Obetz, Ohio – Loveland High School Senior Jessie Gibbins led her Women’s Cross Country Team to the Ohio High School Athletic Association Division I Championship’s runner-up trophy Saturday. She was the 12th fastest woman in Ohio today. Gibbons is in the photo hoisting the trophy skyward – that her teammates will all be showing off at the high school Monday. Gibbins finished with a time of 18:25.2.
The Men’s team Team placed 12th overall and was led by Senior Ryan Chevalier (15:37.3) who was the 14th fastest on the course today.
Stay tuned to Loveland Magazine. We will publish individual times and our complete photo coverage soon.
Ryan Chevalier receives his State Tournament medal
Loveland, Ohio – The Women’s and Men’s Loveland High School Cross Country Teams got an electrifying send-off on Friday as they left town heading to the Village of Obetz. They compete at the Fortress Obetz sports complex Saturday afternoon in the OHSAA Championship. Go HERE to read tournament info from the Ohio High Schoo Athletic Association.
It’s not too late to make plans to make the trip to cheer on our Tigers.
Loveland, Ohio – Katie Jacobs’ worm worker factory produces an everyday practical product. She describes herself as a native-Lovelander, is currently a resident of Loveland, and graduated from Loveland High School in 2016. You can hear more about her education and agricultural science background in the interview I did with her.
To set the location, our office is the old Simpson Farmhouse which used to be part of the 40-acre Simpson Farm that is our back yard, a dedicated Conservation District in the heart of the West Loveland Historic District.
Katie does a specific type of composting called Vermicomposting and although she is doing it on a somewhat large scale, many people compost in their back yard. Some people compost like we do here at the Farm, putting our kitchen waste in a backyard, tumbling bin, a semi-enclosed bed, or just a dedicated pile (traditional thermophilic). Compost bins are handy for breaking down grass clippings, weeds, or other yard waste such as Fall leaves. We use our compost once nature breaks down the waste to make our own potting soil or amend the soil of flower beds. Our tumbling bin here at the Farm was a gift and it makes it easy to turn in new waste and rotate it all to keep the natural breakdown process ongoing.
Katie collects compost from local residents and businesses for her indoor worm bin. In this interview, she shows the type of material she collects and the worms that are her “employees” that do the 24/7 work at no pay. Not worker ants – worker worms! Her European nightcrawlers work “night and day” to produce the worm castings, this small business owner sells.
She left a gift of castings here at the Farm so we could give our houseplants a hearty breakfast of micro-nutrients, humic acid, and microbial life. They will benefit from the plant-growth hormones, including auxins and gibberellins as well.
Katie said, “My business was luckily funded when I received a grant from the Hamilton County Wast Reduction and Innovation program.” Her worm-casting factory is located in her grandparent’s basement. Worm-castings produce no odor. “There are no synthetic chemicals involved so It’s a great product for people who are looking for a way to garden more sustainably to take care of their soil and plants.”
Katie takes you through the steps to compost at home – from kitchen and office to your garden. She’s got your do’s and don’t’s covered.
Katie introduced me to a new term she uses, “Guerilla Composting” and she says she often does it as well. It’s when food waste, such as an apple core or stale bread is just tossed into the back yard to feed the birds, rabbits, groundhogs, or deer which we have an abundance of coming in from our “back 40”.
Worm castings are the excrement (or poop) the worms produce after ingesting organic matter. They are also referred to as “vermicast,” “vermicompost,” and “black gold.”
Back2TheDirt aims to reduce food waste that ends up in a landfill and creates high-quality worm castings that benefit plant and soil health.
Katie and Back2TheDirt can be reached via email or 513-212-6955 to inquire about becoming a customer.
Back2TheDirt offers free 2-week trial, drop-off, and business memberships.
