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COMMUNITY RECORDER
Your Community Recorder newspaper serving Bellevue, Cold Spring, Highland Heights, Newport, Southgate Email: kynews@communitypress.com Website: NKY.com T h u r s d a y, M a y 1 2 , 2 0 1 1
B E C A U S E C O M M U N I T Y M AT T E R S
Valerie Allendorf-Mendez
50¢
Newport making new ‘Friends’
Volume 15, Number 12 © 2011 The Community Recorder ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
By Amanda Joering Alley ajoering@nky.com
Kicks for Kids
The 15th annual RGI River Run benefiting Kicks for Kids may prove to be the biggest event yet, with more 1,500 people expected to participate. The 5K, which has raised more than $500,000 since it began, goes towards Kicks for Kids’ goal of providing programs and other funding to benefit local children who are physically, mentally or environmentally challenged. NEWS, A3
Testing rally
Before students dive into the serious business of a week of taking state required tests, teachers in each of the Campbell County Schools rally their students for some motivational fun. SCHOOLS, A5
CHRIS MAYHEW/STAFF
Getting a kick out of prom
Gara Sullivan displays glittering tennis shoes with the help of Jordan Dyer during the Bellevue High School prom at the Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza’s Pavillion Ballroom Friday, May 6. For more photos see B1.
Sportsman of Year nominations open
The Community Recorder is accepting nominations for its third-annual Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year online contest. The nomination period will be open through Monday, May 16. The ballots will be online Friday, May 20, and run until midnight Monday, June 6.
Send us photos
It’s prom season again, and we want you to send us your photos, and we’ll feature them on NKY.com. We’re looking for high school prom photos from this spring’s events. Send your prom photos by attaching them to an email and send them to NKYproms@ NKY.com Please make your photos no smaller than 640x480 pixels, and no larger than 100KB. Be sure to include the names of those in the picture, and the date and school of the prom.
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CHRIS MAYHEW/STAFF
David Verkamp, left, Devyn Buschard, Koty Hammond, Brandon Fogelman and Midi Reynolds sit down at a table during Bellevue High School’s prom.
NEWPORT - Members of the Newport Citizen’s Advisory Council (NCAC) are trying to extend their reach in the city and get to know more residents through a new Friends of Newport group. Taking ideas from the Friends of Bellevue and Friends of Covington groups, the Newport group’s goal is to enhance the quality of life in the community through communication, activities and projects designed to foster pride and encourage positive development. Joyce Chastang, chairmen of the NCAC and organizer of the friends group, said she felt the city needed something more. “This group gives us the chance to socialize and unite all the neighborhoods in greater Newport,” Chastang said. Currently, several different neighborhoods, like the East Row Historic District, have their own community groups, and Chastang said she hopes the Friends of Newport group will bring all the other groups together. Unlike some of the other groups, Chastang said she hopes the friends group will be more about socializing. “I want to let the neighborhood groups and city officials deal with the political stuff and keep this group more social,” Chastang said. SouthShore Condominiums resident Tess Hollingsworth, who moved to Newport from Anderson Township with her husband two years ago after she retired, said she is joining the Friends of Newport as a way to get involved and learn more about the city. “I really care about the commu-
AMANDA JOERING ALLEY/STAFF
Joyce Chastang, chairmen of the Newport Citizen’s Advisory Council and organizer of the new Friends of Newport group, speaks to a group of people who attended the kickoff event for the new group Thursday, May 5, at the Carnegie Event Center. nity, and I just want to get more involved,” Hollingsworth said. “I want to start doing more volunteer work, and I thought I may as well try to help my local community instead of volunteering somewhere else.” Newport Councilman Frank Peluso said he thinks the group is a great way for residents to get to know each other and work together to see how they can make the city better. Chastang said the group, which held a kickoff event Thursday, May 5, will meet quarterly. Membership dues are $10 per person or $15 for a family. For more information or to join the group, contact Joyce Chastang at jinschool@fuse.net. For more about your community, visit www.nky.com/newport
County Giving Fields planted for charity By Chris Mayhew cmayhew@nky.com
MELBOURNE - Fresh produce being grown in a Melbourne field thanks to the efforts of volunteers from across southern Campbell County will be on its way to Northern Kentucky groups helping feed people seeking emergency assistance. Land for what has been named “The Giving Fields” was donated by Doug and Sheila Bray of Wilder, and a partnership with The Freestore Foodbank will enable the distribution of fresh vegetables and fruits to five food pantries providing food assistance in Campbell, Boone and Kenton counties. The idea for the fields germinated when Doug Bray said a friend of his who lives in Cold Spring was going to end up wasting some of the fresh food from his home garden. They decided to take it all to the Rose Garden Mission and food pantry in Covington. They found
CHRIS MAYHEW/STAFF
Susan Turner, a volunteer from California, counts rows of newly planted seedlings at The Giving Fields in Melbourne Friday, May 6. out fresh vegetables and fruit are almost a luxury for people receiving food assistance, Bray said. “You wouldn’t believe the need for fresh food,” he said. Planting started this spring after Bray had the fields cleared and tilled
in the fall of 2010. They ended up talking with The Freestore Foodbank after visiting a half-acre giving garden at St. Timothy Church in Boone County, and a larger giving farm in North Carolina. To help with everything from
planting to harvest and every step in between, a plea for volunteers went out to Campbell County churches and the response has been overwhelming, Bray said. More than 92 people signed up to volunteer from six parishes including St. Catherine of Siena in Fort Thomas, St. Joseph in Cold Spring, St. Philip in Melbourne, Sts. Peter and Paul in California and St. Mary in Alexandria, he said. Ben Franzen, 19, of California, is the organizer of the volunteers from his parish at Sts. Peter and Paul. “I think it’s a good way to be involved and give back a little,” said Franzen, a 2009 graduate of Campbell County High School who is studying elementary education at Northern Kentucky University. Franzen said he’s happy to be able to bring more young people in as volunteers and inspire people his age to be involved. Volunteer Susan Turner of Cali-
Giving Fields continued A2