Kudos to group on helping area homeless

BOUQUETS >> To members of United Auto Workers Local 2000 Motorcycle Committee for organizing food and delivering gifts to Lorain’s homeless shelters.

On Sept. 30, the group used a Sunday afternoon ride to deliver food, supplies and caring words to those having a hard time in Lorain County.

With help from the Education and Chaplain’s Committees, members prepared 100 backpacks with toiletries, camp supplies and contact information for anyone seeking help from addiction. They brought boxed lunches, tables, chair and prayer leaders as well.

Motorcycle Committee Chairman Willie “Big Will” Pettyjohn, said, “We’re hardworking people, but we try to come back and do what we can do.”

Members submit ideas for community projects and vote on the suggestions.

Pettyjohn said the group voted unanimously to do something with the people in tent city, referring to the wooded area between the Black River and Elyria Avenue, and between 17th and 21st streets, which in warm weather months becomes an encampment for people.

We commend the group and its supporters for seeking out and helping the homeless in this community.

BOUQUETS >> To Olie’s Footprints, the nonprofit organization dedicated to helping families in their loss of a baby or child, for hosting its second annual Light the Lake event Sept. 29 at Lorain’s Lakeview Park.

Paper footprints and little lights at sunset showed the love that remains in families of children whose lives ended too soon.

Founder Sara Britton created Olie’s Footprints to honor her son, Oliver Paxton, who was lost due to miscarriage.

Britton said, “He started it all for us. It’s all Olie. This doesn’t come from me . ... It all started with him and that’s the most important thing for me, is that he’s remembered, just like these families want their children remembered. He drives this nonprofit.”

Since the start, Olie’s Footprints sent out 176 keepsake packages in the United States and to England, Canada and South Africa, and made at least 1,000 check-ins to connect with families mourning lives ended too soon.

Olie’s Footprints creates sibling keepsakes for children in families that lose an infant. The items are simple: teddy bears, heart-shaped crayons, coloring books, seeds to plant.

It’s heart-breaking to lose a child, but with groups like Olie’s Footprints assisting families, the pain can ease some.

BRICKBATS >> To Dan Wilson, who resigned Sept. 28 as a math teacher and golf coach for Avon Lake High School after authorities say he admitted to improper communications with a 17-year-old female former student.

The Avon Lake prosecutor and Avon Lake Police Department detectives reviewed messages between Wilson and the teen and found they did not violate the law, so authorities are not pursuing charges.

Investigators learned of the communications between Wilson and the student Sept. 25 from a third person and then forwarded the information to the school district.

Avon Lake City Schools Superintendent Robert Scott said Wilson was with the district for 10 years and also was the Diversity Club adviser.

The district’s school board formally accepted Wilson’s resignation at a special meeting Oct. 1.

Scott said, “Our high expectations for our teachers’ behavior was not met. Our hearts go out to the young lady that had to deal with this.”

Wilson was right to resign after his conduct.

Hopefully, he learned a lesson that being a person of authority he can’t have inappropriate communications or contacts with students. You just can’t do it.

BRICKBATS >> To Michael A. Hargrove, the 40-year-old Lorain man who was sentenced to four years in prison Sept. 28 on a pair of cases, including one that left a woman dead.

Hargrove pleaded guilty to an amended indictment on reckless homicide in one case, and failure to comply and driving under suspension in the other case.

Elyria police Capt. Christopher Costantino said the reckless murder charge stems from a Jan. 9, 2017, incident.

Hargrove dropped off 43-year-old Ronda St. Clair of Lorain at University Hospitals Elyria Medical Center and fled. About 20 minutes later, doctors pronounced her dead.

When detectives found Hargrove, he admitted he had consumed drugs with St. Clair in a Lorain house.

St. Clair asked to go to the hospital, but Hargrove felt he was too high to call an ambulance.

Costantino said, “If an ambulance had been called immediately, the end result could have been different.”

Hargrove was negligent with his reckless behavior and in this case, the punishment fits the crime.