Katie says there are benefits for plants
We all want our plants to grow big and luscious. Worm castings are one soil additive that can help you achieve this goal. Packed full of microbes and essential nutrients, worm castings can give your plants a big advantage. Here’s how they help:
• Provide nutrients including nitrates, potassium, phosphorous, calcium, and magnesium
• Contain plant-growth hormones, including auxins and gibberellins
• Contain humic and fulvic acid which make insoluble minerals plant-available
• Increase root growth and plant biomass
• Speed up germination of seeds and increase seedling growth
• Reduce transplant shock
• Reduce pests, including aphids, cucumber beetles, white caterpillars, two-spotted spider mites, tobacco hornworms, and fruit borers
• Suppress plant diseases including Pythium, Verticillium, Phomopsis, and Rhizoctonia
• Decreases the amount of parasitic nematodes by attracting beneficial arthropods and fungi
Katie says there are benefits for soil
Soil it seems has entered the mainstream–discussed for its impact on the environment’s health, its ability to sequester CO₂, and its importance in promoting food security. Growers know that healthy plants and tasty fruits and vegetables begin with healthy soil. Here’s how worm castings can contribute to your soil profile:
• Add organic matter
• Increase soil porosity and aeration
• Reduce the bulk density of heavy soils
• Decrease water loss and nutrient leaching
• Form stable aggregates that help reduce erosion
• Increase cation exchange capacity, which increases the availability of calcium, magnesium and potassium
Loveland, Ohio – “Making these cards makes me feel both fulfilled and safe. This Arts and Crafts show has been my home for 4 years and now I want to be an entrepreneur!”
Loveland High School (LHS) Senior Annelise Dartnall expressed how excited she was on Tuesday about The Loveland Arts and Crafts Fair being back in action after not having it 2 years in a row due to COVID-19. Dartnall along with several other LHS special needs students have participated in creating handmade cards to sell at the Loveland Arts and Crafts Fair in order to raise funds for the LHS Special Needs Program and gain valuable work experience. Dartnall has also worked at the Loveland Farmers Market, several Loveland Arts and Crafts Fairs where she showcased the special needs students carefully crafted cards, and the Loveland High School News Network.
Retired Teacher Molly Swaine came up with the idea of LHS’s special needs students designing, creating, packaging, and selling these handmade cards to the community and staff members of Loveland right in her very own room just a few years ago.
“The past couple of years the students were unable to attend our biggest sales event, The Loveland Arts and Crafts Fair, due to the pandemic so the fact that our students have the opportunity to once again practice social and life skills out in the community is great,” LHS Intervention Specialist Emily Hicks said.
Caitlin Haury, LHS Intervention Specialist, and Payton Lafonda also aided Hicks with the handmade cards project in hopes that the special needs students at LHS would gain valuable work experience and raise enough sales to buy supplies for the classroom, activities, and celebrations.
Over the past few weeks, the excitement for Loveland’s Arts and Crafts Fair has been building, as the event is set for November 6th at LHS from 9:30 AM to 3 PM. We decided to take a trip down Tiger Trail to LHS to talk to Annelise about the handmade cards project and why it’s so important that everyone gets involved.
Buying the cards during the Craft Expo requires cash. The students can not accept credit cards, Apple Pay, Venmo, etc.
Without further ado, we bring to you LHS Senior Annelise Dartnall as she explains to YOU the Loveland Magazine readers why you should support the LHS Special Needs Handmade Cards Project!
Interview and video by David Miller
If you are unable to attend Loveland’s Arts and Crafts Expo the Special Needs Program created a contactless google link in which you can select your cards and have them sent to you through the mail. Cards are $2 for a pack of 4. You will also need to send your form of payment through the mail to LHS’s Caitlin Haury. Click here to order your handmade cards today!
If you missed our previous article on the LHS Special Needs Handmade Cards Project click below!
Symmes Township, Ohio – The Loveland High and Middle Schools are hosting the Eastern Cincinnati Conference (ECC) championship meet this Saturday at Home of the Brave park.
As of last Thursday, the LHS women’s team was still ranked #1 in Ohio and the Men’s team was ranked #5.
High school runners will compete on a 5K course and the Middle school runners compete on a 2-mile course.
It is also Senior Day for our high school seniors.
This is a once in a lifetime chance to see these State ranked student athletes and cheer them to the finish line.
We’re laying the groundwork for pollinator gardens! Next spring these mulched areas will be planted with native flower seedlings that will benefit pollinators and beautify the community.
In 2017, the U.S. Postal Service recognized the beauty and importance of pollinators with their Protect Pollinators stamps. Now, with the help of volunteers, the Loveland Post Office is putting that concept into action by turning swaths of grass, with their constant need for mowing, into flower gardens and reforested meadow areas.
Natural areas provide many benefits over mowed grass. The Loveland Post Office will see lower labor and fuel costs, while also reducing their carbon footprint. The gardens will provide food and habitat for pollinators (to whom we owe our very existence). And the community gets to enjoy the beauty of colorful flowers every time they drive past the Post Office. Now that’s an all-round Win-Win!
Small pollinator gardens provide much-needed habitat islands.
