Loveland, Ohio – Downtown Loveland is now the home of a BREW Tour! The Little Miami River Chamber Alliance along with several downtown Loveland, Ohio businesses have launched a unique, fun,and complimentary BREW tour to encourage the community to patronize area businesses during the chillier and slower months of business.
Residents and guests can pick up a punch card at any participating downtown Loveland restaurant, bar, or coffee shop to participate in this fun event.
CeeCee Collins, President of the Little Miami River Chamber Alliance, said that “All folks need to do is ask for their punch card and then visit all the establishments for a beverage of their choice. Once they have visited all of the establishments and have a full punch cared, they can pick up their “prize,” at the chamber. They get to choose from either a commemorative pint glass or a coffee mug.”
We’re having a lot of fun with the event and the establishments are excited to be a part of this unique BREW Tour. We encourage beer, wine, coffee, soda drinkers all to be a part of the fun!”
The participating establishments are:
Narrow Path Brewing
Ramsey’s Trailside
RODI Italian
Tano Bistro
Mile 42 Coffee
Hometown Café
Paxton’s Grill
The Works
Bishop’s Quarter
Hops and Berry
Rose Boutique Wine Bar
Cappy’s Wine & Spirits
The event goes from February 19 to April 19 in downtown Loveland, Ohio only.
Miami Township, Ohio – Mercy Health Mobile Mammography offers women screening mammograms in 15 minutes. This screening is covered by most health plans. For the best coverage, verify that Mercy Health and The Jewish Hospital are in-network providers with your insurance carrier. You may be eligible for financial assistance.
Loveland, Ohio – The Loveland Presbyterian Church is having a yard sale on March 9 from 9 Am until 3 PM. The church is located at 6796 Loveland Miamiville Road. (See map below.)
Loveland, Ohio – Word on the site yesterday as bridge parts were being bolted in place is that construction is on schedule for a May reopening of the Loveland Bike Trail bridge in Historic Downtown Loveland. The old railroad bridge that had been used for decades to carry bikers, runners, bladders, and walkers over O’Bannon Creek is being replaced with a new span.
Loveland Magazine Managing Editor at last year’s Loveland Frogman Festival.
by David Miller
Loveland, Ohio – The March 2nd Loveland Frogman Festival at the Oasis Conference Center may have been art imitating life or life imitating art. As much as anything, it is a cultural and art show seen from the otherworldly perspective of people’s lives, through the attire of visitors and vendors, and the art they create. Something of a masquerade ball, Halloween party, craft show and family reunion. It was a showcase of Loveland, Ohio to the Mid-West the South, and the East Coast.
The Loveland Frog, Jeff Craig, and Andy the Pied Piper of Loveland. (Andy introduces himself in one of the videos below.)
When I asked Founder and Director of the Festival, Jeff Craig to identify the person in the frog costume next to him in this photo he asked me to take, he said, “That was a costume? Say it ain’t so?” He laughed before continuing, “Now that I think about it, I never saw my oldest daughter and the Frog at the same time throughout the festival.”
Since the mid 1990’s Jeff has worked in the world of cartography and Geographic Information Systems, most recently for the last ten years with Duke Energy. He graduated from Miami University with a degree in Education and completed grad school at the University of Cincinnati studying Geography. As his schedule allowed, he taught Intro Geography courses at Northern Kentucky University, Cincinnati State, and Miami University. He lives in Cincinnati near Mt. Airy Forest with his wife Sarah. They have a blended family including a son and daughter in college and a daughter in 4th grade. He said, “Our house is always home to many pets. Right now that includes three dogs and three cats.” Music has always been part of Jeff’s life, from marching band to jazz band in school and he now plays the snare drum with the Cincinnati Caledonian Pipes & Drums.
Part Masquerade Ball and a little Halloween thrown in, this was one of the more elaborate creatures entertaining the attendees.
I hope you will get a sense of the spirit of the Frogman Festival in these very short videos below. I quickly learned what smudge fans are, first being attracted to their beauty and the craftsmanship thinking they were only ornamental pieces of amazing art. They are indeed, but as Sherry explains, they have a very useful and practical purpose.
Smudge Fans are explained by Sherry in the video below.
