The United States (and the world for that matter) seems to have far too many holidays for my taste. Don’t get me wrong, I like holidays; but Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Grandparent’s Day, Sweetest Day and many of the rest to me are little more than “Hallmark Holidays,” designed to encourage the purchase of flowers, candy, presents and, of course, Hallmark cards specifically prepared for the occasion. They are, furthermore, holidays which are abused beyond all reason or need by the retail industry to create artificial reasons to purchase items that have nothing to do with the holiday in question. (After all, why else would I buy furniture, a TV or a car because of a “Presidents Day” sale?)
This is not to say that all such holidays are not deserving of our love and recognition. Creating a special holiday to celebrate special people, who are deserving of our consideration every day of the year, might be just a little more than is necessary, however.
I believe that upon the publishing of these first two paragraphs, many will misunderstand my intent and find reason either to comment either to themselves (always a sound philosophy when done silently), to those around them (who are probably are less interested in the subject at hand) or to the Toledo Free Press online comment section or Letters to the Editor in violent opposition to the sentiments that I have expressed. That, of course, is their right, and I would encourage them to do so (especially in the last way, as it lets those in charge know that someone is reading this stuff.)
I say this, however, because in spite of my assertion that there are too many of these events, I am about to add insult to the injury I have thus far stated. I would like to add yet another Hallmark Holiday to the list for this year, and I can’t think of a better occasion for it.
You see, June 26-28 is exactly the halfway point between Father’s Day and the Fourth of July. One of these holidays, of course, should be extremely important to the citizens of the United States, the other … maybe not so much. However, in light of the government’s current open disregard at best and trampling at worst of the document that is one of the two most important documents in the United States, The Constitution, I would like to create a holiday for those who wrote it. In the spirit of the document whose creation began 222 years ago, and the one that we celebrate but a week later (the Declaration of Independence, of course), I would like to create “Founding Fathers’ Day.”
Retail outlets would have an excuse to hold another sale at a time when there is traditionally little going on in retail, whether it has anything to do with the holiday or not. We could have an additional weekend to shoot off fireworks, which would help their sales. (Besides, nothing says patriotism like things exploding, right?) And of course, Hallmark could create hundreds of different kinds of Founding Fathers’ Day cards that we could send to each other.
Perhaps in the process of executing our assigned duties as part of the rampant consumerism expected of each and every one of us during this new (and every other) Hallmark Holiday, we could even perform a useful function by distributing copies of the documents which seem to be suffering from so much recent abuse, and which so few Americans (and even fewer of the Americans in government apparently) seem to be even mildly familiar with.
And so I say to each of you on this latest of festive weekends: Happy Founding Fathers’ Day!

Tim Higgins blogs at justblowingsmoke.blogspot.com.

Editor’s note: This is a continuing series on Toledo International Youth Orchestra’s planned trip to Tanga. Toledo Free Press Special Sections Editor Brandi Barhite plans to travel to Africa with the group.

Members of the Toledo International Youth Orchestra (TIYO) won’t miss their families while in Tanga, Tanzania.
That’s because many of their parents are traveling with them to visit Toledo’s sister city.
TIYO parent representative Beth Sander of Sylvania is going with son, Jacob, and daughter, Logan, both TIYO members. The family is featured on this week’s cover.
“I just thought it would be a fantastic opportunity; the orchestra is such a nice group of people,” Beth said. “Plus, it’s Africa. That is so exciting.”
Last year, Jacob, a violin player, traveled with the orchestra to sister cities Poznan, Poland, and Delmenhorst, Germany. In 2007, TIYO traveled to sister cities Qinhuangdao, China, and London, Ontario. The orchestra’s mission is to visit sister cities and perform multicultural music.
This year’s trip has been 18 months in the making. It cost $3,000 for TIYO members and $3,500 for adults.
The Sanders scrimped and saved with three of them going.
“We have all worked extra, and the kids are taking their own spending money,” Beth said. “Our friends and family have helped out, and we have really had to save.”

Lee Ann and Yang Kun Song will travel with TIYO to Africa.

