Briefs: RichHistory Weekend, Senior Spring Extravaganza, St. Mary's recycling effort

Mansfield News Journal
·2 min read

May 6-7 is RichHistory Weekend

Richland County’s RichHistory Weekend 2023 takes place this Saturday and Sunday with an array of activities showcasing Mansfield's rich history and culture.

Here's a list of activities that are planned:

• Downtown Mansfield’s Secret City Walking Tour returns. • In South Park the blockhouse, cabin and Hawk’s Nest Forge & Cooperage will be open for tours, and volunteers from other historic locations will take over the South Park Pavilion for a variety of displays and hands-on activities.• Pleasant Hill Lake Park hosts gold rush panning, dam guided tours, an introduction to Bigfoot lore and other activities. Malabar Farm will open the Ceely Rose house.• “Passports to History,” the small RichHistory site exploration passbook, will be given out at many locations and may be redeemed for free Oak Hill Cottage tours on Sunday, $10 discounted Ohio State Reformatory self-guided tours, and free admission to Kingwood Center Gardens.• The Richland County Museum in Lexington and the Shiloh museum open for the season on Sunday. The Lucas Area Historical Society will be collecting oral histories at the Lucas Community Center on Saturday.

For more information and a full schedule of events, visit richhistory.org/richhistoryweekend.

Senior Spring Extravaganza to be held to celebrate Older Americans Month

ONTARIO − The Ohio District 5 Area Agency on Aging will hold a Senior Spring Extravaganza at 10 a.m. May 11 at the Richland County Fairgrounds in Mansfield.

The free event is held in recognition of Older Americans Month and offers guests entertainment, refreshments, resources, information regarding aging issues and a chance to win door prizes. This year's event will include a classic car show, entertainer Randy Velez, free lunch, bingo and more.

For more information, contact the Area Agency on Aging at 567-247-6487.

St. Mary's School honored for its plastic recycling effort

Ohio Edison’s Green Team, composed of employee volunteers from FirstEnergy and its subsidiary Ohio Edison, sponsored St. Mary’s Catholic School in Mansfield and collected nearly 1,250 pounds of plastic materials, the equivalent of more than 100,000 plastic bags, as part of the nationwide NexTrex challenge. Their dedication and hard work earned them a fourth-place finish in the U.S. out of 780 participating schools and a $2,500 prize.

A St. Mary's student loads a plastic donation bag.
A St. Mary's student loads a plastic donation bag.

For the past six months, the employee volunteers in Ohio and West Virginia teamed up with local schools to collect about 2,000 pounds of plastic waste, including items such as bubble wrap, bread bags and shipping envelopes, to promote sustainability and reduce plastic waste.

The collected plastic materials are sent to a NexTrex processing facility, where they are transformed into composite decking materials that provide a durable and eco-friendly alternative to traditional building materials.

This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: RichHistory Weekend, Senior Spring Extravaganza, St. Mary's School