An important aspect of the junior youth group is empowering young people to make positive contributions to society, so every few months, the members plan and execute a service project based on the needs they perceive in their community.

“We chose the Senior Center because we wanted to help out people in our community.  We knew that they were in need of money to keep up their center and do different activities, and we just thought we would help out,” says Greta Kremer, a member of the group.

Knowing that young people are often perceived as self-centered and disinterested in the elderly, members of the group also felt that it would be particularly meaningful to reach out to the senior residents of Yellow Springs.

“We wanted to make a connection with older people because young people don’t talk to older people that much,” says Lucas Mulhall, another group member, and the fundraiser seemed like a good way to show their interest.

The group chose to do an outdoor movie night, in part because the Little Art Theatre is closed for renovations, and they thought villagers might appreciate having a “big screen” experience in the meantime.  If the fundraiser is successful, they may have another one to collect donations for the local food pantry.

“Doors” open at 8:30 p.m. at the “theater,” located at 425 Green Street.  There is a $2 admission fee and there will also be concessions for sale. 

The Princess Bride is rated PG. Enjoy the film’s original 1987 trailer below, and have fun storming the castle.

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Rae Dewey

A memorial for longtime villager Rae Dewey will be held Thursday, July 4, at 2:00 p.m. at the Glen Helen Building.

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The contact is necessary in case swimmers or pool-goers are experiencing symptoms linked to pesticide exposure, Council members said. The most likely symptom would be a skin rash, but other symptoms might include eye irritation, respiratory problems or gastrointestinal upset, according to Council President Judith Hempfling.

The situation is concerning but not a crisis, Council members agreed.

“Panic is not appropriate,” Council member Lori Askeland said. “What’s appropriate is being concerned and taking appropriate steps.”

If those who swam in the pool or were in the pool area are having symptoms, they are encouraged to contact their doctor or Poison Control at 1-877-325-1840, and provide the Village case number of #133997711. The herbicide used was Escalade 2.

The emergency meeting was called to determine next steps after the Village became aware that the Village Parks and Street crew had applied undiluted herbicide on the grassy area around the pool Wednesday morning due to excessive bees. Because the herbicide was applied undiluted, its strength was far greater than it should have been.

However, the herbicide is considered not harmful to humans after it dries, which would have been about two hours following the Wednesday morning application, according to Village Manager Laura Curliss, who said that by the time swimmers arrived to use the pool, the herbicide should have been harmless. She also said that immediately upon learning of the situation, Village staff contacted Poison Control, the Greene County Combined Health District, the herbicide’s manufacturer and hazardous material control experts, who all said “We should not have anything to be concerned about.”

The Village also sent water and soil samples for testing.

However, Council member Rick Walkey, a regular pool user, questioned the notion that there would be no harmful effects after the herbicide dried. He and his famly used the pool that day, and were aware of a chemical taste to the water.

“I have a lot of grave concerns” regarding what he described as “a gross misuse of this chemical.”

The Village will also use its Hyper-Reach phone system to alert neighbors of the pool of the herbicide misuse. However, according to Curliss, because Wednesday was a day with little wind, there is little likelihood that the chemical would have drifted into the neighborhood. Because pool-goers sign in when they use the pool, Village staff will consult the sign-in sheets to contact those affected, Curliss said.

Several villagers attended the meeting, with concerns about the Village using herbicides on public land. The Village already has an ordinance banning pesticide use on Village-owned land, according to Askeland, but there was confusion regarding whether an herbicide is considered a pesticide.

The pool is tentatively scheduled to reopen on Wednesday, June 19, pending the result of soil and water testing, according to Curliss.

A more detailed report of the meeting will be in the June 20 Yellow Springs News.

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According to a press release from the Village yesterday, the herbicide was Escalade 2. The health effects of the application are now under review by the Greene County Combined Health District. No reports of illness have been received.

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Simple was a good and necessary thing because dessert was resplendent. Our daughter requested a princess party to “drive the boys crazy”. Stalled for inspiration, I had yet to settle on her cake when, the day before the party, we got a prescient notice from the library. Our request was in! We checked out Wreck-It Ralph, a wonderful Disney film based on video arcade games. As we watched the main characters bake and decorate a candy coated car for the speed racer game Sugar Rush, my daughter and I knew what must be done.

First thing the next morning, we made a track of jelly beans and fruit chews. Then we baked a carrot cake in a loaf pan for a car. Per the movie, the car could be an amalgamated frosting covered spludge, but my daughter insisted on more….a driver, specifically she selected aviator Venellope Van Schweetz to be coronated Princess Venellope for the occasion. No pressure. After setting me this challenging goal, she set about constructing the start and finish lines.

