The United Auto Workers in Northwest Ohio is working with the companies that employ its members to overcome the economic recession.
“We’re setting the standards for efficiency and quality and we give all the credit to the workers for achieving such success in an adverse climate,” said Ken Lortz, director of UAW Region 2B, which covers Ohio.
Lortz reported that Region 2B represents 164 different local units of the UAW and 297 collective bargaining agreements in Ohio.
“We’ve been working on three very positive steps for some time and we’re going to have some big announcements coming our way in the near future,” Lortz said about potential new business and jobs for this region.
Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur echoed that sentiment.
“I believe what the UAW has done in Northwest Ohio is transformational and it’s not been by accident. We’ve had phenomenal leadership in labor and management that’s unique in the industry. Workers here display an extraordinary work ethic,” she said.
Kaptur said she is optimistic about the future of the auto industry in Toledo but wishes that Japan would open its market to U.S. products and China would compete fairly.

Bruce Baumhower

“I believe Toledo is the center of the modern automotive industry in the U.S.,” she said.
UAW Local 12 represents 7,600 members of 53 different units in Northwest Ohio. About 2,400 of those workers are employed at Chrysler’s Toledo Assembly Complex (TAC), as Fiat recently renamed it.
TAC includes the Liberty plant, formerly known as the Toledo North Assembly Plant, which opened in 2001, and the Wrangler plant, formerly known as the Toledo Supplier Park, which opened in 2006.
Chrysler recently acquired the paint shop operations at the Wrangler plant from Magna International of Canada. Chrysler operates the final assembly there while the body shop is operated by KUKA, a German Company, and the chassis operation by Mobis North America, a division of Hyundai in Korea.
Highly rated neighbors
“The Toledo North (Liberty) Plant is currently underutilized running one shift and making 200,000 cars per year. It has the capacity to run two more shifts and build 400,000 vehicles per year,” said Bruce Baumhower, president of the UAW Local 12.
The Wrangler plant has been rated as the top automotive assembly plant in the United States based on productivity, quality and other factors by the Harbour Report for three straight years, from 2007 to 2009. The plant’s productivity improved from 13.5 hours per vehicle in 2008 to 12.5 hours in 2009, Baumhower said.
GM’s Powertrain plant in Toledo has been rated the leading transmission plant for the past three years and nine of the past 12, according to Ray Wood, president of UAW Local 14, which represents the workers there.
Chrysler’s engine plant in Dundee, Mich., was rated the top engine plant in the United States in 2009. The former Ford Maumee Stamping plant was a past recipient of the top honor for stamping plants in the United States before it was closed in 2007.
UAW officials said that it’s unprecedented for three plants in the same geographic region to be rated so highly. Chrysler’s Toledo Machining Plant in Perrysburg has ranked among the top two or three in productivity.
Committed to quality
Baumhower said the UAW is committed to keeping its work force among the best in the world to continue competing globally. Through a workers’ initiative, the skilled trades at the Chrysler Wrangler plant in Toledo will be consolidated into two categories of electricians and mechanics representing all classes of utility workers.
The State of Ohio recently approved a grant of up to $1 million for retraining workers at the Chryslers plants in Toledo. The U.S. Department of Labor grant comes from an emergency fund for the automotive industry through the Workforce Investment Act.
The grant will reimburse 50 percent of the cost of retraining skilled trade workers on the job. It will facilitate both the training of existing workers and calling back as many as 70 laid-off workers for the same training, according to Lucas County Commissioner Pete Gerken.
“We want to be the first assembly plant to have consolidation,” Baumhower said.
Chrysler and the UAW worked with a public and private partnership to obtain the grant. That same partnership is developing a supplier recruitment program to recruit more auto suppliers to Toledo to be closer to the Chrysler assembly plants and take advantage of the skilled work force, Baumhower said.
Lortz also credits the Labor Management Citizens Committee and the Working Council for Employee Involvement for getting labor and management working together to make things happen in this region.
“Northwest Ohio has a culture of labor and management cooperation to grow business and jobs,” said Sandra Simon, executive director of the Northwest Ohio Center for Labor and Management located at UT and funded by a grant from Ohio.
The collaboration of labor and management is not something new in Northwest Ohio, according to Ray Wood, president of UAW Local 14.
Wood said labor and management at the GM Powertrain Plant in Toledo have been working together to create “win-win situations” based on a joint statement of commitment issued in 1983.
“We have partnership meetings on a regular basis to continue improvement of productivity and the relationship between labor and management with a common goal of prosperity for the business and job security for workers,” Wood said.
UAW Local 14 represents about 1,480 members working at the Powertrain Plant. Local 14 had 400 members out of work in 2010 but everyone is back to work and the union has picked up additional workers from other GM plants, according to Wood, who has worked at the plant for 26 years.

