Nature Center at Shaker Lakes to host family-fun Fairy Tales in the Forest event Oct. 1: Press Run

SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio — Fairy Tales in the Forest: The Nature Center at Shaker Lakes is inviting the community to its AutumnFest: Fairy Tales in the Forest, a free, family-friendly event to be held from 4-8 p.m. Oct. 1 at the Nature Center, 2600 S. Park Blvd. in Shaker Heights.

Attendees are encouraged to come in fairy tale adventure-themed costumes, as volunteers, vendors and staff will be dressed in theme costumes. There will also be costumed performers from Robin VanLear’s Art Act Studio. VanLear is a Coventry PEACE Campus resident performance artist who created the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Parade the Circle.

“The Woodland Creature roaming performance is an interactive experience that should prove to be fun for all ages!,” VanLear said, in a Nature Center release.

Other highlights will include Enchanted Beanstalk-climbing (tree climbing), mythical music by DJ Markus, pixie dust sidewalk chalk and games, decorating magic pumpkins, fairy tale storytime, and wand making with Shaker Heights Library. Also, fantastical face painting, a sorcerer’s scavenger hunt, fire breathing dragon campfires with s’mores, fairy or gnome home building, and a spooktacular evening hike on the Stearns Trail, or a journey through the forest ADA hike on the All Peoples’ Trail.

Attendees can feast on food for a fee from the Dawg Bowl Food Truck, Mount Granita Italian Ice, or EDWINS Restaurant booth, or grab witch’s brew at EDWINS’ libation station.

You can also shop the Fall Perennial Sale, which will offer a limited selection of Ohio native perennial species suited for fall planting. The selection at Fall Perennial Sale is not typically available at the annual spring sale. The sale will take place from 4-6 p.m. in the pavilion during AutumnFest, with proceeds benefiting the Nature Center.

Street parking is available on South Park Boulevard, West Park Boulevard, and at the Shaker Heights Board of Education Administration Building, 15600 Parkland Drive.

For more information about events and programs at the Nature Center at Shaker Lakes, visit shakerlakes.org, or call 216-321-5935. The Nature Center is free and open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays, and is closed on Mondays.

University Heights Fall Fest is Oct. 2: Don’t that University Heights will host its annual Fall Fest from noon to 5p.m. Oct. 2 at Walter Stinson Park, aka “The Walt,” 2301 Fenwick Road.

Carlos Jones and the PLUS Band will headline the event with a free concert at 3:30 p.m. Fall Fest will include activities for the kids, including pumpkin painting, and bouncy houses. Two food trucks, Wild Spork and Dawg Bowl Food Truck will be on hand, as will other food vendors. Vendors from throughout Northeast Ohio will also be there selling arts, crafts and wares.

Jewish holiday family programs at the JCC: The Mandel Jewish Community Center, 26001 S. Woodland Road in Beachwood, has a couple of events coming to help families celebrate the Jewish holidays.

First is a Family Tashlich, set to take place from 10-11:30 a.m. Oct. 2 at Forest Ridge Village Park in Moreland Hills. Come and celebrate the High Holidays in nature during The J’s interactive Tashlich, a ceremony of symbolically tossing one’s sins into a body of water with bread (or to be more eco-conscious, fallen leaves or pebbles). This is for families with children ages 2-11.

Activities will include a Tashlich ceremony, the telling of a Rosh Hashanah story, crafts relating to the High Holidays, a hike on nearby trails, and the opportunity to meet other families. The event will be held rain or shine. Meet up at the Lang Pavilion. It is free and open to the community. Registration requested at support.mandeljcc.org/familyprograms.

Next is Pizza in the Hut, from noon to 1:30 p.m. Oct. 16 in the Mandel JCC’s Sukkah.

Enjoy kosher pizza, interactive song and dance with Jesse Jukebox, crafts, snacks and an ice cream truck. This is for families with children ages birth to 8 years. The fee is $5 per person. To register, visit mandeljcc.org/pizza.

French films: “The Adventures of Antoine Doinel,” a series of five French films directed by French New Wave filmmaker François Truffaut and starring Jean-Pierre Léaud as the titular character, will show between Oct. 1-23 at the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque, 11610 Euclid Avenue.