The yellow fever vaccination, required for the sub-Saharan region, cost $265 for the three of them.
Logan normally spends all of her money, but has gone without new purses and shoes in preparation for the trip. She’s not super happy about her mom tagging along since Jacob got to travel by himself last year.
“It will be kind of weird because I don’t want her to be telling me what to do,” the viola player said, giggling.
Jacob has been working as a caddy, in addition to playing in a TIYO quartet to raise money. The rest of the family has helped by sacrificing nice dinners at restaurants.
“I have spent a lot of time thinking about what we need to pack, thinking about what comforts from home we need to bring,” Beth said.
Toledoan John Russ and his daughter, Hannah, and wife, Sally, are making the trip to Africa, too.
“They will be memories she will have all of her life. I don’t want to travel without her,” John said.
“I am a little nervous,” said Carla Morrissey, who is going with husband, Marty, and son and TIYO member, Cameron. “Any other time we have been somewhere, it has been a resort, so it’s a little scary. It is good we are going in a big group. I would never want to do this alone.”
In the past, not as many parents went on the trip, which is changing because TIYO is reaching out to families, Beth said.
Africa is appealing to John because he has never been south of the equator.
The biggest challenge for Cameron’s family has been finding a string bass in Africa.
Orchestra manager Liz Villarreal said Africa doesn’t have many stringed instruments because it’s not part of their musical heritage.
Cameron’s family is talking with a woman in Zanzibar who is willing to let him play her bass when TIYO is visiting that city, but she doesn’t want it to travel elsewhere.
“We are trying to sweet talk her,” Cameron said.
His dad said taking his bass would cost $6,000 because of its dimensions and weight. The rest of the musicians are taking their instruments aboard the plane.
As the parent representative for the trip, Beth secured visas for each traveler, while other parts of the TIYO management team arranged plane flights, performances and lodging.
“It has been a valuable learning experience,” she said. “Thinking about safety and medications —there is more than I ever thought.”
Liz said everyone involved with the orchestra is a volunteer. One way the group stayed organized was through weekly meetings at Yang Kun Song’s house. Song, orchestra conductor, is going on the trip with daughter Lee Ann.
In all, 28 people are making the trip to Africa: 16 TIYO members and 12 adults. The group will travel with a cell phone and update those at home via the Internet.
But Liz warned that “no news is good news,” and that TIYO won’t always have access to the Internet, which is spotty at best in Tanzania.
Her son Mark Villarreal, a former TIYO member, is coming to continue the tradition of traveling with his mom.
“We have gone to Mexico every year on winter break,” Mark said. “There hasn’t been a year I haven’t been on a plane.”

View this week’s Mud Hens Muddy Shuttle schedule here.

Whether they call him “Johnny Ginkgo Seed,” “Teacher,” “Dr. Bob” or just “Bob,” friends of community activist Robert Brundage say he is a role model.
At presstime June 25, Brundage remained in critical condition at St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center after a 15 year-old allegedly attacked him for his bicycle June 22.
More than 100 friends and family met June 23 at the Collingwood Arts Center to wish him a speedy recovery.
“Last year, he had a bike accident and hip fracture and I thought this was going to be his chance to settle into being old, but not three weeks later, he was back on his bike,” said Steve Hallock, who knows Brundage through various community activist groups. “If there is anybody who is capable of pulling out of this, it is him; and when he does, I assume he’ll be back on his bike.”