UAW helps small firms build business

The United Auto Workers (UAW) is working with numerous smaller companies in Northwest Ohio to help them achieve prosperity and create job security for its members.
Chrysler’s decision to outsource the production of components for its vehicles and focus its attention on assembly at the two Jeep plants in Toledo created opportunities for Tier 1 and Tier 2 automotive suppliers in the area, according to Bruce Baumhower, president of the UAW Local 12.
“We’re trying to find every competitive advantage in the most competitive industry in the world,” Baumhower said. “We want to bring more suppliers to Toledo to be closer to the assembly plants and eliminate a lot of the transportation costs.”
Baumhower said the UAW is putting more people to work at existing smaller companies in the area that are producing components for the vehicles made at the local Jeep assembly plants. Many of those components were originally made by workers in the Jeep plants, he said.
Toledo Molding & Die. (TMD) is a Tier 1 and Tier 2 supplier to the automotive industry that has taken advantage of the opportunity to produce components for Chrysler. The local family-owned business operates facilities in Toledo, Tiffin, Delphos and Bowling Green, which manufacture various components.

Rich Crayon and Mark Harbaugh at Toledo Molding & Die.

“We put the investment into the business but it doesn’t work without the work force making quality products and always looking forward,” said Don Harbaugh, president and CEO of TMD.
The firm’s Toledo plant produces instrument panels for Jeep Wrangler models in a portion of the former DeVilbiss Company plant on Phillips Avenue. The glove boxes for those panels, along with door panels and center console units for the Wrangler, are made at TMD’s plant in Tiffin.
Mark Harbaugh, plant manager at TMD, said the workers build the panels in the actual sequence they get installed in vehicles within three to four hours in what is known as “just-in-time” delivery in the automotive industry.
Harbaugh said the location of that plant is critical to meeting the schedule of delivering 16 truckloads of panels to the nearby Chrysler assembly plant on a daily basis. The plant employs 100 UAW workers and 15 salaried management employees.
“Making interior components for the automotive industry was a very new business for Toledo Molding & Die. They have a much higher set of quality requirements,” Harbaugh said.
He said TMD was fortunate to find UAW members with applicable manufacturing experience so the training curve is much smaller. The Toledo plant became a union shop shortly after it opened in 2006 as they were negotiating a contract with the UAW at that time.
Harbaugh works closely with Rich Crayon, president of the UAW Local 12 unit at the plant, to make sure labor and management are working together for mutual success.
“The biggest key to success is mutual respect. We don’t believe in an authoritative environment and we know we have to work together to be successful,” Harbaugh said. “We may not always agree on everything but our objective is to provide quality products and maintain job security for all our employees.”
Mark’s grandfather, Melvin Harbaugh, became involved with an original pattern and mold shop in 1955. The family purchased the business in 1989. His father, also named Melvin, recently retired, leaving Don and Mark to operate the business.
A plant in Northwood operated by Johnson Controls Inc. makes instrument panels and seats for the Liberty and Nitro models. Chrysler wanted to shift the seat business from that plant to India.
A worker initiative to cut costs, rebalance the production lines, and make other improvements suggested by employees to save their jobs proved that they were most cost-effective, said Wayne Truitt, UAW chairman for the unit at the plant.
With the additional business, the company called 60 people back from layoffs and hired another 60 workers from a plant in Michigan. The plant now employees 240 people, Truitt said.
When the economy became too dependent on manufacturing, Baumhower said it needed to blend manufacturing with new technologies to work in concert with the new economy. An example of that diversification happened at a plant operated by Kern Liebers USA Inc. in Holland. With the consolidation of the auto industry, the plant was down to 25 workers.
Due to the collaborative efforts of the German-owned company and UAW, some of the auto work was recovered and it ventured into other industries, reported Mike Boles, chairman for that UAW unit.
The company is now making copper ribbons for thin-film solar panels made by First Solar and Xunlight in the Toledo area. It’s also producing springs for air bags and seat belts in vehicles and springs used to dispense products in vending machines.
“It was a great way to go so we don’t depend entirely on the auto industry,” Boles said.
The company has doubled its work force and has a goal of going to three shifts in the next six to 10 months. UAW members voted to ratify a new 3.5-year contract with Kern-Liebers in February, Boles reported.
Baumhower said there are numerous other success stories of collaboration between the UAW and local companies to grow or retain business and jobs in the region.

