By Angela Huston

Special to The Gazette

Oct. 8 was a rainy, windy, chilly day when Medina Creative Housing held its Medina Creative Living ground breaking ceremony on Reagan Parkway.

But everyone attending ignored the weather and agreed it was a glorious day with internal sunshine created by the smiles of the people who were so excited about this achievement.

In her opening remarks, Dianne DePasquale-Hagerty, executive director, said the rain was a sign of good luck.

DePasquale-Hagerty thanked all who had gathered for the occasion, and especially thanked those who made the endeavor possible: Housing and Urban Development, Pride One Builders, Westfield Bank, architect Bob Arnold, Federal Home Loan Bank, Financial Fund, and the City of Medina.

MCH Board Chairman Craig Enoch briefly shared some thoughts before introducing fellow trustees: Dr. Michael Carlson, Bruce Colbow, Craig Curie, Judy Daugherty, Ron Hager, John Holland, Lin Humpal, Joseph Kohmann, Gayle Prebis, Ann Reusch and Gary Werner. He then introduced Medina Creative Living Board trustees: Colbow, Daugherty, Gail Harr, Kohmann, Prebis, Maria Sutter, Fran Walsh and Tim Vanderlaan.

Other dignitaries who addressed the group included City of Medina Planning Director Greg Hannan, Medina County commissioners Steve Hambley and Pat Geissman, Ohio Rep. Bill Batchelder and Westfield Bank Chief Financial Officer Kohmann.
DePasquale-Hagerty closed the celebration by inviting Medina Creative Living future residents to pick up their beribboned shovels for the ground breaking ritual.

Happily digging into the muddy ground as balloons were released were Mike Lozinski, Stuart Jones, Amy Duch, Amy Yeigh, Ashley Novince, Tom Prebis, Shelly Nottingham and Jason Valantasis.
Medina Creative Housing was established 15 years ago and already has provided affordable, physically accommodating housing in several other county locations, but there are still 84 people on the its waiting list.

Others who contributed to the event were Linda Markus of Brunswick Home Depot, Medina County Probate Court Judge John Lohn, Melissa Riley with Community Services, Mike Biskup of Greenkeepers Landscaping, Dave Sterrett of Medina Signs, Donna Duchek of 2D/3D Stuff and Marianne Enoch and Maria Luttrell.
A few of the other guests included Tim Hagerty, Andy McIlvaine, Mrs. Terry Isaac, Gene Goebel and Mary Raitano.

Trinity Rose Foundation

The Trinity Rose Foundation held its third annual golf outing Sept. 22 at Medina Country Club where about 130 golfers plus another 33 dinner guests raised more than $20,000 to help the blind and visually impaired.

Emcee Philip Wintering, chief executive officer of OutPerform Associates, was joined at the podium by founders Richard and Stacy Bonitz as they welcomed sponsors and presented the 2008 award recipients: one local family, one regional social services group and one national research and development group.
The local award went to Nathanial Brantley, who must be taken back and forth to specialists in Cincinnati for needed surgeries. His mother, Karen Jennings, attended the program and thanked everyone for this assistance.

UDS Low Vision Services, which provides assessments, adaptive aids, technologies and educational services, was the second recipient. Dr. Cheryl Reed accepted on behalf of the organization.
This year’s medical research grant of $6,000 went to ROPARD, a nonprofit organization researching retinopathy of prematurely and other related diseases.

ROPARD also was the recipient in 2006 and 2007. Outreach Director Paula Korelitz accepted on behalf of the organization.
The evening’s Eagle/Event Level sponsors were the Medina Fraternal Order of Eagles No. 2224 Charity Fund and JMT Group.
Other Eagle sponsors were Ed and Lois Bees, Brush Wellman Engineered Materials Co. Inc., Bill Doraty KIA and Associated Retinal Consultants.

Gift sponsor was Ferrell Whited Physical Therapy Services.

Shotgun sponsor was Fay Industries Inc.

Scoreboard sponsor was Silvertronic Limited.

Birdie sponsors were the Medina Lions club, Don and Cindy Fuller, Don and Elain Novosel, Hendricks Family Dentistry and Dave Towell Cadillac-Saab.

Par sponsors included the Lorain division of Brush Wellman Engineered Materials, Koler Financial Group, Kramer and Goyette DDS, AMCOR, Wolff Brothers Supply Inc., Linda Febus of Howard Hanna, Westfield Bank, Chris Baum Trucking, Medina Vision and Laser Centre, Grizzly Auto Service, Henry and Lorraine Polasko, Bishop A. James Quinn, Geri and Jon DiDonna, David Zipay, Jim and Mary Devereux, Stephen J. Brown Co. LPA, Bob and Mona Mims of Edwards Jones Investments, and employees at Synergy Medical Education Alliance.

There were more than 40 hole sponsors and 50 raffle donors.
The mission of the Trinity Rose Foundation is “to fund innovative research and medical advances focused on curing childhood eye disorders, as well as to provide educational services and financial aid that will help improve the quality of life for those afflicted and their families.”

Trinity Rose Bonitz, for whom the foundation is named, and her sister and brother, Mackenzie and Mason, helped Wintering pick the winning tickets for the raffle.

Packages included a 32-inch TV, golf outings, travel destinations, tickets to sporting events, a mower from MTD, Salon Evangelene gift certificates and more.

Huston may be reached at areanews@ohio.net.

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