Christmas in Jail! (2014)

Four years ago:

Last evening Linda and I, and many of my friends from St. Marty's Painesville (Dan and Kathy Philipps and their daughter Alyssa; Kathy Flora; Mary Ann Ratchko-Gamez and her husband Feliciano, and several others) spent the evening "con-celebrating" a Christmas program for inmates of the Lake County Jail. Mary Ann brought her flute and Irish whistles and was accompanied by Alex on keyboard and her husband Feliciano on guitar. There were about 6 or so singers, some I recognized and some I didn't know, including a St. Mary's woman (Allison?) who sang a beautiful solo. There were also representatives from a number of other religious communities, St. Noel's, St. Gabe's, St. Anthony's, Kirtland Unitarian Universalist, a Leroy congregation, and several other Protestant congregations. Fr. Mark Riley of St. Mary's took the lead role (but involved everyone).

Lake County Jail (summer photo)

The sessions began as the prisoners ushered in. In the first session (of three), there might have been 30 to 50 women, mostly young, overwhelmingly white. They looked like our daughters, sisters, neighbors. They looked like us (and that really made us think!). We began singing together some popular (and maybe a bit corny) Christmas songs, but the inmates loved it! They particularly got into "Frosty the Snowman," thumping the floor and sitting pads vigorously when the time came. We moved into some more religious carols, led off by "O Holy Night" by our soloist. It was spectacular. Then we sang together several songs, including "Silent Night," one verse sung in Spanish. My favorite was the song "Peace Child." I will try to find a Youtube version of this song and post it later.

Part of the evening involved each of us bringing strips of cloth to a rough wooden manger, to make a comfortable bed for the Baby Jesus. It was moving to see some of the tough men do this. Father Mark asked us to put our hands over our hearts, and to prepare room in our hearts for grace, for the newborn Jesus. We did that--we made room. Father Mark said, "This visit to you is the most important thing I will do this Christmas." It was true for him, and true for all of us!

At certain points, some of the inmates began to cry--at the beauty of the music, at the touching scene making the rough crib comfortable for the baby Jesus, for the heartbreak of being in jail on Christmas.

Believe me, we were as moved and as grateful as the prisoners. We came to do a Work of Mercy, visiting those in prison (as Jesus once was!). What was amazing is how we felt the prisoners had done something for us!

P.S. The final song of every session, after the solemn hymns, was a vibrant version of "Feliz Navidad," led by Feliciano Gamez on guitar. It was so joyful that many of the women and men began dancing to the tune. It was a wonderful way to end the evening.

The Indigo Girls sing "Peace Child":



Lyrics to "Peace Child"

Peace Child,
in the sleep of the night,
in the dark before light
you come,
in the silence of stars,
in the violence of wars--
Savior, your name.

Peace Child,
to the road and the storm,
to the gun and the bomb
you come,
through the hate and the hurt,
through the hunger and dirt--
bearing a dream.

Peace Child,
to our dark and our sleep,
to the conflict we reap,
now come--
be your dream born alive,
held in hope, wrapped in love:
God's true shalom.

Songwriters
ALLOCCO, JACK / KURTZ, DAVID / (WRITER UNKNOWN), TRADITIONAL

Published by
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

Advice to Prophets--a short poem

Advice to Prophets

Today the prophets weep,

Victory always seems to go to Evil.

But in the long arc,

If we help bend it,

It turns toward justice.

Weep not, prophets,

Just get to work!

Bob Coughlin

July 4, 2018

[Theodore Parker, Unitarian/Transcendentalist, in his 1853 book “Ten Sermons of Religion”--”The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”]

 When I wrote this poem yesterday, I was thinking of some prophetic voices that I have known--Mike Rivage-Seul, Kathy Flora, Brian Rice, Dave Lima, Dolly Mikula, Fr. James Martin, Maurice McCrackin, Marion Bromley, Ernest Bromley, Chuck Matthei, Daniel Berrigan, and many others. What keeps them going in times of such discouragement? Or is that the wrong word? There's a line in Tennessee Williams' Glass Menagerie: "I am disappointed, not discouraged."

I also thought about the famous line, seen above, that Martin Luther King Jr. borrowed from Theodore Parker, about the arc of the moral universe. What I wanted to add is that we have to do the bending--I'm not sure that it bends by itself. We have to get to work!

Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr.

