Displaying items by tag: christmas
Ray Horner Podcast - 12/13/2019
Akron OK With Holiday Trash
The City of Akron issuing a press release, saying it's OK if you have a little more trash than usual around the holidays. They expect residents to have more garbage than usual and say if boxes and excess wrapping paper is not included in the recycling bins they will still pick up the trash. They plan to accomodate the excess pick-up the week of January 3 through the 7th, 2017.
The city adds that if residents are disgarding their Christmas trees, that's OK too.
A reminder that the trash pick-up will be pushed back a day during the holiday week. Christmas is Sunday, December 25, 2016.
See the full press release below:
Akron, Ohio, December 21, 2016 – Effective Tuesday, January 3, 2017 and continuing through Saturday, January 7, the City of Akron Sanitation/Curb Service Division will be permitting residents to place extra trash or recycling, in the form of wrapping paper and boxes alongside their trash or recycling carts, on their normal collection day. "Each year we provide this extra service to our residents after the holidays, most of whom have additional items to discard or recycle,” Mayor Dan Horrigan said. "This particular pickup is intended for extra holiday items, like wrappings and boxes, which we realize won't all fit in one or maybe even two trash carts." Following the holidays, the City will also collect residents' holiday trees left alongside trash carts on their normal collection day. As always, customers who wish to put out a larger volume of other household trash are asked to call Akron's 311 Call Center at 3-1- 1 or (330) 375-2311, to pre-schedule one of the three special large pickups allotted each household, each year. Please also note that, due to the holidays, curb service will be on a one-day delay for the next two weeks, with curb service resuming Tuesday through Saturday.
Akron Zoo Brings Back Holiday Lights
The Akron Zoo announced Wednesday that they will bring back their old holiday tradition of lights and displays throughout much of the holiday season.
The following is a press release from the Akron Zoo detailing the events:
Akron Zoo brings back holiday lighting event
AKRON, Ohio - The Akron Zoo will once again be lighting up the zoo with holiday
lights and displays after a 16-year hiatus. Wild Lights, the zoo’s new fun-filled family
event, will take place November 25-27, December 2-4, 9-11, 16-18, 22-23 and 26-30,
2016. The event will run from 6-9 p.m.
Nearly the entire zoo will be decorated with a mix of lighted wildlife and
traditional holiday displays. The event will include a unique nightly light show focused on
animals near the zoo’s carousel, Santa Land, where people can visit with Santa and have
their pictures taken if they wish, a S’mores station, up-close animal encounters, dinner
at the zoo’s 4-star green certified restaurant and much more. Many of the zoo animals
will also be on exhibit.
“We are excited to bring this event back to our community and foster memorable
experiences for families, as well as educate and inspire people to take an active role in
conservation,” commented Doug Piekarz, president & CEO. “We are fulfilling the request
from our community to bring this event back, some of whom came as kids and now wish
to bring their kids to Wild Lights.”
The zoo had hosted Holidays Lights from 1987-2000 and decorated the zoo with
a half a million lights. Over 300,000 people visited the zoo for Holiday Lights during the
14 years the zoo held the event.
The zoo plans to have lights starting at its entrance and continuing throughout
the park, a traditional holiday theme in the historical portion of the zoo’s Mike & Mary
Stark Grizzly Ridge and a Candy Land theme in the zoo’s Frontier Town, which will
include an area where visitors can roast their own marshmallows for S’mores.
General (Non-member) admission for Wild Lights will be $15 for adults and $10
for children. Akron Zoo members will be $12 for adults and children are $9. Discounted
admission and early entrance at 5:00pm is available for those who purchase their tickets
in advance: Pre-sale general (non-member) admission will be $12 for adults and $9 for
children. Akron Zoo member advance purchased tickets will be $9 for adults and $8 for
children.
On the nights that the zoo is open for Wild Lights it will be closed during the day.
Our regular winter hours running from 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. apply to all non-event
November and December days.
Akron Zoo - 2
The zoo is also offering companies the opportunity to host their holiday party
during Wild Lights. Companies can rent out the entire zoo on an evening when Wild
Lights is not open to the public, or people can choose to have a smaller party at the zoo
during the event. For more information about hosting a party at the zoo call 330-375-
2550 ext. 7251.
The Akron Zoo is open 361 days a year. Zoo hours are 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. and
admission is $12 for adults, $10 for senior citizens, $9 for children (ages 2-14). Children
under two are free and parking is $3. For more information visit www.akronzoo.org or
call (330) 375-2550.