Robert Brundage

Tireless fighter
Brundage has tirelessly fought for equality, environmental preservation and community empowerment in Toledo, said Jeff Nelson, who worked with Brundage to preserve Scott High School last year.
After moving back to Ohio from Boston in 1997, Brundage served as the treasurer of the Collingwood Arts Center, works on Central City Neighborhoods Community Development Corporation, Community Shares of Northwest Ohio, Jobs with Justice, Parents for Public Schools,  Urban Coalition, Building Bridges toward Racial Harmony and more, according to  Collingwood ArtsCenter.org.
“If he dies, it’s going to be a real blow to this community and I think the world will have lost a nice, gentle, productive citizen,” Nelson said.
Scholar and musician
With a Ph.D. in biophysics from Brandeis University, Brundage worked in Boston to design medical instruments, while balancing his cello playing and love for music. He recorded and edited performances for Harvard University, MIT, New England Conservatory and others for this third career, according to the Art Center Web site.
“He went to Toledo Public Schools for high school and then to the Ivy Leagues,” said long-term friend Michael Szuberla. “He left a comfy lifestyle in Boston to try to make Toledo better.”
Szuberla said Brundage loves to work with children and teach them about different trees and plants. He earned his nickname “Johnny Ginkgo Seed” because he frequents the Toledo Botanical Garden with a large pot on his head and passes out ginkgo seeds to advocate their strong, medicinal benefits.
Lorna Gonsalves, who started a children’s program called Human Values for Transformative Action, said she plans to have her students plant a little forest in Brundage’s name — and she’s expecting he’ll be around to help.
Joe Zsigray, executive director of the Collingwood Arts Center, said Brundage was instrumental in shaping the center. He helped Zsigray engineer acoustical panels around the auditorium to improve sound quality for performances.
Brundage fulfilled another dream recently after he and other Scott High School alums persuaded voters to support preserving Toledo’s oldest high school rather than tearing it down, said Warren Woodberry, who worked with him on the project. The last time Woodberry talked to Brundage before the incident, he was elated because the two had just finalized a room at the Collingwood Arts Center to display historical artifacts from the high school and pay tribute to its rich history. The two discussed producing a play about the high school, and Woodberry said he would carry out those plans.
Attacker confessed
Dailahntae Jemison is in custody at the Juvenile Detention Center, facing an aggravated robbery charge, said Sgt. Bill Wauford.
Detective James Couch apprehended him and Jemison confessed within a couple hours after Toledo police officers responded to a witness’ call about Brundage lying unconscious at the corner of Collingwood Boulevard and Victoria Place, Wauford said.
Jemison, who reportedly assaulted Brundage while attempting to steal his bicycle, could face trial as an adult if Brundage dies, he said.
Kris Moazed told the group at the Collingwood Arts Center that they should pray for both “Bob” and his attacker.
“We all know he would really appreciate that we pray for the boy who assaulted him,” she said.
In a June 24 statement, the Brundage family said, “In the short time he has been at St. V.’s, he has shown incremental improvements of increased response. He is currently undergoing further testing and we remain hopeful that [he] will continue to improve.”

