multiplying talents: Cleveland Heights pastor at Forest Hill Church takes cue from parable, gives congregants $50 each

Great story from our friend Mike O’Malley. Instructive, too.

It occurs to me now that we Roman Catholics are uniquely positioned to do the same, but on a larger scale. Instead of demolishing churches or shutting them down and having them reappear on the tax rolls, what if the diocese gave away a church to the congregation, to see what would come back? That strikes me as being the proper role of a conservator of the parishes’ aggregated assets, a trustee of the efforts of prior generations.

In the final analysis, it’s not about the money at all. The tail has been wagging the dog. It’s about people, and what our forbears put together for the support of a strong community then and now. The money was spent and the energy expended long ago to provide what we have now, and we must honor that, and conserve.

Again, we’re back to the old “Waste not, want not,” but it holds true.

Cleveland Heights pastor at Forest Hill Church takes cue from parable, gives congregants $50 each - Metro - cleveland.com

Workshop targeted to individuals in career transition - www.jumpstartyourjobsearch.eventbrite.com

Here's an email I got yesterday from our Table VII/Founders' Café friend David Akers, who now happens to be collaborating with one of our friends from the Women's Enterprise Network, Kathy Miracle. I'll post the attachment, the Seminar Flyer, separately.

Greetings and salutations,

Over the past 12 months or so, I have received resumes forwarded by many of you of friends, colleagues, and new acquaintances that are networking as part of a job search. It is my practice, as Dave Janus well remembers, to meet someone new each week and “Pay it Forward” to the extent that I can help that person in their respective endeavors. So the forwarded resumes, the volume of which at times is overwhelming, are welcomed nonetheless as a way for me to meet one of my civic and professional commitments.

Along the way, in dozens of meetings, I began noticing that I was doing far less connecting of people and much more coaching. The people with whom I met needed a lot of help in being more effective in networking, in making it easy for others to help them, and in learning how to follow up in a meaningful way. I started having the meetings in my office, with access to a whiteboard, rather than at the nearest coffee shop. And I began drawing the same four drawings, over and over again.

The response from job-seekers was overwhelming – thank you for showing me such simple tools to accelerate my networking and my job search; I never thought about doing those things; it’s so easy to make it easy for people to help me; I wish I’d known these tools years ago, etc., etc.

Then Kristopher McCrone (who has coached literally thousands of people through interviewing effectively) approached Katherine Miracle (who works with individuals to help them package a prospective hire’s Return on Investment for an employer), Jeff Nischwitz (who is one of the most effective networkers around), and me about putting together a short seminar to help people seeking jobs in today’s tough economic environment. Each of us brings specific tools and practices to the table, and each of us has a commitment to helping job seekers be more effective and succeed.

We are holding our first workshop on April 2, 2009, at Lockkeepers in Independence. Registration begins at 7:30 AM and the event runs from 8 AM to 11:30 AM. I’ve attached a flyer that provides an overview of the event itself and registration details. You can also go to www.jumpstartyourjobsearch.eventbrite.com for more information.

My guess is that each of you, like me, is besieged with resumes right now from friends and colleagues and others, all seeking your assistance. Please send them a copy of this email and encourage them to leverage what they will learn in this workshop to take control of their career search. They can’t know what they don’t know about seeking a job until they attend this session.

Thank you for your consideration.
DJA

David J. Akers
President, Celeritas Limited
5422 East 96th Street, Suite 150
Cleveland, OH 44125
p 216.839.1500 c 216.280.5801
f 216.503.4247 e dja@celeritasltd.com

"Old Brooklyn Blogs"

Our neighbors across the Brooklyn-Brighton Bridge now have a blog, begun in February of 2009. I follow, through Blogger.

Old Brooklyn Blogs

contemplating the essence of "busness"

from our friend Ralph Solonitz

http://www.ralphstuff.com/

Bus.The.Bloggers road trip

SENT VIA EMAIL

Dear Blogger Pals--

Would you believe that nobody has stepped forth to write a check for $50,000 to send a busload of bloggers and community-dialoguers from Cleveland to Akron to Columbus to Cincinnati to DC and back again?