Hart Associates was recognized recently as one of the best business-to-business advertising agencies in the nation by BtoB Magazine. It’s the seventh consecutive year the integrated marketing firm has been named as a top agency.

Mike Hart

“Generally, we’re an integrated marketing firm which deals with a wide range of industries,” said president Mike Hart. “We have some specialization; we’re very focused on our regional marketing. But, we’ve grown and have clients who are national and international.”
What exactly is “integrated marketing”?

“In a nutshell, it’s bringing marketing disciplines together to deliver solutions to our clients. If you look at Hart in buckets, like advertising, public relations, interactive, video, media — we’ve added social media as a discipline as well — we bring all of these disciplines together for our clients. If you say ‘boutique,’ some agencies may do just design or perhaps simply Web, but we, as an integrated firm, put everything together.”
Hart Associates has “about 50 full-time” workers, Hart said. “We have a good group of folks.”
He said he is proud of what he calls “one of the most significant bodies of work in which we are involved,” ProMedica. The marketing and medical firms are delivering a new mission and a new brand, which Hart said the firm is proud to represent. Hart Associates has been affiliated with ProMedica for six years.

WGTE’s literacy program, First Book, was announced as the recipient of a $1,000 grant from United Way of Greater Toledo at a reception March 29.
Twelve area organizations competed for the award via a 72-hour online poll between March 25 and March 28. More than 900 people voted, said Bill Kitson, president and CEO of United Way.
The programs were spotlighted in Toledo Free Press’ recently completed 12-part “Education Champions” series, a partnership with United Way and Doni Miller of 13abc’s “Bridges” program. The reception was hosted at United Way by Columbia Gas of Ohio.
Kathy Smith, WGTE’s director of early learning and outreach, accepted the check on behalf of First Book, crediting a social networking campaign for rallying enough support to emerge the top vote-getter in what Kitson said was a tight race
“First Book is just a simple program that provides new storybooks to kids who would ordinarily not have the opportunity to own a book of their own,” Smith said. “This will just mean we’ll be able to buy more books and serve more kids.”
So far this school year, the program has distributed 2,151 books through 13 partner organizations in Lucas, Ottawa and Wood counties, mainly to low-income children ages 3 to 5.

From left, Bill Kitson of United Way; Chris Kozak of Columbia Gas of Ohio; Tom Pounds, Toledo Free Press Publisher; WGTE’s Kathy Smith; Doni Miller of 13abc’s ‘Bridges’ and Michael S. Miller, Toledo Free Press editor in chief.

Smith said the online voting process brought the program to the attention of many people who hadn’t been aware of it, including one person interested in starting a similar program in Cleveland.
The $1,000 was provided by United Way’s education committee, one of the organization’s Community Solutions teams.
“It comes out of our allocated fund that we’ve raised from the community,” said Pat Holmberg, volunteer chairperson of the committee. “We thought this was an extraordinarily worthwhile, important adventure to see how it worked.”
The Education Champions series, launched in January, spotlighted a variety of community educational initiatives, including after-school programs, teen pregnancy prevention initiatives, an in-school mobile dentistry program and more.
“We tried to show how despite the economic challenges, despite the crushing realities you are going through, there is still progress being made one student at a time — that’s what we wanted to celebrate,” said Michael S. Miller, editor in chief of Toledo Free Press, at the gathering. Miller said that while the contest is done, Toledo Free Press will continue spotlighting the issue under the “Education Champions” banner.
13abc’s Doni Miller said she was impressed by all the programs.
“I thought I knew an awful lot about Toledo. I’m around a lot, know a lot of people, see a lot of things going on, but I was amazed at some of the things you all are doing very quietly and very effectively,” Doni Miller said. “You’re finding ways to make your resources work for the betterment of these kids.”
Kitson said education is the community’s most important pressing issue and United Way’s No. 1 priority.
“We’re excited about the momentum that’s building around education in our community,” Kitson said. “To all our education partners, for the hard work you’re doing every single day: Thank you so, so much. It really was special to be able to tell your stories.”

