Fireworks, Food, Music To Fill Homecoming Park
BY KAREN BERGER — MIRROR REPORTER
For a family-friendly start to Independence Day week, Sunday’s Freedom Celebration in Community Homecoming Park has plenty to offer.
Beginning with a Firecracker Car Cruise at 4:00 p.m. and finishing up with fireworks at 10:00 p.m., the event will include games and activities for children and great food and music for all ages.
Kids will enjoy Heroes inflatables, games and face painting. The Women’s Fire Auxiliary will sell chicken dinners for $8.00 to benefit the Harry E. Patton scholarship fund starting at 4:00 p.m.
Local entertainment, including dance, cheer, tumbling, baton twirling and banjo playing, begins at 4:30 p.m.
At 7:30 p.m., Springfield Township will honor two area families who have loved ones serving overseas. The families of Staff Sgt. Isabel Artiaga-Kleopfer and Pfc. Johnathan Bailey will be recognized and receive baskets of gifts from area businesses.
Sanctus Real, a Dove Award-winning Christian rock band from Toledo, will take the stage at 8:00 p.m. Fireworks will begin at dusk.
Shuttle service is available at Springfield High School and Providence Lutheran Church. No coolers or alcohol are permitted at the event.
For more information, call the township at (419) 865—0239 or go to www.springfieldtownship.net.
Terrific Tuesdays Boost Reading, Put A Stop To Brain Drain
BY KAREN BERGER — MIRROR REPORTER
As Tim Franchetti perused the stacks in Dorr Elementary’s library, he pulled out a Star Wars books.
“I’ve read nine!” he announces.
While his mother Moira looked on, Tim searched for another Star Wars book that would both entertain and help him reach his 100-point goal – and a chance to win an iPod Shuffle.
Tim was one of 60 Dorr students who came June 24 to the school library for the weekly Terrific Tuesdays literacy program. With materials funded through a $10,000, five-year donation from Savage and Associates to the Springfield Schools Foundation, Terrific Tuesdays is a way to encourage reading and cut down on what principal Dr. Ken Newbury calls “summer brain drain.”
Children can lose up to 25 percent of knowledge gained during the school year, Newbury said. Thanks to several teachers designing the program and volunteering their time, students participating in the program will return to school in the fall more prepared to learn.
“Teachers are reporting that they don’t have to spend as much time reviewing and repeating information from last year. During the third grade reading achievement test in October – which is before the meat of the learning has taken place for the school year – scores have gone up,” Newbury said.
Readers who just finished kindergarten and first grade head to an umbrella-topped table covered with sand buckets full of colorful books, divided by reading level.
Fatima Asem returned a Stella Stegasaurus book, then opted for Henry and Mudge. Students may check out two books per week, then complete book reports. In return, children receive small prizes and a chance to enter their names into a drawing for an iPod Shuffle.
Down the hall in the library, children who have completed grades two through five take reading tests on the computer. The Accelerated Reader quizzes measure reading comprehension. Depending on the test score, readers can earn anywhere from a half a point for Where the Wild Things Are to 44 points for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
“They like taking the test on the computer,” said Janet King, intervention specialist.
During the school year, each classroom and student sets goals. Upon reaching 15 points, young readers are able to do the “Walk of Fame,” in which other students form a tunnel and give them high fives; names are announced and they have a celebration with Newbury.
Even though soon-to-be first-grader Tyler Kelly isn’t old enough to take an AR test on the computer yet, he enjoys looking for books on monster trucks and cars at the library. His summer babysitter, Ashley Mahlman, brings him to Terrific Tuesdays and to the Holland Branch Library.
“He likes to read by himself,” said Mahlman, the 2007 Springfield High School salutatorian who spent two years tutoring third and fourth graders at Dorr. Tyler reads at least a book a day, she said.
Parent involvement is crucial to children’s success at reading. Even listening to parents read helps expand vocabulary and reading comprehension, King said.
“Even by reading more difficult books, you’re preparing them for the next level. And it’s a wonderful family bonding activity,” King said.
Parents who have difficulty making it to Terrific Tuesdays, held each week from 9:30 to 10:15 a.m., can still get children involved through the Holland Branch Library. All children participating in Terrific Tuesdays will be able to join in the fall pizza party with Newbury.
Springfield Approves Agreement With Monclova Fire Department
BY KELLY J. KACZALA —MIRROR REPORTER
Springfield Township trustees on June 16 unanimously approved a memorandum of understanding for an automatic response plan agreement between the township fire department and the Monclova Township Fire Department that addresses structure fires.
The agreement begins on July 1 and will be evaluated at the end of six months, according to Springfield Township Fire Chief Barry Cousino.
Last month was particularly busy with fires, Cousino said.
“There wasn’t any rhyme or reason why we were busy, but we had quite a few,” Cousino said. “While we were out fighting the fires, we received five EMS calls. I just think it’s important that, initially, when we get dispatched on a fire, we have at least another set of hands that’s coming in this direction, whether they stand by our station for an EMS call, or actually respond to the fire itself.”
The agreement would help in the event the department needs to rescue someone in a house on fire, or one of its own while battling the blaze.
The agreement would apply only to structure fires.
“On working structure fires, we would send one engine with them, and they would send one engine with us,” Cousino said.
The fire departments would respond to the scene of a fire within certain geographic boundaries in the neighboring community.
The Springfield Township Fire Department would respond to the scene of a fire on or north of Monclova Road in Monclova Township.
The Monclova Fire Department would respond to the scene of a fire in Springfield Township south of the Norfolk Southern Railroad.
“If it’s beyond those boundaries we’re speaking of, we’ll just go to their fire station and stand by,” Cousino said. “And if they do need us, we’re closer and we could respond directly to the scene.”
Cousino said the agreement benefits both communities and would not cost either department a great deal of money.
The agreement also stipulates that the departments will participate in joint training exercises, and that the highest ranking fire official in the jurisdiction where an incident occurs has the final authority at the incident.
Following implementation of the agreement, it will be reviewed every 90 days.
The agreement may be canceled by either community with 30 days written notice. Cancellation of the automatic response agreement would not affect the existing mutual aid agreement.
“I think it’s a good thing,” Cousino said. “I think it’ll get our personnel training and working together. It’s more cost effective. It’s a good way of doing business today, trying to do more with less money.”
Also at the meeting, the trustees:
• Amended a 2007 resolution for the fire department that increases the amount the township will spend for a new ambulance from $85,000 to $90,000. The township was awarded a Community Development Block Grant of $70,600 toward the purchase of the ambulance, estimated to cost $164,000.
• Approved a resolution to institute a 1.3-mill levy renewal for the fire department.
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