CUYAHOGA FALLS, DEC. 4, 2025 — Eyeoncleveland.com will complete 2025 by focusing on some human interest stories, and — sadly — one tragedy in slow motion which is happening right before our eyes both in Northeast Ohio and all across the U.S.
There has been a lot of buzz lately about refugees who have violated the terms of their entry into the U.S under Parolee or Temporary Protected Status, or entered the country illegally in the first place. And then there are about 240,000 Ukrainian refugees in our country. Many of them lost their homes, their livelihoods, and would have lost their freedom, or their lives, if they stayed in territories which Russia conquered in its unwarranted invasion.
We’re going to tell the story of a hard-working couple, Roman and Veronika, whom were both admitted to the U.S. under TPS, got jobs, and tried to resume normal lives after Russian invaders both destroyed their home and occupied their area of Bakhmut in late 2022. Roman and Veronika purchased a home in Parma. They had a baby son, born in Parma, in January 2025.
This fall, they were forced to sell their residence. Roman quit his job making cabinets in Maple Heights. The family was forced to leave the US. They first arrived in Poland, then resettled temporarily in Western Ukraine.
Obviously they cannot go home – there’s no home in Russian-occupied territory for them.
Why did they have to leave? Their refugee papers weren’t renewed.
We’ll be telling their story.
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Eva Pate is striving to become Northeast Ohio’s next Olympic athlete. She and her husband and ice dancing partner Logan Bye are on the USA Figure Skating Team. They won two championships in Europe this fall, and are aiming for a high finish in the January 2026 Prevagen US Figure Skating Nationals in St. Louis, and a possible place on the U.S. Olympic Team. The 2026 Winter Olympics will be held in Milan, Italy February 6-22.
Will Eva and Logan be on the team? We’ll have some of their story. (Not exactly a spoiler alert: Eva is one of my former students)
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Another favorite former student of mine is Portia Booker. Portia graduated from Cuyahoga Community College and went on to Kent State to earn a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism. But upon entering the work world, she discovered that television news isn’t a bed of roses. She chose to pursue her own path as a podcast producer. And what a path she’s blazing.
Portia is the Chief Media Producer and host of Groove with Portia, a podcast ranked in the top ten percent globally. After losing both parents nine months apart, she transformed her grief into gratitude and a mission to elevate meaningful stories. She is the author of Finding Grace within Grief, leads grief support groups, and uses her talents in podcast production, training, and videography to help people share their lived experiences. Her work shows how adversity can add powerful verses of wisdom to life’s blueprint. You’ll be reading her story soon.
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Finally, long before I began teaching at Tri-C, I was a student at James Ford Rhodes High School. One of my many talented classmates was Jim Morrison, who went on to a long and quite distinguished career in corporate communications with Cleveland-based American Greetings. Like me, Jim is not the type of person who’ll just sit on his hands when he retires.
Jim, who also teaches classes online in the Integrated Marketing Communications program at West Virginia University, chose to offer his services to Cross of Hope Church and its companion Parma Heights Christian Academy (PHCA). There he has made a tremendous impact for God and for good, as Cross of Hope does a variety of community service activities.
Rhodes HS Class of 1974. (Photo by Jim Morrison)
This fall, Jim has also chosen to teach eighth graders about video editing. So, there’s a group of 13 and 14-year-olds in a class with him two days a week, mastering the basics of videography, video graphics, and video editing at PHCA. We’ll have their story also.
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Thank you, Lord. Why, Lord?
That was an attitude and a question I asked in July 2021. I’d been diagnosed with Stage 3 bladder cancer (and a companion illness) early that year. Three rounds of chemotherapy and three surgeries later, my urologist/oncologist (Dr. Joshua Nething of Summahealth, a terrific guy) sent tissue samples from body to pathology. They call came back showing N.E.D or no evidence of disease. About four-and-a-half years later, I’m still the same way.
Since then, it became apparent to me that God wanted me to keep telling stories. This year, more than 15,000 people have viewed my eyeoncleveland.com feature and news blog (see chart below). We’ve focused on important ministries (Building Hope in the City) important milestones (the centennial of the Goodyear Blimp) and issues (our federal government’s dysfunction) and people too.
As I prepare to retire from Cuyahoga Community College and move on to my next phase of service and encouragement to others – what I strive to do always – the answer to that question has become apparent. In 2026, my new biography about Jesse Owens should be published. I’m also doing work on a second focused history about my alma mater, Wabash College, and tackling some other writing projects.
If you’ve liked what you’ve read on eyeoncleveland.com and you have an idea for a story, don’t hesitate to reach me. You can connect at john.kerezy@tri-c.edu (for a while longer) or at johnkprof@gmail.com.
Do take time to celebrate Christmas, not the way the world does, but the way Linus does in the first-ever prime time animated cartoon special, “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”
Yes Charlie Brown, there are plenty of people who can tell you what Christmas is all about. Take a look:
John Kerezy, eyeoncleveland.com founder
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