The four features and one short, comprising four different programs, will all screen in new 4K restorations.

The series will open with Truffaut’s landmark 1959 debut feature The 400 Blows, one of the seminal works of the French New Wave. The Cinematheque tells us that Antoine Doinel, the young main character, was something of an alter ego for Truffaut, reflecting the young moviemaker’s troubled childhood. Doinel is depicted as lonely and unhappy at home and at school.

Doinel proved such a popular, empathetic character that Truffaut decided to revisit his story in four subsequent films made over the next 20 years. Léaud repeated his role in all of them. But while the black-and-white The 400 Blows was a shattering work of social realism, the four other movies were lightweight and comic, and mostly in color, and explored Doinel’s erratic employment career, his active love life, and his stabs at maturity.

All five English-subtitled films will show in the Peter B. Lewis Theater at the Cleveland Institute of Art. Tickets to each program cost $11, and $8 for Cinematheque members, CIA and CSU I.D. holders, and those age 25 and under.

Moviegoers are required to wear face masks only if the CDC’s Community Level for COVID in Cuyahoga County is rated High. The current level can be found at cia.edu/covid.

Free parking for filmgoers is available in Lot 73 and in the Institute’s annex lot, both located off E. 117th Street, south of Euclid Avenue. Entrance to the building is through Entrance C, off Lot 73. For further information, call 216-421-7450, visit cia.edu/cinematheque, or send an email to [email protected]

Collecting Common Milkweed seed pods: The Cuyahoga Soil & Water Conservation District (SWCD), along with many other soil and water conservation districts across Ohio, are collecting Common Milkweed seed pods until Nov. 15.

The seed pods will be processed by Ohio Pollinator Habitat Initiative (OPHI) to establish new plantings and create additional habitat for monarch butterflies throughout Ohio. Collected seed pods from Common Milkweed can be dropped off any time in the collection bin at the Cuyahoga SWCD office, 3311 Perkins Ave., Suite 100 in Cleveland. The collection bin is located on the west side of the building by the garage door.

Contact the SWCD office for more information at 216-524-6580, ext. 1005, or email [email protected]

When collecting seed pods from a Common Milkweed plant, it is best to pick when they are dry and gray or brown in color. If the seam pops with gentle pressure they can be picked. It is best to store the picked pods in a paper bag, and avoid using plastic bags as they tend to collect and hold moisture. Store the seeds in a dry, cool area until you are available to drop them off. Mark your bags with the name of the county in which they were picked. Visit the SWCD website for more information about collecting pods. That website is cuyahogaswcd.org/programs/common-milkweed-pod-collection

Milkweed is the only plant that the Monarch butterfly uses for egg laying and caterpillar rearing. It also serves as a food source for Monarchs as well as many other pollinator species. The disappearance of milkweed across the U.S. has contributed to the 80-percent decline of the eastern monarch butterfly population over the last 20 years.

Cuyahoga SWCD’s mission is to implement programs and practices that protect and restore healthy soil and water resources. www.cuyahogaswcd.org

Heights Libraries happenings: “Beginning the Caregiving Journey” will be held from 6-7 p.m. Oct.3 at the Noble Neighborhood branch, 2800 Noble Road in Cleveland Heights.

Looking after a loved one can be overwhelming, but you don’t need to go through it alone. In this program, a community liaison from McGregor will provide information and resources for your caregiving journey. The program focuses on caring for older adults, but will also discuss older adult who are caring for young children. Registration is not required.

— Youngsters are encourgaed to bring a stuffed animal to the Lee Road branch, 2345 Lee Road in Cleveland Heights, to help the Library’s Children’s Room mascot Peter Potamus celebrate his birthday with a sleepover birthday party.

Drop off your stuffed friend between 10 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Sept. 30 in the Children’s Room, then pick up your stuffed friend between 11 a.m.and 5:30 p.m. the following day, Oct. 1. Don’t worry, the Library promises, it will take lots of pictures of all the fun so children won’t miss a thing that happened at the party. Registration is suggested. You can register here.

Former JCU student cast on SNL: Former John Carroll University student Marcello Hernandez has been named one of four new cast members on the upcoming season of Saturday Night Live. You can read more about him here.