Ok, candy…I dumped our trove of uneaten easter candy and took stock. Among the hard candy and chocolate bars were two pink malt balls nested among chocolate mint patties. I crowed. I drew a face on one pink malt ball using food-safe markers and added the broken up patties for hair. I figured out how to make her neck using a pink Starburst and, then, her hooded sweatshirt from a marshmallow and green sugar leftover from Christmas cookie decorating.

As I worked, though, Venellope began to melt in my hands. I looked at her sweet face and sighed. Time to start over. Using my second and last pink malt ball—again, no pressure—I drew on the face while holding the ball in foil and attached the neck to the head with a toothpick speared through the starburst chew. Setting the head aside, I constructed the torso using a single marshmallow. I cut the marshmallow three times: angled up the back for the hood and, then, two snips on either side of the main body for the arms. To make Venellope’s hoodie a pixelated green, I rolled the cut marshmallow—lightly dampened—in a bowl of green sugar. I speared the head and neck onto the body with the toothpick and speared the figure three more times to seat Venellope on the cake loaf with her arms raised. Finally I added her hair working quickly to keep the chocolate from smudging and crowned her head with a jeweled ring—a prized token of my daughter’s.

Returning to the racecar, I used two chocolate dipped wafer sticks for the car’s console and—using toothpicks again—mounted two wafer sticks on the back to hold a candy bar spoiler. Before adding the Heath Bar spoiler, I covered the cake with buttercream icing that my husband made—wow, honey, you’re hired—and we dusted the car with sugar and sprinkles. A candy carrot and lifesaver made up the steering column. Another lifesaver and a candy apple served for headlights and a square of chocolate for the license plate.

The charming Princess Venellope Von Schweetz needed a host of adoring fans to cheer as she crossed the finish line. For a crowd of cupcakes, I called in the cavalry. The elegant Three Leee Cupcakery furnished 5 dozen mini cupcakes in a dazzling array of flavors—chocolate, lemon, vanilla—all gluten free, heavenly moist, and delicious. My favorite was the lemon topped with toasted coconut, but that may because the raspberry topped chocolate vanished before I had my chance.

As the cupcakes and children gathered around the cake car, we lit it up with a candle and a sparkler; and my daughter positioned herself at the end of the track for the big finish.

In time honored tradition, after cake, presents were opened. I love how my daughter lingers over the presents prepared at any moment to take off and play with a new treasure even as her friends take her in hand to open the next gift. The family present was a special creation…a faerie house by village artist Sharri Phillips. I’ve loved Sharri’s pieces ever since her exhibit Faerie Real Estate at the Emporium in 2011.

We took home a quilt from that show and more recently were enchanted by this house that went on display at the Emporium. The house has three levels, a swing, a picnic table, and trimmings in yarn, sparkling jewels, and flowers. It even has a string of lights woven into its structure making it a glowing beacon of delight for the children. They gathered around…young and old, boys and girls…to drink in its magic.

In the aftermath of the party, Jeremy and I collected our memories amazed again at the warm reception we have received perfectly embodied by the crowd of 40 townspeople who joined us to celebrate. From almost the first moment, music filled our home as the children of each family played at our piano and other instruments they brought along. The morning rain had refreshed the lawn to a brilliant green and retreated in time for the afternoon sun to wick the grass dry. We fell from treat to treat, in a candy colored sugar rush, discovering…as the characters Ralph and Venellope learned…that standing together and challenging each other beats the pants off of enduring alone.

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The Xenia Avenue streetlight changes were a component of the streetscape renovation that began with the repair of subpar sidewalks in front of The Winds Cafe and Dino’s Cappucinos, along with the removal of aging street trees, and the addition of new trees this year. While the original plan for streetscape changes proposed by Village Manager Laura Curliss last summer included new lights for all of downtown, the final plan was downsized to just the area where the sidewalk was repaired.

However, the crew will install the new streetlights, which are more energy efficient than the current lights, up and down Dayton Street in upcoming weeks. The lights were chosen by landscape architect Roger Beal several years ago when the Dayton Street area was renovated, but that project was put on hold for several years. As well as being more efficient, the lights from the new lamps is more focused on the sidewalk, and less light is lost to the sky, according to Curliss.

The cost of the new streetlights, about 22 in all, is about $96,000, which will come out of the Village Electric Fund.

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“The question encompasses who is the ‘we,’” says Robrish “Is the ‘we’ people who are as similar to me as possible? Or does it include people of different nationalities, ethnicities, sexual orientation and educational backgrounds? Does it expand to include our interdependence with the earth?”

In one work, a couple faces each other with angry expressions inside a box, the opening of which is covered by remnants of an old fence. Such pieces reflect that, for Robrish, the title also addresses emotional and psychological states in individuals.

“I felt compelled to explore the whole question of conflict with others and conflict with oneself. It’s the question of reaching acceptance with oneself and others’ peccadillos.”