Forgive me for not posting blog entries lately. I apparently have a fierce and inexplicable case of writer's block. But I did want to write a brief post today on Martin Luther King, Jr. A few years ago I wrote a piece in this blog on what I was doing the day MLK was murdered. What was left out of that posting was the impact of MLK on me--and on the world.

I was just becoming awake to the world when Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered on April 4, 1968. I was a 19-year-old college sophomore studying for the year in Salzburg and Innsbruck, Austria. That year in Europe put America in a different light for me. Europeans were very aware and concerned about the poverty and racism in America. And they seemed very worried about and opposed to the Vietnam War. I should have cared more about these issues, but I guess I was still somewhat insulated from them. I grew up in Euclid, Ohio. During my high school years, Euclid had a population of some 70,000 people, none of whom, as far as I knew, were Black. The Vietnam war had affected Euclid, but even that didn't penetrate my consciousness much--even though a St. William's and St. Joe's classmate, Raymond "Buddy" Chasser, had been killed in Vietnam. A year after MLK was murdered in Memphis, my own cousin, Tommy Fitzpatrick (again, of Euclid, St. William's, St. Joe's, and Euclid High School), was killed in Vietnam. So I quickly woke up, with all these deaths, riots, and war all around us.

MLK's murder left me bewildered, and eventually led to my study of nonviolence, my own fight against racism (which continues!), and my involvement in both the Civil Rights movement, the protests against the Vietnam War, and, indeed, resistance to war in general. After college, I moved to Cincinnati and roomed with Chris Cotter in the poor Over-the-Rhine neighborhood. We both studied nonviolence, learned about poverty first-hand, and met many courageous people involved in both the Civil Rights movement and the movement to nonviolently resist war and the tools of war. That's when Chris and I met Marion and Ernest Bromley, Juanita and Wally Nelson, and Maurice McCrackin--and later, Dorothy Day. And we met a lot of Peacemakers and Catholic Workers--Peggy Scherer, Greg Haas, Henry Scott, John Luginbill, Kenny Przybylski, Dan Bromley, Richard Gale, Tim Jenkins, Chuck Matthei--and so many others. In Chris Cotter's last two years at Notre Dame, he was in the Peace Studies Program, working with great teachers like Jim Douglass, Charles McCarthy, John Howard Yoder, and many others. I got to meet Jim Douglass and Charles McCarthy--and I know Emmanuel Charles McCarthy, now a Melkite-rite Catholic priest, is still a profound influence on Chris and my friend Tim Musser (and really hundreds and hundreds of other people).

Some years after leaving Cincinnati, I decided to write a biography of Rev. Maurice McCrackin, the great peace and Civil Rights activist. I soon teamed up with Judith Bechtel (now Judith Blackburn), and were able to publish a bio of Mac through Temple University Press in 1991 (a 2nd edition is still for sale on Amazon.com)--Building the Beloved Community: Maurice McCrackin's Life for Peace and Civil Rights. Daniel Berrigan, SJ, wrote a foreword to our biography.

All of that was thanks to Martin Luther King, and yes, to his death, which opened up my eyes to the evil in the world and what could be done about it.

Of course this is only part of the story and omits the influence of people I encountered in Berea, Kentucky, like Mike and Peggy Rivage-Seul, Guy and Peggy Patrick, Anne Weatherford, and many more. And the marvelous people I have met, and still work with in Painesville and Cleveland, Ohio--like Kathy Flora, Dan and Kathy Philipps, Brian Rice, and many many more. Not to mention the impact of my wife Linda and my daughters, Julia, Carolan, and Emily.

There are many courageous allies out there. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." There's work to be done, there are allies out there, and "we shall not be moved" by the forces of hatred and despair.

"There But for Fortune, Go You or I, You or I." The Old Song Tells the Truth!

[I have changed the names of key people in this true story, except for Jerry, Mickey, and Uncle Fran.]

Every Thursday I work at the Karpos Meal for the Homeless and Hungry at St. Mary's Church in Painesville, Ohio. It's a couple hours out of my week, and I work with the most wonderful people preparing the food, serving, and cleaning up (Kathy P, Judy, Linda, Kathy F, Ken, Dan, Jim, Bernice, Pam, Ron, Wayne, Chuck, and others). About 100 people come to our meals (every Wednesday and Thursday evenings at St. Mary's, beginning about 5 pm and serving for about an hour). I have gotten to know many of the people who come. Some of them are indeed down-and-out homeless; others are living in shelters, in "Extended Housing," or living on very tight food budgets. There is no "means testing" for our meal--just show up if you want a good nutritious meal and good company. And help out if you can--setting up tables and chairs, cleaning up afterwards. A few even help in preparation and serving of the meal.

