Love the Heights

Ten dedicated volunteers in Ward 10 have been empowered with never-wear-out aluminum litter tongs to pick up litter around their neighborhood blocks, at their own pace. Dragons are the mascot at East CLC and mythically, dragons are the protectors of rivers & streams like the Little Cuyahoga river that wraps around the base of Goodyear Heights.

$300 funded by a 2022 Akron City Council Neighborhood Partnership Grant with Wingfoot Church acting as fiscal agent.

Fall 2022-ongoing

Prior to the painting of the fall 2023 mural on the side of Pioneer Market, nothing in the oldest section of historic Goodyear Heights (phase one) mentioned the rubber workers who called the Heights home. Inspired by the Broadway musical “Hamilton,” the mural tells the story of the Heights in a modern street art style. References to Para rubber trees & even pioneering blimp pilot Melvin Vaniman and his tabby cat Kiddo appear in the mural.

$2800 funded by a 2022 Akron City Council Neighborhood Partnership Grant with Wingfoot Church acting as fiscal agent. Artist is Shea Flaherty of Art by Shea Flaherty.

Completed Fall 2023

Goodyear Heights was designed in Garden City style by landscape architect Warren Manning. Multiple pocket parks, the 410 acre Goodyear Heights Metro Park, three community gardens, and residential gardens all work in concert to provide many unique greenspaces throughout the Heights. The garden walk highlighted select spots and spectators were welcome to tour the sites at their own pace on garden walk day. Locations were plotted on a Google map & paper copies were also available.

$400 funded by a 2022 Akron City Council Neighborhood Partnership Grant with Wingfoot Church acting as fiscal agent.

Fall 2023

An online Facebook group that saves information, photos, and stories pertaining to Goodyear Heights and in some cases, the history of Goodyear.

Fall 2022- ongoing online

Decorating for Halloween is serious business in the Heights. Keep Heights BOOtiful is a neighborhood house & yard decorating contest that Love the Heights ran in Oct 2022 on the Goodyear Heights group page on Facebook. Prizes for the top three were sponsored by Ward 10 representative Connor.

October 2022

Five volunteers with professional rain gauges, snow rulers, and hail measuring sticks are positioned throughout the Heights and report precipitation data to the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network whose data is then used by the National Weather Service and the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration to better understand weather patterns.

$500 funded by a 2022 Akron CIty Council Neighborhood Partnership Grant with Wingfoot Church acting as fiscal agent.

Spring 2024-ongoing

A little meet & greet block party for all residents living in voting precinct Akron 10-H. Cookout/potluck, yard games, and voter registration party was held as part of my civic duties as a precinct captain (PC) for Akron 10-H. Voted in on March 19, 2024 with my term being four years, I am the representative to the Democratic Party of Summit County (Member County Central Committee - Democrat) for the 150 households in my precinct. (The GOP PC is up for election in 2026.) Some of my good friends are on the other side of the political spectrum, but common ground tends to be a lot wider than people think.

$300 funding for food provided by the Freedom Bloc in order to promote community engagement, get neighbors to meet each other, and to provide an opportunity to register to vote.

Spring 2024

A website dedicated to all things Goodyear Heights that is able to reach more residents & businesses than a social media page. Readers can find information on how to get things fixed, learn about upcoming events, and register to volunteer.

$300 in funding & volunteer labor supported by Love the Heights merchandise sold at Bay Window Thrift & Collectibles, Pioneer Market, and Rubber City Clothing Co.

Spring 2024-ongoing

The project that started it all, I began blogging about my litter picking adventures, neighborhood explorations, local history, and Heights photographs on Facebook at Love the Heights - Goodyear Heights, Akron, OH. As it is a public page, it is viewable even without logging into Facebook. The Love the Heights blog is still very much active and includes shares of relevant Heights happenings as well as original content. After getting my first ipad for my birthday in 2023, my digital drawings and doodles now occasionally appear on the blog.

Spring 2021 - ongoing

Being a serial entrepreneur volunteer, I have had a few projects that just didn’t get enough lift to get off the ground. I still think these are good ideas. Sometimes you have to wait until the right moment or right group of people can turn an idea into reality. But I think it is important to celebrate successes and learn from failures. I’m listing these to give other people hope and inspiration. If you want to be the change Akron needs, go for it. Not everything will stick to the wall, but some things will.

Love the Heights Projects that flopped:

-2023 Keep Heights BOOtiful contest (Facebook group where voting was held in 2022 was unexpectedly deleted)

-2024 Garden Walk (cancelled due to heat wave)

-2024 Car Show at the Linda Theatre (lack of staff)

-2024 Community Yard Sale Day (less than 12 participants)

-2024 Jane’s Walks (History walks and talking ideas for the future) - no one showed up

-2024 In-person Saving Heights History Group meetings (attendance varied from 0-20 people)

-2025 Community Shop at 312 Pioneer - multiple unexpected family medical emergencies ate up my time and dedicated launch fund

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“Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.” - Winston Churchill