Although Robrish has been a ceramics sculptor for decades, a workshop at the YSAC gallery last year introduced her to papier-mâché, and she has spent much of the past year experimenting with the new medium.

“It’s been really, really, fun to work with a new material” she said, explaining how the plaster molds she has crafted for her ceramic work can be adapted to create papier-mâché faces that she then sculpts to achieve variety and nuance in each piece.

“It’s the culmination of a year-long experiment” said Robrish of the 10 new papier mâché pieces that will be included in the show.

Robrish’s attraction to clay and natural materials was sparked during her childhood, when she spent a great deal of time exploring the natural world around her home.

“There were woods to play in, streams to play in, I had the freedom to handle things,” she said.

When a neighbor who worked with ceramics invited Robrish to her studio to play with the materials, this tactile experience expanded to include clay. Although it was a single experience, it made a lasting impression on her.

“I really loved it and remembered it,” she said, and so, after the birth of her daughter, “I thought, ‘I’d love to do something with clay.”

What began as classes at a community college ended in Robrish completing a second degree in studio art at the University of Maryland. Robrish began to teach informally while also creating her own work and, by the early 1990s, was making a living as a ceramics teacher.

As much as she enjoyed teaching, Robrish found that the high cost of living outside of Washington, D.C. made it difficult for her to support herself financially while also finding time to create her own work. After coming to Yellow Springs to visit a friend in 2004, she began to consider moving here, drawn to the lower cost of living, close community and natural setting.

“As a child, I loved skunk cabbage,” she said. “I remember waiting in the spring for it to emerge. When I came to the Glen for the first time, I saw the skunk cabbage and thought “Yeah, this is it.”

“My friends thought I was crazy moving out here,” she said, “but given the difference in the cost of living, I could really focus on my own work.”

The relative affordability of Yellow Springs has allowed Robrish, over the years, to focus almost exclusively on creating her own pieces and to sell much of her work out of her studio — a practice that keeps prices lower and allows for more of a connection between the artist and her customers.

Nonetheless, like many shows at the YSAC gallery, Robrish will be offering a workshop in conjunction with the exhibit. During the workshop, called “Mask It,” participants will spend two Thursday evenings working with self-hardening clay to create a mask.

“It can be as realistic or as fanciful as a person would like,” she said about the workshop, which will be offered on June 20 and 27 at 6:30 p.m.

Although Robrish has lived and created art in the community for many years now, this show will be her first with the Yellow Springs Arts Council, an organization which she feels has done much for the artists in the community.

According to Robrish, the quality of the gallery, with good lighting, staff, a good location and a space for classes, plus the organization’s extensive internet presence “is a terrific service to the art community and the wider community. They nourish the connections between the artists in town. It enriches all of us.”

Robrish is particularly pleased that the opening of her show coincides with both the gay pride weekend in Yellow Springs and a visit from her daughter and grandchildren.

“Gay rights is an issue that is important to me,” she said. “My daughter is a lesbian, and she, her partner and their children will be here to celebrate with me.”

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Patricia Johnston

Patricia E. Johnston, age 92 of Fairborn, passed away Saturday, June 8, in the Trinity Community of Beavercreek. She was born March 17, 1921 in Urbana, the daughter of the late Gurnea “Jack” and Esther (McGovern) Comer.

Patty graduated from high school in 1939 in West Liberty, Ohio, and possessed many farming and homemaking skills when she married her husband, Dick, on Aug. 12, 1941. Together, Patty and Dick operated the Homestead Farm in Greene County beginning in 1951. The farm was established by Dick’s family in 1805. She and Dick were members of the Grange and Farm Bureau, and enjoyed time spent with fellow Farm Bureau members and neighborhood friends.

Patty’s greatest joy was her family; and she was truly the most loving wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and mother-in-law. Her family wishes to extend their gratitude to the Trinity Community for the care provided to Patty and to the many family and friends who prayed for her in her final months.

In addition to her parents, Patty was preceded in death by her husband, David F. “Dick” Johnston in 2002; and a sister, Rita Rupert. She is survived by a son, Tom (Rita) Johnston; a daughter, Marceil (Rich) Caltabellotta; grandchildren, David (Christina) Johnston, Thomas Caltabellotta, Sara Caltabellotta; great-grandchildren, Cobi Haverfield, Kyle Johnston; a sister, Marceil Rupert; sister-in-law, Mary Cory; as well as several nieces and nephews.

A funeral service was held on Wednesday, June 12 at the Belton-Stroup Funeral Home in Fairborn, with Pastor Ward Hilton officiating. Burial was in Fairview Cemetery in West Liberty, Ohio. Condolences may be made to the family at www.veltonstroup.com.

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