Did you know that insects pollinate 80% of the world’s plants, including 90 different food crops? One out of every 3 or 4 bites of food we eat is pollinated by an assortment of bees, beetles, moths, wasps, and butterflies. WOW — These small creatures, so often taken for granted, are vitally important to human survival! Unfortunately, many pollinators are threatened for a variety of reasons: habitat loss, fragmented habitat (with huge gaps between habitat ‘islands’), non-native plants that fail to serve pollinator needs, and (worst of all) the use of pesticides and herbicides on our lawns and landscapes. Pollinators need our help, and the Loveland Post Office is stepping up-to-the-plate.
What about those “Naturalized Area” signs you see? They identify areas where young trees and shrubs will be planted this fall. Initially, those areas will resemble meadows, but once the plants mature they will become a natural woodland. Trees are crucial for pollinator survival because they bloom so early in the spring, long before summer flowers ‘break bud’. Have you ever noticed reddish clusters on the bare branches of a maple tree in early spring? Those are tiny flowers that are buzzing with bees — if only you could get close enough to see them.
Small pollinator gardens provide much-needed habitat islands.
This pollinator garden project is a unique collaboration between the Post Office, community volunteers, and Loveland High School Transition Program students. Community volunteers are currently prepping the garden beds by spreading a thick layer of mulch over cardboard, to eliminate the grass without using herbicides. Seeds are being gathered from locally grown, native flowers, to ensure those seeds are pesticide-free. (Did you know commercially available seeds are often coated with pesticides that can make their way into the nectar which can sicken, or even kill, pollinators?) The high school students will grow the flowers from the seeds being collected now, and the flower seedlings will be planted at the Post Office next spring. This terrific partnership is a wonderful example of Loveland’s abundant community spirit!
Small pollinator gardens provide much-needed habitat islands.
The Post Office gardens and naturalized areas will provide a much-needed pollinator habitat, but to survive and thrive pollinators require many such ‘habitat islands’ scattered widely across a community. So, why not create your own pollinator garden? Whether large or small, every garden has a huge impact on the well-being of our pollinators. Just be sure to buy native plants that are organically grown, avoid the use of pesticides and herbicides, and include a few old logs, or attractive pieces of driftwood, for nesting purposes (yes, bees need nesting places, too).
If you have any questions, comments, or want to get involved, send an email to Cindy Kessler at ckessler@fuse.net.
Loveland, Ohio – The 12th Annual Captain Seth Mitchell Hero 5k will take place in Nisbet Park on Saturday, October 16. Hope to see you then to revise this great Loveland tradition.
Last year’s event was “virtual” but the race to raise funds for The Seth Mitchell scholarship programs this year in live and in person in Historic Downtown Loveland on the Loveland Bike Trail along the State and National Scenic Little Miami River.
Seth Mitchell, a captain and pilot in the United States Marine Corps and a 1997 Loveland High School graduate, was killed in action in Afghanistan in October 2009. Seth contributed greatly to the Loveland community in his youth… he served as a leader and role model on the varsity football team, was voted to be Class President his senior year, and was named “Mr. Personality” by his peers. He was well loved here. After graduating, he took that same sense of service and loyalty into all that he did: as a son, a brother, a friend, a leader in the Marines.
In other words, Seth was a hero for all.
We are a group of Seth Mitchell’s high school classmates, who miss our friend and want to keep his memory alive. We represent the many people who Seth made an impression on with his sense of humor, kind heart, and loyal friendship. As we organize this 5k Race and the scholarship memorial fund, we are motivated by one enduring inspiration: to live each day a little more honorably, kindly, and humbly… just like Seth.
Dear friends, we hope you are well, safe and doing all you can to blunt the force of the pandemic surrounding us. We are truly in unchartered water. Our prayers are with you. As you probably guessed we were unable to do personal on site interviews with our 2020 Seth Mitchell scholarship applicants. However we summoned the help from some younger folks and proceeded with the interviews through Google Hangout!! Yep, Steve and Connie on Google Hangout. Who’d of thought that? Loveland High School also did not have their annual Senior Night on May 13, so the scholarships were awarded virtually. We had 18 applicants this year and personally interviewed six before awarding the two scholarships detailed below. Your scholarship committee consisting of Greg Carpinello, Damien Cook, Mollie Schrichten, Marisa Sobb, (all friends of Seth and ’97 LHS graduates) Connie and I, take seriously the process to recruit, interview and select candidates. All the kids were deserving and we are especially proud of the recipients.
