By JOHN KEREZY, eyeoncleveland.com founder
CUYAHOGA FALLS — Wow! Eyeoncleveland.com thanks its thousands of readers and viewers for seeing and sharing our stories in the first six months of 2025. We are on a pace to set a new record for reads/views on the website, and for that we’re truly grateful.
Recently we explored the 100th anniversary of the Goodyear Blimp, the award-winning HELP IS HERE mental health awareness initiative from Cuyahoga Community College, and other subjects.
In the coming month, here’s a glimpse at what we’re intending to feature:
- BUILDING HOPE IN THE CITY (BHITC) –- Based in Cleveland and begun primarily as a tutoring ministry in the late 1990s, Building Hope in the City BHITC has grown to a multi-faceted non-profit organization which helps with refugees, citizenship, housing, and Common Threads Thrift, a social enterprise. Recently BHITC erected 14 homes in the Clark-Fulton & Stockyards area of Cleveland’s West Side, and we’ll be focused on that aspect on our web page. BHITC’s mission is this: Advance the good of the city. Magnify the mission of Jesus. Unleash the capacity of underestimated people.
- CHOICES FOR A BETTER LIFE (CFABL) — This non-profit ministry is dedicated to helping those recovering from substance abuse and other bad choices turn their lives around. A faith-based ministry, it accomplishes its goal in many ways, including by operating a halfway house for clients who have no other place to live. Based in Akron, CFABL recently celebrated its 30th anniversary, and eyeoncleveland.com will focus on both the people it has helped and how its ministry has grown.
- BLIMP, REVISITED – How many cultural icons are preserved at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum? We can think of only one: the Goodyear Blimp, which celebrated its 100th anniversary amid much fanfare last month. the gondola from “Pilgrim” the first blimp which helped demonstrate the value of lighter-than-air flight and to train future airship pilots, is on display at the Smithsonian. We’ll take a glimpse into some of the details surrounding that 100th anniversary celebration.
LOOKING FOR A FUN AND FREE FAMILY EVENT?
By now, many Northeast Ohio parents are looking for one more great family event to do before school resumes in late August or early September (depending on your school district).
Eyeoncleveland.com has published several stories (and video links) to the great D-Day Ohio commemoration which happens the third weekend each August in Conneaut in the far northeast corner of Ohio. This year’s event will be on Thursday – Saturday, August 14-16.
This is the largest gathering of World War II reenactors, civilian and military, in the United States. Historical reenactors from dozens of states and many foreign nations (the largest of which is Canada) come to Conneaut for the event, and tens of thousands of spectators will enjoy the festivities. Tickets are free (but you need to obtain them in advance). One reason why this is event is so alluring is the unprecedented level of involvement of those dedicated to living history and reenactment to all phases of the D-Day story. French resistance fighters (Maquis), the Germany army, civilians, U.S. forces (of course), and forces of Great Britain and the Commonwealth nations (mainly Canada) are all part of the weekend’s activities. Each day’s events combine military action, including a 3 p.m. beach invasion battle on Friday and Saturday with civilian and military living histories.
Just below is a link to details, and further below links to a past story and video about D-Day Ohio.
See the 2022 USO Show at D-Day Ohio here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hroaSEXxYRU&t=186s
Rounding third and heading home …
This summer also marks the 10th anniversary of eyeoncleveland.com’s existence. It began in August 2015, when three of my multi-media journalism students (Portia Booker, Sara Liptak and Robby Fenbers) covered the August 2015 presidential debates which were in Cleveland. In part, eyeoncleveland.com was launched to provide an outlet and “byline credit” to students in some of my classes, and about 20 students have contributed stories to the website over the years.
I’m now in the home stretch of my teaching career at Cuyahoga Community College. I plan to retire in the not-too-distant future. Careerwise, I’m feeling like the line the MLB baseballer and broadcaster Joe Nuxhall, who’s sign-off line covering Cincinnati Reds games ended with “rounding third and heading for home.” But with certainty, I can say that eyeoncleveland.com will continue to tell and share great stories. There’s no reason not to keep on going, as there are lots of terrific human interest features needing to be told.
Kathy and I are also thanking God for his many blessings. It was four years ago, almost to the day, that I was treated for Stage 3 bladder cancer with a major surgery at SummaHealth in Akron. Every blood draw and every CT scan of my body and bones in the four years since then have come back negative or NED – no evidence of disease.
If you’re interested, below are links to a few stories I penned on my personal blog site jkerezy.wordpress.com as I struggled with that ordeal.
https://jkerezy.wordpress.com/category/bladder-cancer/
Watch for more stories soon.
RESEARCH LINKS
https://www.buildinghopeinthecity.org/
https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/goodyear-pilgrim-gondola/nasm_A19330024000
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