Point Place residents might have to choose between buying flood insurance or large machinery that removes backyard foliage, homemade docks, patios and swimming pools.
Howard Pinkley, who has lived in Point Place for 82 years, said he and his neighbors cannot afford extra monthly payments and will work hard to contest the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) recent floodplain map, which designated portions of the area in the floodplain. This mandates anyone with a federally backed mortgage to buy insurance.
“I was prepared to tell them, ‘pack your bags and get out of town,’ ” he said about his neighbors.
More than 300 people crammed into the Friendship Park Senior Center on June 24 for a public hearing, which quickly became a shouting match between infuriated Point Place dwellers and Ken Hinterlong, a District 5 FEMA representative and engineer.
In a nationwide project that federal engineers have worked on since 2002, FEMA released a new floodplain map proposal for Lucas County in April. Hinterlong said FEMA representatives alerted the City of Toledo more than a year and a half ago that officials would need to send FEMA documents accrediting the dike at Point Place or engineers would place the area in the floodplain.
But with strict FEMA requirements and the U. S. Army Corps of Engineer’s recent failing of the dike, the City of Toledo hadn’t acted to get the dike accredited until just recently, he said.
The Army Corps of Engineers built the dike in the early 1980s, but gave the city responsibility for maintaining it, said Robert Remmers, chief of the operations and technical support section at the corps’s Buffalo district.
In 2008, the corps failed the dike because it did not meet four major standards, making Point Place ineligible for federal funding in case of a natural disaster. This also reflects on FEMA’s decision whether to accredit the dike or not, Remmers said. The dike is one of seven that the corps failed last year — out of 44 flood control projects in the district.
“I have grave concerns that instead of the city paying money to recertify the dikes, they are going to pass it off to the citizens to pay the flood insurance,” said Michelle Glanville, a property owner in Point Place.
Toledo City Council passed an ordinance June 23 that allocates $63,000 for city engineers to work with a consulting firm to assess what they’ll have to change on the dike, and how much that will cost, said Dale Rupert, an engineer with the city’s division of streets, bridges and harbor.
But with the Jan. 25, 2010 deadline approaching, Councilwoman Lindsay Webb said the city needs more time and money.
“We’re not going to force insurance on you in January of 2010,” Hinterlong said, adding that after the deadline, FEMA won’t have official maps completed for at least 12 more months. The maps will have to be publically reviewed, go through a 90-day appeals process and other local procedures.
Major problems include a lot of foliage growing out of the dike, numerous patios and stairs that residents built into it and some areas where the dike has settled and is not high enough for standards, he said.
The Army Corps of Engineers cited these as reasons for failing the dike in 2008, along with the failure of the city to provide the corps with a videotaped record of all the pipes running through the structure, Remmers said. He added the city shouldn’t have allowed people to build structures on the dike.
“The regulations have not changed, but the enforcement of those regulations has,” Webb said.
Webb said the people who live in Point Place have had trees and structures built into the flood control system for almost as long as the dike has existed.
Webb called on everyone at the meeting to write letters to Ohio’s senators and representatives to request federal grants to help.
“Requiring this many homes to require flood insurance would be the death knell,” Webb said. “This neighborhood has already been designated  as a tipping point.”
Some residents could face rates as high as $700 a year. Resident Janice Fletcher said even if she “grandfathers” in to buy flood insurance, by basing rates on the current map, she’d have to pay $400 a year.
“I don’t think we’re going to ever flood,” she said. “We’ve never had a problem, and I don’t want the extra costs.”
Resident Eric Lacourse said if he’s forced to pay flood insurance, he and his neighbors “will become another foreclosure instance in Ohio.”
Many of Point Place’s residents are on fixed income like Social Security or have lost their jobs recently, Webb said.
The new floodplain map let about 4,200 addresses out of the floodplain and put 3,700 in throughout Lucas County, according to an April report.

Jazz guitarist to play African-American Festival
Special to Toledo Free Press

Nick Colionne may be as well-known for his fine fretwork on guitar as he is for that dapper appearance.

After picking up the instrument at age 9, it wasn’t long before the guitarist created a personal style, complete with mascara.

Nick Colionne

“I always played with guys who were a lot older when I was a teenager. They would help me to look older, so we’d put the mascara moustache on,” Colionne recalled. “We were doing a performance and my grandmother was there. I came out the back and she saw it. She was like, ‘What is that all over your face?’ Then she took a handkerchief and wiped it off.”

After he stopped laughing, the jazzman added, “It’s a real moustache now. I just take the razor and keep it shaped.”

These days, Colionne also sports chic suits courtesy of his clothing endorsement from Stacy Adams.

“My mother would always say 85 percent of it is visual; people are going to see you way before they hear you,” he said. “I tried to build myself as a person who cares about his appearance because I feel like people deserve that from you; if they want to see construction workers, they’ll go to a construction site.”

Since his 1994 debut, “It’s My Turn,” Colionne has crafted a solid foundation in the music world. National attention came with the hit “High Flyin’ ” in 2003 from the disc, “Just Come On.” His 2008 CD, “No Limits,” features a mix of cool jazz grooves and soulful funk.

” ‘The Big Windy Cat’ will be the next single and be released in about two weeks,” he said from a tour stop in Chesapeake, Va. “I started playing this little hook line, and my piano player John Blasucci was like, what is that? I said, I don’t know, but I’ve been playing it the past few days whenever I pick up the guitar. So we started grooving with it, and we gave it our usual name, ‘Groove No. 2.’ ”

Blasucci suggested the name change to pay tribute to the guitarist and his home base in Chicago.

Colionne will blow into town to play at the fifth annual African-American Festival, which will take place Saturday and Sunday, July 11 and 12, at the University of Toledo’s Scott Park Campus. He’s set to hit the stage Sunday at 4 p.m. The concerts will go from 1 to 9 p.m. each day. Cost is $6, $1 for seniors, and free for children 2 and younger.