Yesterday one of the regulars asked me if people call me "professor" all the time. I found it a rather funny question, and reassured him that only my students call me that--never my friends, unless they are pulling my leg. Then he asked me what my last name was. When I told him, he was amazed. "You aren't related to Jerry, are you?"

Initially, I hesitated. Jerry has been in some trouble, had a tough life. "Yea, Jerry is my cousin."

"And Mickey?" he asked.

'Yea, Mickey's my cousin too, though I haven't seen him in about 40 years. Their family fell apart when their father, my Uncle Fran, died suddenly at age 46." I found out just recently that Uncle Fran's death might have been caused by liver failure from alcohol abuse.

Then, "Danny" (that's what I'll call this fellow) asked me, "You ain't related to Celia Cotter, are you? She used to hang out with her cousins Jerry and Mickey and I dated her for a couple years in the late '60s. Her dad told me to keep away from her." Celia's dad was my uncle.

Wow, I could hardly hold all this in my head. This homeless fellow, who I have served at the Karpos meal for over four years, was once friends with three of my cousins, and still sees one of them at AA meetings. And he dated one of my cousins for a couple years. What if he had married her? What would his and her fate have been like? One ended up homeless; the other with a good middle-class life and family.

It's clear that our lives are unsolvable mysteries. You or I could have ended up homeless. We are not all that different. "There but for fortune go you or go I, you or I"--that's how the Phil Ochs song goes. And that is the truth!

Here are the lyrics to "There But for Fortune . . ." by Phil Ochs

Show me the prison, show me the jail
Show me the prisoner whose face is growin' pale
And I'll show you a young man with so many reasons why
There but for fortune, go you or go I
You and I. 

Show me the alley, show me the train
Show me the hobo who sleeps out in the rain
And I'll show you a young man with many reasons why
There but for fortune, go you or go I
You and I. 

Show me the famine, show me the frail
Eyes with no future, that show how we fail
And I'll show you the children with so many reasons why
There but for fortune, go you or go I
You and I. 

Show me the country where bombs had to fall
Show me the ruins of buildings once so tall
And I'll show you a young land with many reasons why
There but for fortune, go you or go I
You and I.
You and I. 

There but for fortune, go you or go I
You and I.

Here is a YouTube video of Phil Ochs singing this song:

A Poem for February

Two triggers for this poem: On Monday I took a hike on the Maple Highlands Trail in Chardon (on what once was a railroad track). I was the only person out hiking during the snowstorm, and it was so beautiful. Also, my friend Kathy Flora told me how happy she was shoveling snow one evening recently. I think I understood her happiness.

February in Northeast Ohio

I. Hiking the Maple Highlands Trail in Chardon,

Not another person in sight.

Snow four inches deep, none but occasional squirrel tracks,

Sugar maple, tall pine covered with white, every branch and bud,

The woods quiet—

And beautiful.

Can’t believe this good fortune,

This blessing,

To be witness to the silent beauty,

This contemplative miracle.

II. Shoveling the driveway in the dark.

Cleveland Heights, this busy town,

Relaxes, quiets down, exhales.

Swirling snow dancing in the streetlight

Nothing short of magical,

This peacefulness, this beauty.

As you push and lift the snow,

You notice your muscles,

Thank God for them,

For skin, nerves, bone, and sinew.

How to explain your joy?

And who would ever listen?

                        Bob Coughlin / February 9, 2016

Moving Day--A Poem for My Friends

Kathy and her husband are moving. Here's a poem for them.

Laying On of Hands (Preparing for Moving Day)

As you prepare for Moving Day

You are forced to lay your hands

            On everything you own . . .

And even if you fight hard

To keep your mind silent,

All you can think about is

The history of this item or that

And all the things and people

Who have passed in and out of your life:

            So many gifts, yet

            So many gone.

And even though you’ve tried to live in the here and now,

You wonder what this move will mean,

What changes it augurs,

For good or for ill.

All the ghosts, all the hands,

All the stories,

How will all this end?

[Bob Coughlin / October 13, 2015]

Our Community Responds to a Crisis--a Flood in the Karpos/Soup Kitchen Facilities at St. Mary's Painesville

About one week ago, Kathy Philipps was at John Carroll University, where she teaches Theology. She got an urgent call saying that a pipe broke in an old facility above the Karpos supply room at St. Mary's in Painesville, Ohio. The Karpos Ministry, co-founded by Kathy Philipps and Greg Stovicek, feeds the homeless and hungry at St. Mary's every Wednesday and Thursday. It has done this for almost 6 years now, often feeding 100-150 per day. This has been done in perfect spring and summer weather and in the bitterest of cold rain storms, blizzards, and below zero weather.