Can you even begin to imagine that nobody as yet wants to sponsor an exercise to bind Ohio together, in wholly public discourse, from the road and from the capital and then from the road again, over 4 wired and connected days from January 18-21? To have the content posted forever on the internet as blogs and tweets and podcasts and videos? To usher in the new intergenerational Woodstock on wheels?

I offered the Greater Cleveland Partnership the opportunity to write a half-check for $25,000 to send us on a one-way trip and not come back--something I thought they might snap up-- but nobody got back to me.

My rolodex was out of date when it came to calling Mike White down there with the alpacas or the llamas, so I called around and found everybody else had trouble reaching him, too. I was hoping he would be able to make the call to Sam Miller so that Sam could get behind the "participatory democracy" he holds so dear.

I tried to get a news operation to partner with us by sending along embedded journalists; the blog-based Huffington Post didn't seem to understand, and one of their blogger/journalists, Paul Krassner, is still too bunged up from a 70s police beating to put in 4 days on the road (Paul knew Magic Bus people like Ken Kesey and Wavy Gravy and is a piece of walking/limping history himself). I was going to try to embed Dick Feagler, recently available, I hear, because of his prior successes at interfacing with the blogosphere, but I didn't want to ask him outright until I had the trip paid for.

I've established a couple of things, or a few:

--Nobody who wants to ride the bus has enough money to carry the whole thing off, and doesn't know anybody who could help at the last minute

--There are no civic-minded sugar daddies out there who specialize in making seminal events happen, at least not among our contacts

--There may be more than one way to skin a cat.

Therefore, it's now time for all of you who think that the Blogger Bus needs to roll out of here tomorrow to begin to ASK SOMEBODY TO GIVE US A BUS FOR 4 DAYS. Dan Gilbert over at the Cavs might have one, or the Dolans may have one that's not being used next week, or the Browns organization may have one that needs to be exorcised by having joyous riders for a change.

After somebody gives you the bus, then ask them where's the food going to come from? Then, ask to borrow their air card. It's simple. Like back in the days when everybody went to San Francisco.

Hey, I've blogged this a bit at--

http://timferris.blogspot.com/2009/01/january-18-21-blogging-from-bus.html

--and I've Facebooked it at--

http://apps.facebook.com/causes/192544?m=49f3b4f1

I've asked some of our politicians, but some were immobilized by fear of conflicts and others thought that, if this were a proper thing to do, their brilliant Washington staff would have already told them about it.

Gloria this morning told me to leave this whole thing alone, that people would start thinking I was crazy, and I thought, "Yeah. So what else is new?"

It's been fun. Call me or email me or tweet me when you get a bus, or a check for food for 40 people for 4 days, or blog it or make a video and stick it up on U-Tube, or even call WKYC or the PD first--I don't care. What I do know is that we can fill the bus in a heartbeat, create a heck of a lot of good will, create great content and post it for time immemorial to the internet, and bring three generations together on a very favorable basis, conducive to telling stories that need to be told and tales that need to be kept in the public consciousness.

I'm going to the market now, before it closes. I have no Plan B yet. I still have faith in Plan A's being executed by a group of bloggers and other people of good will on a bus, somehow, so open-source it and see what happens.

Tim Ferris
taferris@gmail.com
216-255-6640
http://timferris.blogspot.com

FYI, I-Open: sounds like a plan

SCENE Magazine: our friend Mike Lang helps us tie one on

Since he first moved into our neighborhood, Mike Lang has always been humorous, irreverent and fun to be around, a refreshing counterpoint to those who take themselves too seriously or are constantly fearful or bummed. Laughing in the face of massive government destruction of private commerce and industry along Euclid Avenue, Mike keeps lobbing those ads and quips.  This is his latest ad from SCENE Magazine, page 22.

milestone: 700 LinkedIn Connections

LinkedIn: My Contacts: Connections -- As of this morning, I now have 700 connections on Linked In. It's getting interesting watching the seething, teeming mass of humanity assembled there, seeking knowledge of what they have in common, and not what keeps them apart.

I'd say it's a healthy phenomenon.

whose property is this, anyway?

Why close financially healthy St. Peter's - letter to the editor- cleveland.com -- I have another idea about these Roman Catholic parishes--give them to whoever feels they can keep them rolling. That's right--give them, not sell them, give them, give them back to the people who come together to form them and sustain them in the first place. They came from the assets of the local community, and they ought to be returned, if the community feels they can support them without the help of the diocese.