“I walk on the stage with the idea that I’m going to have me some fun and just let it go because I believe as a performer, people come out to see you and they come to be entertained, to hear some music, and have fun,” he said. “Money is hard to come by. If they come out there, I want them to know I’m giving you everything I’ve got to give; I’m leaving everything I’ve got today on this stage for you.”

Visit www.nickcolionne.com for more information.
African-American Festival
UT Scott Park Campus

Saturday, July 11
1 p.m. Priscilla
2:30 p.m. Skip Turner Band
4 p.m. Ramona Collins
5:45 p.m. Joyce Cooling
7:30 p.m. The Manhattans

Sunday, July 12
1 p.m. Friendship Baptist Church Choir
2:30 p.m. First Creation
4 p.m. Nick Colionne
5:45 p.m. Alexander Zonjic with the Motor City Horns
7:30 p.m. Rance Allen

Sponsored by Toledo Urban Federal Credit Union

Info: 419.255.8876

Fifth Third Bank and Ohio Treasurer of State Kevin L. Boyce’s Smart Money Choices will host a free, one-day conference called “Women & Money” at the Audio/Visual Classroom Building at Owens Community College. The event takes place on Friday, June 26 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The conference will host a smorgasbord of events, for topics like retirement, credit and budgeting. The workshop on personal finance helps women face and tackle tough economic times.
Those interested in attending can visit www.ohiotreasurer.gov or call 1-800-228-1102.

A June 25 news release said 10 eaters will face off in a competitive feast August 1 at Promenade Park. Titled “Famous Dave’s Pulled Pork Eating Contest,” the second annual event is part of Columbia Gas of Ohio Smoke on the Water – Ribs for the Red Cross festival, it said.

The release said contestants will have 10 minutes to consume as much as possible from a three-pound helping of Famous Dave’s pulled pork. The winner would receive $500, it said. It added last year’s victor, Mark Griesmer, ate all three pounds of his serving in nine minutes and 15 seconds.

Entry forms were available only at Famous Dave’s restaurant on 4757 Monroe St. in Toledo, the release said. The 10 eaters would come from the applications received, it said. Participants do not pay a fee, it added.

The release said Smoke on the Water is scheduled for July 31 through August 2. Admission costs $3 for adults and nothing for children 12 years old or younger, it said. It said admission is free for all before 5 p.m. July 31.

Besides the pulled pork contest, the release said, two concerts were planned for August 1 and 2. Alternative rock band The Presidents of the United States of America play August 1 while country singer Chuck Wicks performs August 2, it said.

The numbers for durable goods orders were released June 24 and were higher than expected. This marks the third increase in the past four months, all of which have been unexpected in the market. As a result, the market saw some gains early in the trading day, but, unfortunately, those gains could not be sustained.
However, it’s important to remember that this is still positive news. Demand for production goods in this country is still recovering, and that’s a good thing.
Looking back over the past year, this economy has followed the typical steps in a recession, instigated to some extent by the credit crisis.
First, production demand fell and manufacturing slowly reacted, building up inventory. Eventually, companies had significant inventories and production grounded to a creeping pace. This meant falling prices on big goods (cars, homes, etc.) and higher unemployment has companies cut production.
However, even more important than the past year is what is likely to happen over the next year or two as the recession plays out. As the economy kicks back into gear, companies will work through their existing inventories and production will pick up speed to meet growing market demand. Once demand is deemed sustainable, companies will begin hiring to bring their production back to the target levels they decide based on demand.
So while upticks like the ones seen in the monthly increases in durable goods orders may seem small, keep an eye on the big picture and look for the light at the end of the tunnel. The turnaround may not be as fast as we like, but it will happen.
In the stock market, the Dow Jones Industrial continues to bounce around the 8300-8500 level. After a recovery that lasted several months, the market seems to have run out of steam and seems to lack confidence. Good news continues to come out on everything from home sales to the savings rate, but after a brief jump in the market news seems to be quickly discounted and the market again loses its luster.
This could be due to several things. One is the old philosophy of “sell in May and go away,” the belief being that many big traders on Wall Street abandon positions to take the summer off with their families. However, in light of events this past fall, this seems less likely than the uglier alternative.
The alternate explanation is that the market is setting itself up for a (downward) correction. Remember, that while is Dow is nowhere near its previous highs, it has seen a substantial rally so far this year, approximately 35 percent from bottom around 6550 to its most recent top. Since topping out around 8800, the Dow has stagnated.
The question is where we go from here. Unfortunately, there is a distinct possibility that if the Dow falls through its support level around 8000, we could revisit its March lows in relatively short order. On the other hand, the longer that the market can hold this level, the less likely it is to retreat further.
While it may be hard to see, underlying pessimism in the market is causing it to stutter after the original jump caused by any good news. Thankfully, with each bit of good news that comes out, that pessimism seems to be fading as good-news-rallies grow larger and longer. While there isn’t much excitement in the market, rest assured that eventually more and more investors will regain their optimism, and the exuberance that will follow will be something to behold.