The broken pipe was on an upper level, an unused part of the Fr. Hanso Center. But the water seeped through the ceiling, causing thousands of dollars of damage to the building, all the food preparation supplies, equipment, and machines, and to much of the food.

The call went out to the many Karpos volunteers and even to the homeless and hungry people Karpos feeds. These folks rallied and worked together to get the Karpos Ministry going again. It was an absolutely remarkable effort, sometimes involving 15-20 people. Many worked 9-10 hours a day for several days to get things back together. It was an example of the "Beloved Community," spoken of by Martin Luther King Jr. Rich and poor, privileged and homeless, all working side by side. Really, it was a kind of miracle.

It would be impossible to name all the helpers, but some that come to mind: Kathy Philipps, Kathy Flora, Linda Coughlin, Cheryl Rice, Brian Rice, Ken Fitzsimmons, Chuck Hillier, Bea, Don, Kelly, Dan Philipps, Pam--many, many others. A remarkable effort! Thank You so much!

The clean-up

A Cleveland Group Fighting to Save Immigrant Children

Yesterday there was a dinner fundraiser of the Cleveland Children's Coalition, a group fighting to save immigrant children in Northeast Ohio. The meeting was at a West Side Mexican restaurant, Villa y Zapata, and involved 20-25 people, among them some of the finest people in the Greater Cleveland area. You cannot save children without saving their mothers. So that is also a focus of the group. And the fathers are also crucial players in these issues. A good example of this is a woman I will call "Evita," from Lake County, Ohio. She is an undocumented immigrant (though she's lived here for 16 years), a PSR teacher in a local Catholic parish, a homeowner, a taxpayer, with four boys who are American citizens. Evita went back to Mexico, an emergency visit, because her mother was dying. Her mother did indeed die; luckily Evita was there by here mother's bedside, to give her comfort and courage.

When Evita tried to get back into the United States, she was captured at the border, and has been imprisoned for about two months in a detention center near El Paso. Her husband is at home in Lake County taking care of the four school-age boys. That is why we care about the children and the mothers and the fathers. Mexican and Central American families are so tight that if one component is missing or damaged (the child, the mother, or the father), then the entire structure can collapse.

The tragic stories these immigrants carry are heartbreaking, and reveal a cruel and truly heartless and illogical immigration policy. We are trying to do something to help the situation.

At yesterday's gathering, we saw some prominent clergy, Fr. Bob Begin (formerly pastor of St. Colman's) and Fr. Rob Reidy of Sagrada Familia parish in Cleveland, many Notre Dame nuns, the astonishing force of nature Sr. Mary Rita Harwood, and some brave lawyers, law students, and their assistants: Svetlana Schroeber, Carmen, and Sara Elaqad.

The organizers included Kate O'Donnell, Maureen Pergola, Joy Macinlay, Sr. Marie Manning, and Kate Uhlir.

There was a good contingent there from St. Mary's Painesville: Linda Coughlin, Kathy Flora, Dan Philipps, Kathy Philipps, Brian Rice, Pat Denny and her son Donny (not exactly from St. Mary's, but we will claim them), and myself. This is a tribute to the social justice focus and energy of our parish. By the way, many people involved with St. Mary's social justice ministries are not Catholic and not officially parishioners--but we love them and they give so much to our parish and the people we serve.

Here are some photos from that gathering:

Sr. Rita Mary Harwood

Padre Rob Reidy, of Sagrada Familia

The program for the fundraiser

Svetlana and Fr. Rob Reidy

Bitter Cold Nights for Homeless in Painesville, Ohio

Last night was a tough night to be homeless in Painesville, Ohio. Some friends and I were privileged to be able to help them, at least a little. On the winter's coldest and snowiest nights, my friends open up an emergency warming center for the homeless in St. Mary's gym. Some of the main people doing this include Kathy and Dan Philipps, Brian Rice, and several others, including Maggie Rice, Ed Zivkovitch, and gee--I don't know all the names of the helpers.

Last night Ed and I stayed overnight as the people in charge. Kathy Philipps, Linda Coughlin, Brian Rice, Krista Zivkovitch, Kathy Flora and others gave us a big hand before the overnight began and again in the morning as we were packing up and cleaning up the facility.