It isn’t a fair fight.
Dawn Murphy and her fellow elementary teacher specialists are armed only with training and experience, paint brushes, oils, pastels, a few sticks of charcoal, assorted lumps of clay, perhaps a baton and maybe a basketball.
The Toledo Public Schools (TPS) Board of Education holds the most dominant weapons: a checkbook, pink slips and a mailing list of the elementary specialists who will likely receive layoff notices. TPS is proposing it could save $7 million by laying off 132 elementary school art, music, and physical education specialists. The Board of Education claims that teachers in other concentrations will sufficiently cover the arts, all while  it works to install a performing arts academy at Bowsher High School.
Murphy, who teaches at Elmhurst Elementary School, and her 131 colleagues do not believe the premise that the educational results will be equal.
Civil protest
On March 22 — prior to the board’s regularly scheduled meeting — teachers, students and parents staged an afternoon rally outside the board of education offices on East Manhattan Boulevard. The protesters were well-behaved, carrying placards protesting the cuts.
“I thought that it went very well,” Murphy said. “We had a pretty good turnout. We had parents, art teachers, music and phys. ed. (P.E.) teachers, and regular teachers as well.”
Murphy and the other 12 elementary school art teachers first became aware of the bleakness of their situation when they hosted the 7th Annual TPS Elementary Art Show the first two weeks of March. Board of Education members and Superintendent Jerome Pecko were noticeably absent.

Dawn Murphy is an arts specialist teacher at Elmhurst Elementary.

“I hand-delivered invitations to everyone,” Murphy said. “I organize the whole thing; I get the students to bring their artwork (to Space 237 Gallery on North Michigan Avenue). Usually, the superintendent will show, the board members will show, but this year, nothing. It made me feel that we’re not — oh, I can’t find the word. This whole thing leaves me with a loss for words. They’re taking the creative energy away from the students, telling them that we’re just going to do academics. As for me, they’re just taking my 15 years of service and saying, ‘We’ll see you later.’ Not even a thank you; just ‘goodbye.’ The program is done and they want nothing to do with it.”
When Patty Mazur, TPS communications director, was asked if there was a reason for the absences at the show’s opening, she said, “I know only that Dr. Pecko was out of town. As for the board members, as far as I understand, the decisions must have been individual. Nothing of it was mentioned in the office.”
TPS Board of Education Vice President Lisa Sobecki said there was not a “boycott” of the annual elementary art show opening by TPS board members. She said that members are invited to events as many as four evenings per week. On the date of the March art opening, she had the opportunity to share a rare evening with her family.
“I love the arts,” Sobecki said. “Both of my kids have taken instrumental lessons and played in the school band. There are student art projects hanging on my walls.”
Already overlooked
Murphy said Pecko had visited her classroom in February and told her that a lot of the proposed layoffs were coming due to state funding.
“It’s all about balancing the budget,” Murphy said. “In a nutshell, he said it was a numbers thing. I felt like I was talking to a brick wall.”
A Facebook group,  “KEEP Music, Art & Physical Education Teachers In Toledo Public Schools!” had more than 2,200 members as of March 31.
At present, TPS estimates state funding to be reduced by $28 million for the next school year.
TPS sports have already suffered. All junior high and freshman sports were cut from district schools. The school board also eliminated certain sports altogether. Wrestling, golf and cross-country were all cut.
Seven non-TPS schools left the City League to form a new league, the Three Rivers Athletic Conference.
James S. Catterall, author and professor of education at UCLA, wrote in his best-selling book “Doing Well by Doing Good by Doing Art,” that, “Students who proceed through arts-rich schools have better outcomes in both academic and social arenas than students who attend arts-poor, or arts-barren schools. The database shows that arts-rich schools are in fact different when it comes to key features of school climate, reported instructional practices, student attendance and social relations, and key assumptions that teachers make about how students learn.”
Murphy wants the public to know that, if regular classroom teachers —who she says are “already overloaded as it is” in preparing students for state testing and other curriculum goals — are required to take over the additional assignments of art, music and physical education, student growth cannot possibly be the same.
“In earning their degrees, many teachers took only one or two courses in art or music,” Murphy said. “Things will become a coloring page for art and recess will be P.E.”
The teachers’ next plan of attack — or “strategy,” as Murphy prefers to call it — is to await final figures to the state’s budget for the schools. She said the stress of not knowing “is hurting us all around. The regular teachers are feeling it, too. What are our wages going to come to? We don’t get into education to become millionaires; we just want to make ends meet.”
Toledo teachers are battling TPS and its proposed budget. But how much blame for cutbacks and layoffs goes to Gov. John Kasich and the dollar-crunching budget upon which he was elected last year? How about the loss of $981 million in federal stimulus Recovery Act funds that will dry up July 1? Factoring in the loss of federal money, overall funding for Ohio education will drop 11.5 percent this coming year, according to a report posted recently on CNNMoney.com.
Jim Gault, TPS chief academic officer, said the potential layoff of elementary teacher specialists is an “item which we will start negotiating shortly (with the Toledo Federation of Teachers). There are 132 positions involved.
“We obviously need to have a balanced budget by July 1, per state law. So, our goal as we go through this is to have closure as quickly as possible.”
He said the cuts may not affect the total number of specialist positions.
“There are a lot of options out there,” he said.
At present, the state has not made TPS aware of the total decrease of funds for the next school year. In Kasich’s budget, it is stated that school districts statewide will be reviewed individually. Therein lies a hang-up with negotiations between TPS and the union: No one really knows how much money is on the table.
“The governor has brought forward his budget — we’re looking at the 600-page document, though it’s not yet official — and we are projecting a 14 percent cut to our budget. As we follow what’s going on in Columbus and look through that document, we are adjusting our numbers as well,” Gault said. “In anticipation of what the governor would do, we factored into our reductions a 14 percent cut from state funding.”
He said TPS cut $10 million two years ago, $39 million last year.
“We’re looking at a budget deficit of about $37 million. Last year there were significant cuts in this district that led to a decrease in transportation and athletics, and we’re trying to restore some of those things.”