Danner Seyffer brought his Cryptic Scouts of America and was the troop leader in the room. He has an awful lot of of fun with the persona!
Nadine who traveled from Toledo, has seen Bigfoot and tells a horrifying story of her encounter with the Dogman. Immediately after the encounter, she fled her home so fast she wasn’t able to retrieve all of her belongings.
Later in the evening was the regional premier of the Frogman movie, a “Lovecraftian nightmare”. I chatted with the principals and the special effects artist who demonstrated the “Wand” that was so instrumental in the first sighting of our Loveland Frog. They want the world to know the truth about the Frogman “because the croaks are no hoax.”
Jeff said that for over fifteen years, he was a vendor at many events like the Point Pleasant, West Virginia Mothman Festival. In 2008 he came out with his “Hidden Ohio Map & Guide“, a full color, 2-sided paper map that pinpoints over 300 haunted and other unusual places in Ohio. Jeff would sell the map along with stickers and other items at the Mothman Festival which then was fairly small compared to what it has become. He said, “I’ve watched it grow over the years and when I came out with my national map of haunted and unusual places called Map in Black in 2021, I started traveling further away to do events. I decided we needed to celebrate the legend we have right here in our area, the Loveland Frogman. I noticed as I went to many events in other states, people had heard of the Frogman and would create art for the Frog’s fans and other items to celebrate the creature. The stories needed to be honored right here in the Little Miami River valley.”
Jeff’s Map in Black covers Aliens/UFOs, Ancient American Sites, Cryptids, Ecology, Hauntings, Military/Government sites, Native Lands, and Sacred Geography.
Putting the Sweetheart Resort of Ohio and our Frog on the map
There were over 1000 attendees. at the 2nd Annual Frogman Festival. The first, last March was at the Great Wolf Lodge near Kings Island. Jeff said that he doesn’t know the “very furthest traveller”, however, many people drove hundreds of miles from Minnesota, Kansas, and Virginia. One of the vendors is from Montreal, Canada and travelled down to Loveland the day before. Many vendors were from out of state including, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Kentucky, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Western New York, and Tennessee. One YouTube blogger, The Carpetbagger who has over a million followers drove nine hours overnight from Georgia to attend the festival and share his many stories throughout the day.
Matthew Schang, AKA Mothboy Matt told me that he traveled from Western New York to entertain festival goers. When he told me he knows Criyptids jokes I thought I asked a very logical question at an event filled with people who have experienced sudden strange encounters. I asked, “Knock, knock, who’s there?” Mothboy Matt was stumped. I also stumped him when I asked if he knew any Loveland Frog jokes. Mothboy Matt did tell me a Mothman joke, and described it “dad joke”. Mothboys is his podcast on Cryptids, Conspiracies, and the Unknown.
“Loveland had a great representation at the festival so big thanks to all who attended as well as the businesses and groups that provided help in spreading the word about the event, especially Loveland Magazine”, Jeff said. “We have a unique legend here that people from all over the country and even the world have heard of so the festival helps give the story a physical presence for people to experience. We aren’t out trying to prove anything, we just want to celebrate the stories, not just of Frogman, but the many unusual or mysterious happenings across the Tri-State region. I saw pictures on social media from attendees and vendors who had come from out of town and they were posting shots from the Loveland Castle and various locations as they explored our region before and after the event.”
There are plans for a 3rd annual Frogman Festival but details still need to be finalized.
Dare I proclaim as first suggested by an attendee that the first Saturday in March is hereby and forever proclaimed, “Loveland Frog Day”.
___________________
Sometimes hilarious, but always creepy, join hosts Laura Kram and Creepy Acres very own resident Bigfoot, Sam Squatch, as they delve into mysterious cryptid encounters and inexplicable occurrences to bring you “This Week in Creepy History”!
This week’s episode was The Loveland Frogman!
In the first weeks of March 1972 the city of Loveland, Ohio, a sleepy suburb of Cincinnati, was the scene of one of the most bizarre and unusual cases in all of cryptozoology. 2 different police officers, 2 weeks apart, would both separately encounter what some would describe as a 3-foot-tall, bipedal, frog faced entity. What was perhaps more outrageous was that this wasn’t the first time Loveland, Ohio had been visited by such creatures!