Dock David Treece is a stockbroker licensed with FINRA. He works for Treece Financial Services Corp., www.TreeceInvestments.com. The above information is the express opinion of Dock David Treece and should not be used without outside verification.

Summer is here and people are cooking outdoors, some using custom grill grates made by a fourth-generation family business in Toledo.
Yarder Manufacturing Company makes and sells custom grill grates that feature college, company and individual names. The grill grates, which are $130 each, can be ordered by going to wwwymigrate.com.
“We found some employees making grates for fire pits and grills out of scrap metal … we decided it wasn’t such a bad idea,” said Matt Yarder, whose great-grandfather Stanley Yarder started the metal fabrication business in his garage in the early 1900s.
Matt’s father, Richard Yarder, who runs the family business, let his son research the custom product while in college. Matt worked with patent attorneys on the licensing required to reproduce college logos on the grill grates.
Yarder has licensing agreements for 25 colleges and universities and makes grill grates with logos from UT, The Ohio State University, University of Michigan, BGSU, Notre Dame and other popular schools.
Yarder’s customer list is impressive.
The company made a 5-foot square grate for a fire pit for the Greenwich Country Club in Greenwich, Conn. One day, Jeff Conlan, cousin and general manager of the Yarder plant, received a call from Playboy magazine inquiring about the grill grates. The company ended up making a grate featuring the Playboy bunny logo, which was featured in the January issue.
“We got exposure and orders from all over the world for custom grates, including one from a lady living on Cyprus,” Conlan said.
Matt was pictured holding one of the grates on the cover of the spring issue of Trumpf Express, a trade magazine for the sheet metal industry.
The company also made a grate featuring “Team Frisch” and a large metal light box displaying the American and Haitian flags for the family’s new Toledo home built by the Extreme Makeover team.
Richard said The Ohio State University design is the most popular seller. The company looked into making grates with NFL team logos, but the licensing fees were too costly, he said.
“It’s the only consumer product we’ve ever made. Our motto is ‘if it’s metal, we can make it.’ We can make anything to meet our customer’s specs,” Richard said.
Yarder has manufactured metal parts for Hamilton Manufacturing, ground support airport equipment for Tronair and motorcycle shield plates for Tiger Racing.
The company also made metal frames for a display at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. It also created 10-foot tall lion for the Zoo-To-Do event this year, which were donated for possible use in zoo displays, Matt said.
The family-owned business has evolved over the years.
Stanley began making aftermarket parts for the auto industry through the 1920s. His son Irving got involved in the business at a young age and continued the family tradition.
Yarder was the first company to make double-walled metal tool boxes with a wood-grain finish that was sold to tool-and-die makers. Irving designed aluminum frames used to display advertising signs for buses and taxis. The company still supplies frames for two bus manufacturers as a small part of its business.
When the bus business declined, the company shifted back to basis job shop metal fabricating, according to Richard, who joined the business in 1977.
Yarder moved to its current location, a former Studebaker car dealership, on Phillips Avenue in the 1950s. It has expanded its operations and business, which moved away from the automotive industry, which was a blessing, Matt said.