Mr. Stephens welcomed the two new public safety officers. He hopes they have a wonderful and long career with the City.
Vice Mayor Byington shared that the Oakwood Farmers' Market opened this past Saturday. He encouraged people to come out and visit. He then read the following story from Dateline Today:
“An Oakwood team competed in the Destination Imagination Globals in Knoxville, Tenn. over the weekend and had a chance to meet a buddy team from Pakistan. What transpired was a lesson in sportsmanship and goodwill.
The DI program is based on students working in teams to solve challenges. Team members choose a central team challenge to solve, designed to be a long-term effort.
These team challenges often fall into the same interest categories (science, technical, engineering, service learning, fine arts, improvisation, etc.) each year, but the actual details of the challenge change.
Frequently, students are encouraged to incorporate technical, engineering, and artistic methods to enhance their solution.
At the competition, the team of young boys from Pakistan had a glitch in their technology and they spent almost all of their allotted 8 minutes for their presentation trying to actually fix it.
They were then stopped at their time limit and essentially unable to present their solution. Needless to say, they were crushed. The Oakwood managers and team, who were there to support their buddy team, came to the rescue by taking all of their props and setting them up in a nearby hallway space and gathering an audience to watch them try again.
The Pakistan team performed their whole skit for a large, supportive crowd.
Lots of tears were turned to smiles when they were able to share their hard work with people after traveling so far.
Members of the Oakwood DI team, The Spotlight 6, had a top 10 finish at the competition.
The fifth-grade team from Harman School placed sixth overall in the international competition in the Elementary Level Fine Arts category. They also achieved the highest score in the central challenge, although this category is not recognized on its own.
Members of the team are: Henry Almoney, Claire Cezeaux, Deirdre Lynch, Charlotte Powell, William Usechak and Ben Wittmer. The team's managers are Mackenzie Wittmer and Jennifer Almoney.
After the competition, the Pakistani students that Oakwood assisted at the competition and their families came to Oakwood for a visit, touring Harman School, playing on the playground and visiting Hawthorne Hill before heading to Niagara Falls.”
Vice Mayor Byington added that it was nice story where the students worked together to support one another, and it made him proud to be in Oakwood.
Mayor Duncan gave kudos to the Oakwood Public Safety Department for capturing, within 24 hours, the perpetrator who robbed LNCB Bank. The Oakwood Detective put in a lot of hours in order to track the whereabouts of the robber, who is now in jail. He also gave kudos to the Oakwood Public Safety Department and Oakwood City School District for partnering together and handling a student who induced panic. The situation was handled with grace and professionalism. Mayor Duncan reported that he will be attending a Change of Command Ceremony at the National Museum of the United States Air Force where Colonel Bradley McDonald will relinquish command of the 88th Air Base Wing.
The public meeting concluded at 8:52 p.m.