Join hosts Laura Kram and Creepy Acres’ very own resident Bigfoot, Sam Squatch, as they speak with author and researcher James A. Willis (WEIRD WILLIS) about the Loveland Frogman! So sit back and prepare for THIS WEEK IN CREEPY HISTORY!
James A. Willis is the author of numerous books on Ohio legends and lore including “Weird Ohio”, “Ohio’s Historic Haunts”, “Central Ohio Legends & Lore”, “Southern Ohio Legends & Lore”, and many more!
You can find James A. Willis on his Facebook page, or at his websites “My Strange and Spooky World” and “Ghosts of Ohio”!
“This event has become a staple for our business community,” says CeeCee Collins, President of the Little Miami River Chamber Alliance.
Advertisement
Milford-Miami Township-Loveland, Ohio – The 2024 Eastside Business Bash, presented by Bassett Services and hosted by the Milford Miami Township Chamber and Little Miami River Chamber Alliance, will take place on March 7 from 4 until 7 PM, at the Little Miami Brewing Event Center, 310 Mill St in Milford, Ohio. In the third year of this event, the hype has grown, with the 48 booth slots selling out in record time. The Bash provides an easy and interesting way for attendees to learn about a wide variety of B-to-B and B-to-C businesses in the area.
Attending the Expo is free, and the first 50 people to arrive will receive a free beer, featuring Little Miami Brewing’s unique hand-crafted beers. Attendees will enjoy light bites and drinks from the cash bar as they browse the booths. Items from local businesses and attendees will be raffled off throughout the afternoon.
Little Miami Brewing Event Center
This crossover event supports not only the entire Milford-Miami Township-Loveland area, but the entire east side of our region. In the past two years, over 200 people attended the Bash to explore the various businesses.
“This event has become a staple for our business community,” says CeeCee Collins, President of the Little Miami River Chamber Alliance. “We couldn’t believe how quickly booths sold out, and requests have continued to come in.”
Andrea Brady, Executive Director of the Milford Miami Township Chamber, adds, “Because this event is so well-attended – it’s in a fun location, with a wide variety of businesses to explore – it’s sought-after as an effective way to reach a large swath of the area.”
The Event Center sits at the start of downtown Milford, a street lined with unique shops and restaurants. The DORA (Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area) allows alcoholic drinks to be carried on the street (in DORA cups), so visitors may browse the shops and wend their way to dinner after the event while enjoying their beverage.
Meaghan Robbins doesn’t like when her husband, a member of the Army National Guard, is deployed for long stints. But with a toddler in need of child care, she can’t argue with the extra money.
“When he comes home and goes back to being a first responder, that changes,” the Marysville resident said.
Robbins doesn’t want to saddle her police officer husband with the overtime that would be necessary to keep her from working while also affording child care.
The cost of child care for the family, set to go up to $350 a month from the current $300 monthly, means two incomes are a must. But so, too, is the care and education their daughter receives.
“The things that she has been able to do or express because of lessons learned (at the daycare), I can’t provide that,” Robbins told the OCJ.
Addy Cary, mom to two young kids, had a family member to take care of her youngest until she was about eight months old. But once child care became necessary when they lived in Columbus, the religiously-affiliated daycare they found to meet their needs cost about the same as the family’s mortgage – more than $1,000 a month.
“And that was considered really cheap when I talked to other people about it,” Cary said.
Cary and her family moved to her hometown of Wooster to be closer to family, and the problem then became availability of care. So while she and her husband always wanted to have a family and considered it an important step in their lives, they realized they’d have to make unexpected decisions on how to care for their family.
“How are we going to get by when the cost of everything is going up so much, and we’re stuck just trying to think about how we’re going to pay for child care,” Cary and her family pondered.
Robbins works in HR and has a steady job at a family-oriented company now, but when she was laid off from a previous job, finding a job that paid enough to keep her youngest child in a quality learning environment while also allowing her the flexibility to take care of the child when she was home was a struggle she hadn’t anticipated before becoming a mother.
“If it works pay wise, it doesn’t work hours wise,” Robbins said. “If it works hours wise, it definitely doesn’t work pay wise.”
In the years before she had the job she currently has, she started working at her daughter’s daycare to partially offset the costs.
“I was pretty much working for free,” she said.