Singing legend Dionne Warwick vividly remembers the first time she performed in front of an audience.
She was 6 years old and the request came from her grandfather, the Rev. Elzae Warrick of St. Luke’s AME Church in Newark, N.J.
“That was the surprise of my life when he called me up to the pulpit and he whispered in my ear, ‘I want you to sing a song for me.’ I thought Grandpa lost it, I really did, you know, why would he do this to me?” she recalled. “And he stood me on a bunch of books, and he wanted me to sing the song I learned at Sunday School called ‘Jesus Loves Me.’
“I closed my eyes so tight, I thought I was going to lose my sight,” Warwick said and laughed.
She received a standing ovation.
The applause continues as the five-time Grammy Award winner nears 50 years in the music business. These days, she keeps her eyes open.

Dionne Warwick

“I think more than anything else [I enjoy] looking down at people’s faces and seeing these huge smiles,” Warwick said. “I get to watch them singing and knowing every single word.”
Fans can see her in concert at 7:30 p.m. April 9 at the Ritz Theatre in Tiffin. Tickets are $75, $65 and $40.
Warwick will sing a few songs from a new disc, “Only Trust Your Heart,” which debuted at No. 10 on the Billboard Jazz Chart last month.
“MPCA Records, the company that I’m with, owns the catalog of Sammy Cahn and had been looking for a voice to re-record some of the songs. They sent me a zillion songs to listen to,” she said during a call from her New Jersey home.
Cahn is known as the lyricist for many songs recorded by Frank Sinatra.
“[Sinatra] wasn’t the only one that recorded these songs, but he did the majority of them,” the 70-year-old said. “Sarah Vaughan and Lena Horne were also instrumental in recording some of these songs, as well as Dinah Washington.”
Warwick knows what it’s like to be associated with composers. She was the voice of many hits penned by Burt Bacharach and Hal David: “I Say a Little Prayer,” “Walk on By,” “Alfie,” “Do You Know the Way to San Jose,” “Reach Out For Me,” “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again,” “(There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me,” “Promises, Promises.”
“The songs are — and were — very, very special songs,” she said of her collaboration with the famed team. “Bacharach and David, who wrote specifically for me in the formative years of my career, set the bar pretty high for any other writers that were writing songs for me. And when I did record other songs, they were songs by people who were supportive of my career, songs that had substance — a beginning, a middle, an ending, and a wonderful story to tell.”
Even after Bacharach and David broke up, Warwick’s hits continued: “Then Came You” with The Spinners, “I’ll Never Love This Way Again,” “Déjà Vu,” “Heartbreaker,” “Love Power” with Jeffrey Osborne, “That’s What Friends Are For” with Gladys Knight, Elton John and Stevie Wonder.
In addition to some 50 hits, Warwick is known for her style and elegance. In her book, “My Life, As I See It,” which came out in November, she credits her mother: “Mommy expressed the importance of being a ‘lady’ at all times in the ways we dressed, walked, spoke and presented ourselves to the world.”
She said there were other role models, too.
“When I was watching TV as a youngster, watching Loretta Young walk through that door, I was like, ‘Wow — that’s the way everybody should look.’ And then to see people on stage like Lena Horne and Ella Fitzgerald and Marlene Dietrich and Diahann Carroll, they looked so gorgeous. And I thought, that’s the way I want to be. So this is how I have to look.”
Warwick also includes 50 lessons she’s learned in the book, which she co-wrote with David Freeman Wooley.
One lesson: It’s never too late to pursue a passion.
“I still have the Oscar, the Emmy and the Tony to work for,” she said and laughed.