Founded in 1953, the Akron Zoo is a non-profit, world-conservation zoo with
over 700 animals from around the world. Located just west of Downtown Akron, the zoo
strives to provide a dynamic, financially responsible, guest-centered animal experience
that is energized by innovation and fun. The Akron Zoo is accredited by the Association
of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). With its more than 200 accredited members, AZA is a
leader in global wildlife conservation and your link to helping animals in their native
habitats.
Haven Of Rest Offers Christmas Dinner And Hope
For more than 70 years, Haven of Rest Ministries has opened its doors on Christmas Day to serve dinner to hundreds of people in need.
But if you ask Executive Director Jeff Kaiser, he'll tell you it's more than just a hot meal.
"We really want to get to know the individual one-on-one," said Jeff Kaiser, executive director of Haven of Rest. "So our goal is always to make that connection even though we might have 200 or 240 people staying down here a night."
Whether someone is homeless, hungry or alone on Christmas Day, Haven of Rest spends the holiday preparing a fresh meal for hundreds of individuals and families around the Akron area. Each guest also received a bag of toiletry items and a Christmas stocking filled with treats.
"A lot of these people are very discouraged and there are a lot of hardships in their life. So we want to try to encourage them and offer them hope."
55-year-old Christopher Lemonte Lockett is no stranger to Haven of Rest Ministries. Several years ago, Lockett walked into Haven of Rest looking for shelter. On Friday morning, he returned to spend the holiday spreading a message of hope and strength.
"We damaged, but not done," said Locket. "That's why I'm here, to send that message."
Lockett said his mother passed away when he was just 18-year-old after battling alcoholism. He was left to take care of his siblings and later found himself battling the same addiction.
Lockett said Haven of Rest became his home where he could gain strength from the people who he now calls family.
"Everything that I've asked them for, they've never let me down. It's a beautiful place."
Elves & More Delivers Bikes For Families, Kids In Need
It's starting to feel a lot like Christmas.
They came by the truck loads, hundreds of bikes delivered by Elves & More put a mile-wide smile on parents and kids faces in Akron on Sunday, just a week a before the holiday.
"Yes, I'm excited because I haven't had a bike in a longtime," Treymaine Lucas said.
Lucas received a bike from LeBron James, as part of the 'I Promise' program, but was stolen when he left it outside on the porch of their house.
Brandy Moore, his mother, said her son was very upset about what happened. She has three kids and was not able to buy her son another one. She said this event made things a lot easier, especially with her Christmas shopping.
"[This event] helps me out a lot because I can't afford to buy three bikes," Moore said. "Being that they were able to give my kids bikes, it's going to be their Christmas presents now."
Elves & More delivered 1,600 bikes total to kids and families in Akron, Canton and Springfield on Sunday.
Moore said she think it's "wonderful" what the people from Elves & More did because it will help a lot of families.
"I think it's nice. I think it's wonderful. It's a nice Christmas gift for all of these kids. Some kids aren't going to get nothing else for Christmas."
Tim House, Co-Founder of Elves and More, said it started about ten years ago when they decided to giveaway bikes for Christmas to kids who needed them most.
"Many of these parents and grandparents that are raising their granddaughter and grandsons or parents that are raising their own children; they're struggling right now and Christmas time puts another stress on them. They have no idea how they're going to buy a gift, so we supply that gift for them."
House said it's the smile on the kids faces year after year that makes this all worth it.
"If you see a kid on an Elves & More bike with a backpack, you know, you just say to your self, she's on her way to a library, she's on her way to school, she's on one of our bikes. There's nothing you can say bad about that."
House said he's lucky to have the amount of people that volunteers each year.
"We are very fortunate in volunteer base," House said. "Last week we put together 1,600 biclycles in about four hours. We had a little over 400 volunteers show up, put the bikes together and clean the warehouse."
One of the many volunteers who helped deliver bicycles at the Akron site was Walter Holtz. Holtz, who works for XPO Logistics as an operations manager in the Alliance and Youngstown area, said it feels good to deliver the bikes and see the kids reactions.
"It's really nice to see the faces and the expressions on kids faces when we give back," Holtz said. "Everybody likes to receive but at the same time there's that special feeling you get every time when you give to someone else...it's an indescribable feeling."
Elves & More does not fund-raise and try to receive grants and donations from corporations to fund the giveaways, House said. He said they're bank account is really low right now after getting the bikes, but in the end, he said, "it's all worth it."