Campaign for Childcare
The frustration that came from wanting a quality education for their children but struggling with the ever-rising costs of it led Robbins and Cary to join a new effort, the Campaign for Childcare, putting pressure on federal leadership to support families and stem the flood of overwhelming costs families pay just to take care of children.
“I think it is very glossed over because having children, you’re seen as ‘you made this decision, now it’s all on you,’” Robbins said. “If we can make sure that people have access to daycare that is affordable, that is safe, we all get more out of it.”
The Campaign for Childcare identifies as a grassroots organization seeking to advocate for “large scale change in our childcare system to expand capacity, quality, accessibility and affordability of childcare nationwide,” according to their website.
Children at day care. (Getty Images)
CFC field organizer Katie Holler, who is also a Steubenville mom, said the group is looking into targeted spending on the federal level for child care, but it also hopes to bring the issue to the forefront as voters head to the polls this March and November in Ohio.
“We hope it’s a talking point everywhere, and I think it’s just a matter of voters knowing they can ask candidates about child care and feel confident in talking to the candidates,” Holler said.
According to Holler, local members of the group have already reached out to Ohio’s U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance to urge him to support supplemental funding for child care.
For Robbins, helping families get the quality child care they need not only helps them, but brings about a more prepared workforce (current and future) and allows potential parents to feel more confident that they could bring a child into the country.
“The United States is not built for parents, at least it’s not built for you to be a successful parent,” she said. “We’re not at that place where we support parents.”
In Ohio, 40% of residents live in what’s considered a “child care desert,” according to think tank Policy Matters Ohio. That lack of facilities to keep up with area population combines with the fact that the child care workforce is falling, with a decrease of almost 36% between 2017 and 2022, Policy Matters researchers found.
As families face their own tightened budgets to make child care a possibility, Cary thinks the priorities of the country should be the same as any ordinary family’s.
“It seems like in a country that has the kind of budget that we do, it really seems like this would be a blip in the grand scheme of things,” Cary said.
That funding should extend not only to the families who need child care, but to those who provide it, the moms said.
Robbins saw firsthand the work that goes into providing child care, and the lack of support received from the workers who do it.
“I see teachers feeling forgotten, I see them dealing with attendance policies when they get sick,” Robbins said. “I see the struggle of not being able to afford health insurance or care for their own son or daughter.”
Pushing on the idea that the fight for child care should influence Ohioans at the polls, Cary said if society wants to continue to improve, the place to start is in early education of children, and quality sources of that education.
“We have to think of ourselves as a society when we go to the polls, not just ourselves,” Cary said. “I think if you care about families, you need to show it.”
SUSAN TEBBEN
Susan Tebben is an award-winning journalist with a decade of experience covering Ohio news, including courts and crime, Appalachian social issues, government, education, diversity and culture. She has worked for The Newark Advocate, The Glasgow (KY) Daily Times, The Athens Messenger, and WOUB Public Media. She has also had work featured on National Public Radio.
Loveland, Ohio – The Loveland High School Game Day Competition team competed at the Universal Cheerleaders Association (UCA) National High School Cheerleading Championship in Florida.
“Not only did they get the fantastic experience of competing against the best cheerleading teams in the country, they represented Loveland in an amazing way.”
The LHS Game Day Competition Team finished second in the nation in the Varsity DII-Non-Building-Game Day Division. This is the first time in school history that our cheerleaders made the finals, and it marks the highest point total and highest finish in LHS history.
Loveland, Ohio – The Loveland Presbyterian Church is having a yard sale on March 9 from 9 Am until 3 PM. The church is located at 6796 Loveland Miamiville Road. (See map below.)
There were over 1000 attendees. at the 2nd Annual Frogman Festival. The first, last March was at the Great Wolf Lodge near Kings Island. Jeff said that he doesn’t know the “very furthest traveller”, however, many people drove hundreds of miles from Minnesota, Kansas, and Virginia. One of the vendors is from Montreal, Canada and travelled down to Loveland the day before. Many vendors were from out of state including, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Kentucky, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Western New York, and Tennessee. One YouTube blogger, The Carpetbagger who has over a million followers drove nine hours overnight from Georgia to attend the festival and share his many stories throughout the day.