Despite Mother Nature’s refusal to recognize the arrival of spring, the Toledo City Bicycle Co-operative opened for the season March 27.

The co-op is a not-for-profit bicycle recycling shop run by volunteers, operating as part of the Old West End Foundation. The volunteers repair donated bikes and sell them to the community.

“Our main concern is helping less fortunate people who don’t have cars and keeping them moving as much as we can,” said Paul Vandersteen, education coordinator and mechanic. “We also try to promote bike use.”

The co-op offers basic tuneups for $25 and full tuneups for an additional charge. The shop also offers do-it-yourself repair for $5 per hour.

In addition to sales and repairs, the co-op offers education on bicycle upkeep through training courses, workshops and volunteer opportunities. Part of the group’s outreach is teaching a class through the Lucas County Juvenile Justice program. One of the co-op’s goals this year is to improve community outreach.

“We’re going to try to get with UT for the Earth Fest this year and possibly Owens as well,” Vandersteen said. “We’re trying to be more available at community functions. Our board was kind of disjointed the last couple of years. Now we have a solid group of people and we’re going to be able to do a lot more.”

The co-op operates in the basement of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church at 2272 Collingwood Blvd., between Bancroft Street and Ashland Avenue. The entrance to the shop is on the south side of the building.

“We’re basically autonomous from the church, but they donate the space,” Vandersteen said. “Their motto is they welcome everyone. They have AA meetings and LGBT meetings. The pastor does a lot of long-distance rides, so they offered up the shop in the basement. We’re looking into other spaces, but I don’t think we’ll ever give up this space.”

The spaces they are looking into are part of a plan to further expand into Downtown Toledo.

“We’d like to move it to a storefront operation eventually, since there aren’t any bike shops near Downtown,” Vandersteen said. “We’d like to do an outreach to the East Side. We haven’t gotten that far yet … but now we have some staff in place.”

The co-op aims to be environmentally conscious by limiting the use of natural resources and reducing materials going into landfills.
“If we get bikes that are donated that don’t have any usable value, we dismantle them and they get recycled,” Vandersteen said.

“We also recycle tires as much as the city will let us. We try to keep as much out of the landfills as possible. We have a guy that takes a lot of our recycling, and he’ll bring in any bikes he finds when he’s out garbage picking and we’ll give him our leftover stuff in exchange.”

The co-op is open 4 to 7 p.m. on Sundays and 5 to 8 p.m. on Mondays. Customers can also call (419) 386-6090 to schedule another time when someone is available. For more information on volunteering, bike sales and bike repairs, visit www.ToledoBikeCoop.org.

By Jason Mack
Toledo Free Press Star Staff Writer

A unique market of African art — handmade carvings from Ghana — is showcased at the Truth Gallery, located on Adams Street. The gallery hosts the finds of Odes Roberts, CEO of arts and crafts distributor Orobs.

“Anytime you start your own business it’s going to be tough for the first time. After that, once people know of it, they’ve been coming back and buying. So we’ve been doing pretty decent,” Roberts said.

Since its opening in October, Roberts said demand for the work has grown through word of mouth and networking with customers.
“This is a niche market. Nobody has what we have at this magnitude,” he said. “They [customers] are letting us know that it’s about time we have it here and we can easily get to it instead of waiting for festivals in the summer.”