Two-million gift for Maltz Museum: The Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage in Beachwood has announced that it has received a $2-million gift from Lois Goodman for the naming of its exhibition gallery the “Henry and Lois Goodman Gallery.”

A Maltz release states that, together, the Museum and Mrs. Goodman aspire to continue the Maltz’ long-standing tradition of bringing world-class exhibitions to Cleveland audiences as it has done for the last 17 years, exploring Jewish and universal stories of courage and resilience.

“The generosity of Lois Goodman, and her husband Henry of blessed memory, enables us to keep doing what we do best,” said the Maltz Museum’s Managing Director David Schaefe, in the release. “We seek out and produce special exhibitions that help audiences better understand themselves and the diverse people with whom we all share the world.”

The gift is a foundational investment — funding a growing need for Jewish cultural awareness and anti-bias education — in the launch of “LIFE & LEGACY,” an initiative of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation and the Jewish Federation of Cleveland.

“This gift is exemplary of the incredible response from our community within the first year of the LIFE & LEGACY initiative,” said Jewish Federation of Cleveland President Erika B. Rudin-Luria. “Lois and Henry Goodman’s legacy is well established in Jewish Cleveland, and this new commitment further solidifies the impact their leadership and enduring generosity will have on ensuring a vibrant future for our community. We are grateful for their support for the Maltz Museum, which plays a critical role in developing a deeper awareness of Jewish history and culture while bringing us all together to build tolerance and understanding as we forge our shared future.”

Mrs. Goodman describes her gift as “a way of supporting the work of the Maltz Museum, which is a reflection of the values held by me and my husband.” She also recognizes the importance of the LIFE & LEGACY gift, stating, “I am grateful to be able to leave a legacy that will support arts and culture for Cleveland’s Jewish community, as well as all of Northeast Ohio.”

Laurel National Merit Scholarship Semifinalist: Shaker Heights Laurel School student Indira Katiyar, ‘23, has been named a National Merit Semifinalist in the 2023 National Merit Scholarship Program for her high scores on the preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.

Indira is included in a small percentage of high school seniors across the country who are part of this prestigious list. Indira has an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,250 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $28 million that will be offered next spring. To be considered for a Merit Scholarship award, Semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition.

About 95 percent of the Semifinalists are expected to attain Finalist standing, and approximately half of the Finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title.

University School National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists: University School Semifinalists from our Sun Press coverage area include Nate Abbott, of Shaker Heights, and from Cleveland Heights, Theo Moll and Oliver Posner.

See latest Noble Library renovations designs: Heights Libraries once again invites the Noble community to see what’s in store for the expansion of the Noble Branch from 7-8 p.m. Oct. 4 at the branch, 2800Noble Road in Cleveland Heights.

Architectural design company Bostwick Design Partnership and landscape design company McKnight & Sergeant have new designs to share, based on feedback and suggestions from the community at past meetings.

You can see potential renovation ideas here.

Tri-C launches Digital Learning Design Certificate: Corporate College, a division of Cuyahoga Community College, has partnered with the Digital Learning Institute (DLI) on a new Digital Learning Design certificate. Created and evaluated by industry experts, the self-paced online program provides instruction on all aspects of the digital design process. Courses cover 10 core topic areas: Digital Learning Fundamentals, Digital Learning Design Principles, Analysis and Definition, Multimedia e-Learning, Videos and Podcasts, Virtual Classrooms, Micro-Learning, Social and Immersive Learning, Rollout and the LMS, and Evaluation and Learning Analytics

Additional topics will be introduced each year as modules are updated to reflect industry trends.

“Our mission is to help global learning professionals advance their careers,” said DLI President John Kilroy, in a release. “The partnership with Corporate College is an important milestone in supporting the delivery of this mission in the United States.”

Learners complete an individual work-based project that involves designing an end-to-end learning experience featuring a range of e-learning formats. Project work is ongoing throughout the program, with mentor guidance and peer feedback provided.

“We chose to partner with DLI because of their industry recognized curriculum, user-friendly platform and the fact that each student will have a portfolio of work to show after the program,” said Suzanne Ortiz, director of open enrollment programs for Corporate College. “Students gain the knowledge needed to become successful digital learning professionals. DLI really takes their time developing all aspects of the curriculum.”

Learn more and register at corporatecollege.com/digitallearning.

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