Mario’s Barber Shop owner leading bicycle drive with Park District

A Middlefield barber shop owner is leading a bicycle drive in which area residents can donate new bicycles or helmets.

“We’d like to collect 100 new bikes and helmets to give away to children in need and get them off their computers,” said Mario Innocenzi, who is the owner of Mario’s Barber Shops in Middlefield and Parma, who is also a Geauga Park District board commissioner. “We have these big, beautiful parks – it’s time to get the kids out using them.”

Geauga Park District offers trails for biking at six of its properties, including more than 20 miles stretching along The Maple Highlands Trail. Claridon Woodlands features a single mountain bike track and pump track, and Big Creek Park opened its first mountain bike trail last summer.

Anyone who wishes to donate a bicycle and helmet to this effort can purchase the items new from any store and drop them off before April 5, at any of the following locations:

• Mario’s Barber Shop at 14895 N State Avenue in Middlefield

• Great Lakes Outdoor

Supply at 14855 N State Avenue in Middlefield

• Mario’s Barber Shop at 7526 Broadview Road in Parma.

Innocenzi said he hopes to give donated bikes and helmets away during an event along The Maple Highlands Trail this spring in collaboration with the Village of Middlefield Recreation Department and Geauga Park District recreation staff.

Donors will receive a Mario’s Barber Shop pin as a thank-you gift, as well as acknowledgement to those families receiving the bikes upon distribution.

“Finding ways for young people to enjoy more time spent outdoors is part of our mission,” said Geauga Park District Executive Director John Oros in the release. “Receiving a free bike and helmet, with some encouragement to get out and ride the trails, will not only enhance their capacity to enjoy the outdoors for the rest of their lives, but will also increase their physical fitness and invest them in caring for these natural areas as adults.”

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT 1993

A truck bomb built by Islamic extremists exploded in the parking garage of the North Tower of New York’s World Trade Center, killing six people and injuring more than 1,000others.

ALSO ON THIS DATE 1904

The United States and Panama proclaimed a treaty under which the U.S. agreed to undertake efforts to build a ship canal across the Panama isthmus.

1940

The United States Air Defense Command was created.

1942

“How Green Was My Valley” won the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1941, beating out nine other films, including “The Maltese Falcon” and “Citizen Kane.”

1945

Authorities ordered a midnight curfew at nightclubs, bars and other places of entertainment across the nation.

1952

Prime Minister Winston Churchill announced that Britain had developed its own atomic bomb.

1966

South Korean troops sent to fight in the Vietnam War massacred at least 380 civilians in Go Dai hamlet.

1984

The last U.S. Marines deployed to Beirut as part of an international peacekeeping force withdrew from the Lebanese capital.

1998

A jury in Amarillo, Texas, rejected an $11 million lawsuit brought by Texas cattlemen who blamed Oprah Winfrey’s talk show for a price fall after a segment on food safety that included a discussion about mad cow disease.

2014

Republican Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed a bill that would have allowed people with sincerely held religious beliefs to refuse to serve gays.