Volunteers deserving of Big recognition

BOUQUETS >> To Big Brothers Big Sisters Lorain County for honoring Zach McLeish and Denise Shafer as 2019 Bigs of the Year.

In a ceremony Jan. 31 at Quaker Steak and Lube in Sheffield Village, event organizers of National Mentoring Month at “Big Night Out” discussed how McLeish and Shafer were recognized for the impact they have had on the lives of their Little Brothers and Little Sisters. In 2011, McLeish, of Columbia Station, was introduced to his Little Brother Hunter Smith. Since that time, they have gotten together twice a week, consistently sharing activities and their love of fantasy football. McLeish, a member of the U.S. Air Force since 2009, served six-month deployments to Afghanistan in 2018 and Asia in 2013, but he kept in touch with Hunter. Shafer, of Vermilion, was matched to her Little Sister Jamya Phillips in July 2016 and said it’s been a joy. Shafer said, “I’ve watched her grow up for the last two and a half years we’ve been together and the motto is defend your potential.” We commend McLeish and Shafer for what they are doing to mentor young people. BOUQUETS >> To the Lorain Sports Hall of Fame which will celebrate its 50th anniversary this year. Tom Bauer, Lorain Sports Hall of Fame Banquet chairman and committee member, spoke Feb. 1 about the Hall of Fame as part of the Lorain Growth Corp.-Main Street Lorain downtown business consortium monthly breakfast meeting. The Lorain Sports Hall of Fame started in 1969 and now operates with officers, committee members and an advisory board. Almost 50 years ago, Ed Cinniger and Paul “Bummy” Baumgartner were two of the founding fathers of the Lorain Sports Hall of Fame. In 1969 and 1970, they joined with Jim Lawhead, Gene Sofranko, Hank Kozloski and Dale Livingston to form the first panel of officers to lead the Hall of Fame committee. The inaugural class was Frank “Hank” Andorka, Alex Black, George Daniel, Carl Hageman, Paul Kromer, Richard Olson, William Rieth, Joseph Ujhelyi and Edgar Yeckley. The Lorain Sports Hall of Fame maintains a museum with plaques for the honorees and memorabilia at Lorain High School, 2600 Ashland Ave., where there are 368 people and 36 teams enshrined. We congratulate the Lorain Sports Hall of Fame for celebrating its golden anniversary. BRICKBATS >> To Elliott Kirkland, the 29-year-old Lorain man who will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole for robbing and murdering 38-year-old Jimmie Holland Jr. over drugs Aug. 29, 2016. A Lorain County Common Pleas Court jury had the option to recommend a death sentence but chose not to. Last month, the same jury convicted Kirkland of aggravated murder, murder, aggravated robbery and aggravated burglary of Holland in his Lorain apartment. Common Pleas Judge James L. Miraldi will sentence Kirkland on Feb. 22. Kirkland shot Holland three times with a 9 mm semiautomatic pistol while he and 26-year-old Mark Sanchez robbed the man’s apartment. Kirkland should chosen another path than a life of crime and greed. His actions have put him behind bars for the rest of his life. For the sake of the community, Kirkland will not ever walk the streets of Lorain, or any other city, again. Good. BRICKBATS >> To Roy W. Warner, 74, and Vesta C. Warner, 73, the New London couple who learned Jan. 28 they will serve a year of community control for stealing from an elderly family member. The Warners pleaded no contest Dec. 20 to two counts of theft of David Smith, Vesta Warner’s father. Previously, Robyn L. Kubisen, 46, of New London, also a daughter of Smith’s, was sentenced to six months in the Lorain Medina Community Based Correctional Facility and five years of community control in June 2017 for her part in the theft. While all defendants have now been sentenced, the matter still is being adjudicated in a civil trial in which Smith is seeking an excess of $100,000 in damages from his two daughters, as well as from Roy Warner and Kubisen’s ex-husband. The lawsuit claims that the Warners, Kubisen and her exhusband controlled Smith’s life and chose where he moved, what he ate, what portion of his medicine he receives, who he could see and how his money could be spent, among other things. The suit also claims Smith was assaulted by his family and was bitten by their dogs. What a sad case. But the Warners and Kubisen should be ashamed of themselves from stealing from their father and not comforting him.