Joseph Harper, head of operations of Orobs, said most buyers for this type of art have to wait for summer festivals or travel to major cities and pay a higher price.

“Instead of going to Chicago or New York, people can come here to get it and we have the cheapest price and we have good quality,” Harper said. “All of our carvings are handmade and shipped from Ghana and we get some decent stuff and give the city something new.”

Roberts said what is on display in the open-space, naturally lit gallery is only a small portion of the approximate 3,000 pieces of African art he has in stock.

A majority of the hundreds of pieces on display reflect major themes of tribal African culture such as family and unity.

“It’s a typical village; people working, going about their daily lives, preparing food. It’s just an everyday life, but it’s more of village life,” Roberts said while pointing out a specific piece depicting the variety of jobs in village life. “It’s always about a celebration with them and in their community and this is what their artwork represents.”

Statues of drummers, horn and saxophone players indicate music is another prominent theme. The musical pieces, Roberts said, are similar to the unity and celebration themes.

“Music is still a very prevalent part of their country,” he said. “With art and music, it’s all in one to them; that’s why you see so much of it.”

Aside from statues, the cream walls are lined with more than 30 different tribal masks, each with its own ritualistic purpose. One example of this is the Dan mask, characterized by a high forehead and pointed chin.

Harper said Dan masks are used for protection and as a channel to communicate with ancestors in the spirit world.

“When a dancer wears a Dan mask, he becomes the spirit of that mask. A masked dancer will speak in the language of the spirits and his words are interpreted by a wise man,” he said.

Birds are omnipresent in the continent and as such, bird masks are common and have an important role in the culture. The Sonu bird mask depicts a bird above the forehead of the mask, which signifies a range of themes from courage to intelligence.

Roberts said the showing at the Truth Gallery was launched after a friend living in Ghana pitched the idea of getting back into business and sent the first shipment of art to Toledo.

“Once we figured out where it was at, it was then just a matter of paying for the storage fees, getting a broker to bring it down here on the semi and unloading. It’s more of a relationship,” he said. “I hadn’t seen any of this, but when it came, we were literally blown away.”

For more information, visit the website www.thetruthtoledo.com

By Vincent D. Scebbi
Toledo Free Press Star Staff Writer

Underdogs.

The Little Guys.

Call them whatever you like, but the UT Lady Rockets just keep on rolling in the WNIT.

The Rockets jumped out to a 9-0 lead early, and never looked back en route to an 83-60 win March 30 against UNC Charlotte in front of a sold-out Savage Arena.

“It was just so exciting that our players came out of the gate like they did,” head coach Tricia Cullop said. “I think we set the tone early.”

Tricia Cullop (UT)

The Rockets used a barrage of outside shooting from Jessica Williams and inside play from Melissa Goodall and Andola Dortch, who had seven rebounds, to jump out to a 43-23 halftime lead.

Dortch, who stands at 5 feet 7, was able to grab seven of her team high 10 rebounds in the first half. She also helped pace the Rockets in the first half with nine points as well.

“I thought Andola did a great job tonight,” Cullop said. “Some of those rebounds were against girls who were over 6 feet. We asked her to do a lot tonight, and it just speaks to what a great person and tough player she is.”

The Rockets used 14 turnovers to their advantage, turning them into 20 points which aided the huge lead.

Any questions of a halftime lull were soon dashed by the Rockets as Yolanda Richardson opened the second stanza with four points on UT’s first two possessions.

It was just one of the many times during this WNIT run that the Start graduate and Toledo native has stepped up for the Rockets.

“I knew I might not be as big as some of the other players out there,” Richardson said. “I knew that I would have to play big in these games.”

She scored 14 points to go along with four rebounds for the game.

Naama Shafir also had a big night. The All-MAC selection was the team’s leading scorer with 16 point and nine assists.

The junior said just because this team hasn’t been a the odds-on favorite very often does not mean this squad will give up.

“We may always be the underdog,” she said. “But we are still going to play hard. I think we know that we have to play hard even if we are not favored to win.”

The Rockets were aided all night by the “sixth man” element buzzing through out the entire arena. UT set a school record and MAC record for women’s basketball attendance with 7,020 fans packed inside Savage Arena.