As I've said before, just because you can't hold up your end of the bargain--providing adequate staffing and attracting new membership--doesn't mean you get to keep the real estate. As an urban dweller since the 1960s--in Boston, in Atlanta, and right here--I've seen first-hand various approaches to maintaining organized religion in the cities. I do know that the best thing to do is to, first of all, ASK the affected community what the most appropriate solution would be. They live with the day-to-day problems and practicalities, and probably have the best and most creative ideas, be they for continuance as a religious property or for deconsecration and adaptive reuse.

In our neighborhood, Archwood-Denison/Brooklyn Centre, we have had some church properties closed and then resold as church properties, to other, different congregations, congregations that come in from outside the community and visit there only infrequently, usually just on Sunday. The properties I'm talking about are no longer active community centers, they're no longer open during the week, they're not centers of community activity, and they're not involved in the day-to-day problems that go with being a functioning entity in the neighborhood. One of these is on Denison, and one is on Pearl, and we have a similar problem going on with what used to be the local YMCA--they have been sold to outsiders, and they have neutral to negative impact on those of us who live there. All these decisions were made by headquarters staff without consulting with the local residents, the real stakeholders.

In the case of Saint Peter's, it seems that, even if the diocese doesn't want to support the parish in the traditional ways it has, the parish themselves should be permitted to assume responsibility for their own destiny. I think the diocese should give them back the property and let them run it as they see fit. They can contract for the services of clergy and pay their own utilities and maintenance. They can make the parish the center of vibrant Christian life; we have to face up to the fact that there just aren't enough vocations to the priesthood right now to fulfill the same staffing commitments they did 50 and 100 years ago. Parishioners are going to have to carry the ball more than ever before.

Another thing--there seems to be an interest on the part of many real-estate people in brokering and in acquiring prime properties, like Saint Malachi's, Saint Barbara's, and so on. If the process in downsizing the number of diocesan parishes has, as it's first step, giving the option to each parish to run itself and then giving the parish its property back if it takes the option, it will eliminate a lot of the potential for self-dealing and politicking at the diocesan level.

So far as the partition of real assets, perhaps it should be treated something like a divorce, or the dissolution of a marriage. The parish keeps the property with its fixtures and the parishioners (the house and the kids), and the diocese gets the gold, emeralds, diamonds, rubies, and the chalices and vestments (the clothes on its back and part of the shared portable wealth). After all, it was the diocese that broke the agreement to support, or walked out on, the parish in the first place; the parish shouldn't be the one to bear the brunt of the disruption. Perhaps it was truly supposed to be "for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, till death do us part," or words to that effect.

Anyway, decisions like this are best made from the bottom up, not from the top down and with the assistance of a conflicted advisory committee at the diocesan level. Who are these people, anyway?

The sermon at The Cathedral today, predicated on the liturgy, was about giving.

I need to get a new missal, for use in the off-hours. The one I used today is back in the pew.

I'll just have to resort to online resources until that new missal shows up. The 11th Sunday in ordinary time has readings that wrap with this:

Jesus sent out these twelve after instructing them thus,
“Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town.
Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’
Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons.
Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.”

E-book editon of "Cities Within A City: On Changing Cleveland's Government," by Burt W. Griffin

E-book editon of "Cities Within A City: On Changing Cleveland's Government," by Burt W. Griffin -- I was talking this morning to Bill Callahan about the city charter hearings under way; Burt Griffin's 1981 book came up as an integral topic in our conversation. Burt worked in Washington for a while, and has some instructive thoughts to offer on urbanism.

Lo and behold, searching for data on the internet, I found that the entire text of the book is here. Just click on Table of Contents, and you'll find each section and chapter at your fingertips, or your mousetips, or however we would phrase that in this electronic age.

One of my points for Bill was that, since we have the PR weenies beginning to whack away at public opinion about Cleveland City Council, as evidenced by yesterday's PD masterwork, it's time to go on offense, to wit: Each ward of the City of Cleveland should have equal standing with similar-sized small towns or suburbs, each councilman should have the same authorities in and control over his ward as mayors have over their cities, and each ward should be relatively autonomous in governance and in the delivery of services to the constituency.

