners Ellen Grinsfelder and her husband, Terry Lingo, find a buyer. Instead, he fell in love with the place and bought it himself.

Flanked on three sides by Hocking Hills State Park, the inn was one of the first Hocking Hills venues to offer guests lodging as well as an on-site fine-dining experience. That not only played a key role in putting the region on the tourist map, but over the next three decades, the inn also grew from a modest, barnlike bed-and-breakfast that original owner Anne Castle founded in 1987 into what is arguably the Hocking Hills’ most iconic — and complete — destination. “The inn is the only private property on State Route 374,” Zac says, “and since that’s a paved two-lane road, we installed signage to let people know when they are driving by it.”

After Castle died in 1991, her daughter Ellen and son-in-law Terry continued operating the inn and established its casual but exceptionally cordial hospitality standard. They transformed 1840s log houses into overnight accommodations; constructed made-for-couples cottages tucked away in the woods; added Pacific-style yurts; and turned one cabin into a spa. The inn’s heart, of course, was Kindred Spirits, which Ellen and Terry also expanded as a LEED-certified environmentally friendly gathering place. At the restaurant, wines flowed, candles glowed, and guests got the distinct pleasure of dining on filet mignon while wearing hiking boots and jeans.

“Anne, Ellen, and Terry left a remarkable legacy at the inn that I’m trying to preserve and protect by rounding out the guests’ experiences,” Zac says. Although he’d been building new log homes in the Hocking Hills region for years and had driven by it countless times, Zac had never visited the inn until Ellen suggested he meet her banker for a tour in August 2018. Six months later, he and Lauren owned it. “Everybody knows this property,” Zac says. “It’s so iconic that in the beginning, I thought I was under a microscope.”

For the Loomises, their first real ownership test was the COVID pandemic, which surfaced only about a year after their purchase. To keep the inn’s staff working, they built three climate-controlled geodomes that were the first in the United States to offer indoor plumbing, HVAC, and electricity. Featuring large windows overlooking the woods, the geodomes boast king-sized beds, kitchenettes with retro-style appliances, and private decks.

Since then, Zac and Lauren also converted nine of the original bed-and-breakfast rooms into spa treatment spaces that offer a wide range of services for both individuals and couples. Thus, the inn now has 24 lodging units on-site: three geodomes, three yurts, six cabins, and 12 cottages.

As their children have gotten older, running the inn has become a true family affair. Carter and Quinn have done everything from dusting the gift shop and making homemade granola to cooking with restaurant manager Candice Pagano. They also learned life lessons like coping with feelings and emotions at a young age, and after Zac and Lauren bought the picturesque Hocking Hills Golf Club on U.S. 33 a few years ago, their kids set up a stand selling used golf balls.

Opened in June 2025, the Golf Club’s new “stay and play” concept consists of four modern suites and lofts that accommodate between two and four overnight guests, and its Urban Grille serves a finger-food American menu — including bang bang shrimp, citrus berry salad, and bourbon burgers — plus cocktails, mimosas, and mules. Besides the Golf Club’s four suites, the Loomises also own four log houses and manage 18 others located throughout the Hocking Hills for friends and family members.

“No two days are ever the same,” says Zac, “and that’s not on purpose. It just happens.”

Tags

South Central Power

Hocking Hills State Park

Hocking Hills

travel