I took a few pictures so people could get an idea of what this is like. The pictures cannot tell the whole story, and I didn't feel it would be proper to take close-up photos of our guests. All in all we had 15 guests, three of those women. The age range was considerable, but luckily there were no young moms or children. There is another facility for them, Project Hope, about 2-3 miles to the west of St. Mary's.

Pope Francis has weighed in on homelessness and priorities in the world's richest nations

15 cots on the perimeter of the gymnasium

The Pope's view on the mission of the Church

My cot and sleeping bag

The gym is behind the Fr. Hanzo Family Center.

At. St. Mary's in Painesville, we take seriously the Works of Mercy, and we do our best to feed the hungry (via the Karpos Ministry, Wednesday and Thursday nights, and a food pantry). In very cold and snowy weather we shelter the homeless. And we try to "clothe the naked" (so far no one has come naked--ha ha), by offering gloves, coats, hats, shoes, and other clothing--as far as we are able. It is my belief that our pastor, Fr. Steve Vellenga, should get some credit for allowing and facilitating these ministries. Some pastors would have no part of it, despite the exhortations of Pope Francis.

You can't encounter the hungry and the homeless without wondering why this can happen in wealthy America, in wealthy Lake County, Ohio. I believe we must address the structural and institutional reasons for these scandals. Meanwhile, we at St. Mary's take a Catholic Worker approach (rather than the social worker and institutional approach of the Salvation Army or Project Hope). We do what we can to meet radical needs, and we do it without judgement.

The Year, 2014, as Reflected in My Blog

My blog has become, to borrow a phrase from Walt Whitman, my "Carte Visite" to the world--to my family, friends, and maybe to a handful of people I will never know. Anyway, here are a few highlights from reviewing the blog entries of this past year.

The year opened with the wonderful, miraculous birth of my second grandson, Robert Edward Nicholas Kleppel--son of my daughter Julia and Eddy Kleppel.

Bob and Robby

The blog chronicles a very snowy and cold winter in Northeast Ohio, and talks about how we opened a warming center at St. Mary's in Painesville. We were open something like 38 nights (I spent 2 nights there; Brian Rice and Kathy Phillips were there most of those 38 nights). This Work of Mercy probably prevented much misery and possibly some deaths from freezing.

Some Winter 2014 pics:

Colin, at a North Chagrin sledding hill

Carolan, atop Gildersleve Mountain, Chapin Forest

Lake Erie sunset

During 2014 Linda and I continued our work with the Karpos Ministry at St. Mary's Painesville. Every Thursday (and sometimes on Wednesdays) we would prepare and serve nutritious meals to the hungry and homeless, sometimes 150 or more per night. We felt great joy doing this work and working alongside our dear friends, Kathy and Dan Philipps, Kathy Flora, Ken Fitzsimmons, Chuck Hillier, Pam, Judy, Jim, Wayne, Rose, Bea, and many more. I haven't encountered people like this since my days in Cincinnati when I met the Cincinnati Peacemakers like Maurice McCrackin and Marion and Ernest Bromley (and others like Ken Przybylski, Greg Haas, Henry Scott, Chris Cotter, and many more).

In April, Kathy Philipps did a presentation at Borromeo Seminary on her dissertation topic, hospitality, serving the needy, homeless, and hungry. Below are some pics from the Karpos Ministry and from the Borromeo presentation done by Kathy Philipps:

Jim, Linda, Bea--doing the dishes

Dan Philipps, St. Mary's

Kathy Philipps doing her presentation

Slide from Kathy's presentation

Linda and Jan, Borromeo

Kathy Flora, at the Borromeo presentation

Serving good food at St. Mary's Painesville

Fr. Hanzo Center at St. Mary's

Susan Allsip, St. Mary's

Kathy Philipps finished and defended her dissertation in December. She is now Doctor Kathleen Philipps. Besides her Karpos work, she is teaching theology at John Carroll University. We are very proud of her!

During 2014 there were both births and deaths in our family and community. Among the deaths I wrote about included Jack O'Donnell, Bob Jaynes, Pete Seeger, Galway Kinnell, and Robin Williams. We hold our beloved living and dead close to our hearts always.

[More coming!]