“I thought it was really neat to see how many people showed up early,” Cullop said. “I actually asked a staff member to go out and take a picture of the scalpers that were out front, so I could hang it on my wall.”

Shafir said she could tell the crowd was electric from the minute UT headed onto the court for warm ups.

“We have such a great group of fans,” Shafir said. “We really felt a lot of support from them tonight.”

Richardson said the crowd certainly aided the team’s fast start.

“We were already fired up to play,” she said, “but when you have that many people screaming, it gives you an extra boost.”

The Rockets will take on the USC Trojans at 3 p.m. April 2 at Savage Arena.

The Trojans won against Illinois State 63-36 on March 30, which set the stage for the WNIT championship game.

“I looked over at Melissa [Goodall] and I asked her how cool it is going to be that she can finish her college career in a national championship game,” Cullop said. “I am just so proud of our team and happy for our seniors to send them out like this.”

Cullop said the quick turn around time to the game against the Trojans should not affect her team. She said a staff member had already begun watching USC tape prior to the contest.

“We always have someone scouting one game ahead, but I haven’t even seen [USC] play this season,” Cullop said. “I am looking forward to learning more about them, but tonight I am going to enjoy this one.”

Tickets to the WNIT championship can be purchased tomorrow morning starting at 10 A.M. at the UT box office or by calling (419) 530-GOLD.

“Back to the Future: The Game: Episode 1 — It’s About Time” (Telltale Games)

Marty, Doc Brown and the DeLorean time machine/car return for a fun-filled ride through time with strong voice acting and an engaging storyline worthy of the popular film series. Christopher Lloyd does Doc’s voice acting while the remaining voice cast does a great job, so players will not miss the original voices too much. AJ Locascio matches Michael J. Fox’s voice surprisingly closely as Marty. This single-player story starts in 1986 shortly before the “Back to the Future III” film with the time-travel storyline set in 1935. Fans will enjoy new elements like some special logistics relating to the DeLorean while new fans can enjoy the quick humor and colorful characters such as Edna, Biff and Marty’s father.
The choose-your-own-adventure style format, role-playing elements and challenging puzzles provide great appeal. Players can get creative with their dialogue responses and story choices because the end result usually leads them to the right path. Kid Tannen is the antagonist among a familiar cast and nostalgic story elements. Hopefully, game developers include a controllable camera and better movement controls for the next installment, “Back to the Future: The Game: Episode 2 — Get Tannen,” which releases on the PlayStation Network on March 29. (***1/2, rated T for alcohol reference, language, and mild violence, also available on iPad, Mac and PC).

Adrianne Palicki as Wonder Woman

The Internet busted a gut recently when the costume for producer David E. Kelley’s upcoming “Wonder Woman” TV pilot — starring Toledo’s Adrianne Palicki — was revealed in an official image. Comic fans began bitching about everything from the lack of the outfit’s traditional red boots to the space between Palicki’s breasts — I don’t make these things up, I just report them.
A few things come to mind when viewing this new take on the 1940 character: This TV costume is a combo of Wonder Woman’s classic look and what she currently sports in her comics.

From the waist up, she’s rockin’ the red bustier with golden eagle we all expect, but from the waist down the Amazon warrior has squeezed herself into a pair of skintight, well, tights, as opposed to the traditional short-shorts. Perhaps this was the best way to go, avoiding any embarrassing wardrobe malfunctions or bikini waxing.

Also, there’s a definite tang of playing down the patriotic aspects of WW’s classic gear; gone are the white stars that spangled her blue bottoms in the comics and her chest eagle’ has been reduced in prominence. And let’s not dredge up that whole red boots thing again — that bright blue seems to go on forever. At the very least, they’ve retained the traditional tiara and bracelets, which are pluses in this outfit’s favor.

Maybe a Facebook poster summed it up best, when he commented that Palicki looked as if she was wearing one of those “sexy Wonder Woman” Halloween costumes as seen in myriad flyers every October. To be fair, a TV budget doesn’t usually resemble that of a film’s, but overall there is a low-rent quality to the image that doesn’t inspire much sense of wonder. Then again, it’s amusing that so many people are working up such a lather over the character when in recent years her comic books haven’t mustered much in the sales or interest departments. So, where’s Lynda Carter when you need her? Stay tuned: she’s reportedly making a cameo in the pilot … maybe she can still fit in her old costume.