So here goes: The Let Us Never Forget Seth Mitchell scholarship ($3500.00) is a partnership between the Mitchell Family and the Let Us Never Forget Scholarship Foundation (yellowribbonsupportcenter.com). Jordan Collins (above left) is the 2020 recipient and she has a spirit similar to Seth. She was/is involved in many theatrical and musical productions, is a National Honor Society member, volunteers through Mom’s Hope and works part time. Jordan will be paying a large part of her college costs. She has a “do something” attitude, a strong work ethic and knows no stranger, being kind to all. She is not afraid to fail in the pursuit of her dreams and is strong in the face of adversity. She hopes to pursue her theatrical dreams at Syracuse University.
The Seth Mitchell Memorial Scholarship ($3,500.00) is funded by the Seth Mitchell Hero 5k (sethmitchell5k.org). This annual event is in its 11th year in downtown Loveland, OH and is ran by Seth’s friends named above. The goal of the scholarship is to keep Seth’s spirit and story alive. Caroline Ginder (above right) is the 2020 recipient of the Memorial Scholarship. Caroline was described by one of her references a “being self motivated and goal oriented…and a fine example of caring more about their teammate than herself”. She participated in many school events such as Tiger’s Inc., soccer, NEST and is a National Honor Society member. Caroline will attend Ohio State University where she will pursue medicine. She hopes to someday be a part of Doctors Without Borders. Like Jordan, Caroline is paying a share of her college costs.
Thank you for your support, prayers and investment in our scholarships through the last eleven years.
Steve and Connie Mitchell Parents, Capt. D. Seth Mitchell, USMC KIA 10/26/2009, Helmand Province, Afghanistan Let Us Never Forget
Columbus (Hilliard High School), Ohio – Saturday, June 5th, 11 members of the Loveland Track and Field team competed in the OHSAA State Championships.
The 5 women going to state included Sarah Madix (11), Mady Conatser (10), Jessie Gibbins (11), Emmy Sager, (11) and Ally Carpenter (10). While the 6 men going to state included JP Tew (11), Brady Steiner (10), Ajay Stutz (12), Ryan Chevalier (11), Jesse Jenkins (12), and Ethan Smith (12).
The 4×800 (3600) meter relay resulted in an amazing Division One Runner-Up award for the Men’s team with a time of 7:48.83, less than 2 seconds behind Lakota West’s time of 7:47.48.
The Women’s team scored an amazing 4th place behind Mentor, Dublin Coffman, and Hilliard Davidson with a time of 9:15.82.
Along with these amazing group achievements, the team had some incredible individual awards. Ryan Chevalier scored 10th in the 1600 meter run, with a time of 4:17.55. Madison Conatser placed 7th in the 800 meter run with a time of 2:15.64 and Jessie Gibbins placed 12th in the 800 meter with a time of 2:17.50. Go Tigers!
Soph. Madison Conatser (Far Right) capped off her incredible 1st season of running track finishing 7th at the D1 State Championships. (Photo by OHSAA)
Congratulations to our Girls 4×800 Relay team of Mady Conatser, Jessie Gibbins, Emmy Sagar and Sarah Madix placing 4th in the OHSAA State Championship! Way to go Tigers! pic.twitter.com/hO5562tMDc
Carly Wilhoite (above) scored 4 times but the Tigers could not prevail against the Shamrocks in Final-4
by Grace Nunn
Photos by Alex Eicher
Mason, Ohio – Wednesday, June 2nd, the Women’s Tigers Lacrosse team drove to Mason for the semi-finals in the state tournament. They faced the Dublin Coffman “Rocks” who beat Upper Arlington in a surprising upset 11-9 to make the Final-4.
The game began and finished, very close. It was 1-1, then 2-1 Tigers, then 4-2 Rocks. The sidelines were on edge with both teams fighting for the win. In the final seconds of the first half, Carly Wilhoite (senior) scored another goal bringing the Tigers only one point behind the Rocks.
Unfortunately, after a hard-fought game in rainy and cold weather, the Tigers fell, losing only by 2. The final score was 9-7.
Dublin Coffman went on to the State Championship game Saturday, June 5th, playing New Albany. The Rocks then beat New Albany with a buzzer goal 13-12, making them the D1 state champs.
Wilhoite scored 4 times, Hanna Wenger added 2 scores, and Josey Storm one. Senior Maggie Nance had 4 saves.