Snowmageddon in Painesville and Mentor. Impact on the Homeless

Yesterday parts of Mentor and Painesville, Ohio had a tremendous lake-effect snowfall. About 14 inches fell in Northeast Mentor, Painesville, and surrounding areas within a few hours. The result was absolute paralysis in these snowbelt communities that normally shrug off the snow. Painesville was in total gridlock. I know this firsthand because I, and many of my friends, were trying to get to St. Mary's Church in Painesville, where we feed the homeless and hungry every Wednesday and Thursday. We typically serve about 150 meals (and the range can be 100 to 200) each day. There are lots of homeless and hungry people in Painesville, the county seat of prosperous Lake County, Ohio.

I left Lakeland College, on the Kirtland-Mentor border, around 2:30 PM for the 12 mile trip to Painesville. I arrived there at 5:20--almost three hours later. I was almost crazy at that point. My car was running out of gas; my phone battery was drained; and I had to go the bathroom very very bad. All my companions in the Karpos Ministry to the Homeless were in the same situation. Kathy Flora was driving in from Geauga County, and was stopped by a stalled train. Kathy Philipps was stuck in her commute from John Carroll University, where she teaches theology (and this was important, because Kathy is the program director, and has the keys to the pantry). Ken Fitzsimmons and Krista Zivkovich had shorter commutes, but even a short commute took forever. Pam, Cheryl Rice, and Brian Rice made it in from Painesville Township--not many miles away, but a very difficult drive yesterday.

Somehow the crew cobbled together the meal without access to the food pantry. About 50 of the homeless and hungry were able to get to the Fr. Hanzo Center for the meal. They were all very grateful, in good spirits despite the difficult day. The food preparers and servers, my beloved friends, were also in good spirits. Each had a hilarious story to tell about the trip to St. Mary's. There was a wonderful sense of community last evening--we all felt so blessed to be there.

Linda did not come to the Karpos meal last night--she was watching our grandchildren in Mentor. But she did go to the Project Hope shelter for the homeless in Painesville later that evening and worked until around 10:45 PM. Linda told me that many of these homeless were tired and discouraged. It was a very tough day to be homeless, to make your way through over a foot of snow. But thank God the shelter was there for them!

Below are some photos taken in Mentor, at my daughter's house, and in Chardon/Hambden. I tried to take a couple pics in Painesville--but my phone had run out of juice.

Colin, shoveling snow in Mentor

Hambden Township

Chardon, Ohio

Cleveland Pear trees outside our window in Hambden Township

Colin--Mentor, Ohio

Howl at the Moon! Protect Geauga Parks!

Not long ago Judge Tim Grendell told folks from Protect Geauga Parks that they might as well "howl at the moon like a bunch of coyotes"--they weren't going to stop his unraveling of the Geauga Park system. Well this afternoon, the people fighting to "Preserve Conserve and Protect" the Geauga Parks did just that, held a Howl-at-the-Moon event at the Kent State-Burton campus in Burton, Ohio.

Over 100 men, women, and children attended this event, one that included old-timey banjo, fiddle, and guitar music (Gordon Keller on fiddle, his wife Louise on guitar, and Rachel McKinney on banjo). John Augustine showed video and did a narration on local otters (John is extraordinarily knowledgeable about the natural world, and a staunch defender of the Geauga Parks); Ed Buckles and Kathy Hanratty gave speeches; and five children participated in a howl-at-the-moon contest (one did it in her father's arms).

So many extraordinary people were present, including Debbi Mayo, Kathleen O'Neill Webb, Debbie Eger, Kathy Hanratty, Barb Partington and her husband Dave, Sandra Buckles and her husband Ed, John Augustine, Todd and Mary Ray, Kathy Flora, Dave and Pat Dardis, Gayle and Jim Wohlken, Professor Steve Vieira, Catherine and Elbert Whitright, Linda Coughlin, Jim Mueller, and so many more. It was a fun event, with many people wearing their "Protect Geauga Parks" shirts. Beautiful photographic banners were hung on the walls, and "Protect Geauga Parks" signs were everywhere. People socialized and made plans--mixed business with fun. Click here to see Protect Geauga Park's website.

We ain't going away, Judge Grendell. We will continue to fight for the park system. We will not let it be destroyed.

Howl-at-the Moon Contest

Another Howler

Kathy Hanratty

Ed Buckles

Some of the crowd

Jim Wohlken, dressed as a coyote, with Ed Buckles and Kathy Hanratty

Beautiful old-timey music: Rachel McKinney, Louise and Gordon Keller

A couple of the extraordinary banners hung around the room

Debbi Mayo and Kathleen O'Neill Webb

A coyote sitting by the microphone