Here's a bit on Burt and his book, from the Cleveland Memory Project:

Cities Within A City: On Changing Cleveland's Government
by Burt W. Griffin
Originally published by
the College of Urban Affairs
Cleveland State University
1981

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Burt W. Griffin retired as judge of the Common Pleas Court of Cuyahoga County, Ohio in 2005, after 30 years of service. From 1966 to 1975, he served as a legal aid lawyer in various capacities, including Executive Director of the Cleveland Legal Aid Society and National Director of the Legal Services Program, U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity.

He was Assistant Counsel to the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy during 1964.

Judge Griffin has been a lifelong resident of Greater Cleveland. He was born in Cleveland's Hough section in 1932, lived in the Shaker Square area of Cleveland from 1937 to 1960, and has resided in Shaker Heights since then. Judge Griffin was graduated cum laude from Amherst College with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science in 1954, and from Yale Law School with a Doctor of Jurisprudence in 1959.

He is currently an Adjunct Professor of Urban Studies at Cleveland State University.

This edition contains the complete text as found in the 1981 print edition of the book, along with some enhancements developed to aid in navigating this site. The site is hosted by the Cleveland State University Library and is presented here with Judge Griffin's permission.

PERMISSIONS CREDITS DISCLAIMER

FW: school board interview

I got this from Madame Gloria late last night--

-----Original Message-----
From: Gloria Ferris
[mailto:gloria.ferrisATgmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, June 04, 2008 11:32 PM
To: Timothy A. Ferris
Subject: school board interview

Dear Tim-

Many of you know that I applied for the open position on the Cleveland Municipal School board. I am writing this email to let you know that I am sitting down with Mayor Frank Jackson for a face-to-face interview.

Yes, I made it through the nominating committee selection process and now have the opportunity to sit down with Mayor Jackson this Friday afternoon and talk about what I think may be the number one issue for our city's future--the education of its children.

I wrote this post http://www.gloriaferris.net/2008/04/mayor-jackson-asked-and-i-responded/ on my blog as to why I had decided to put my hat in the ring. I am sorry that the click thru to the application does not work, but my friend George Nemeth has had technical problems with Brewed Fresh Daily where the link was stored, but you have the basics included in the post.

I want to thank those of you who encouraged me to apply. It has solidified my thinking and I will continue to express the need for huge amounts of investment to change our educational system into one that can prepare our students for the new knowledge economy.

Today, a friend stopped over and when I told him that I had secured an interview with Mayor Jackson. He told me to sit down because we were going to role-play. He would be the mayor and I would be me. He then asked me the questions that he thought Mayor Jackson might ask. At least, they were the ones important to my friend. If anyone would like to email me a question to help me prepare, please do.

Gloria

twittering into oblivion, in the dense information jungle

Friends May Be the Best Guide Through the Noise - New York Times -- Good piece here on how we are, all of us, each others' clipping services. Now we all have additional pairs of eyes and ears constantly at work someplace out there, and somebody is paying attention for us when we're not.

Think of all the other brains yours is slaved off to, in this online community. Try not to hyperventilate. Don't be afraid. We're all moving in generally the same direction, with parallel purposes, and probably whether we want to or not. The question then becomes, How do you opt out, and continue to live according to your purpose? What comprises grave, soul-killing sin in this new age? Having accepted membership and responsibility in the online community, having given and taken, can you turn away?

The Citizens' Symposium in Port Clinton

Primary Voices - Home -- I had the opportunity to speak at the Friday kickoff, in Port Clinton, of an all-Ohio forum and teach-in for citizens' participatory democracy. My session was "Stewardship and Financial Freedom."

After my formal, regulator-approved presentation, Gloria and I were able to pivot to a conference format and get really involved in what the people at our session were really interested in talking about. Briefly, their interests centered around conservation of all types of assets, freedom, truth, education, community dialogue, transparency, family, legacy, and finance. We had a great introductory discussion, but only scratched the surface.

Dr. Vernon Albright and his wife Mary, who pulled the whole thing together, are truly remarkable people based in Chicago. On the audio, you can hear his idea of reviving the town forum. We didn't get a chance to tell him much about Meet.The.Bloggers, but I'm sure we'll get around to it, as we review the after-effect of this weekend's Citizens Symposium.

something to look forward to

Meet.The.Bloggers will again Attend The Cleveland Weblogger Meetup at Fat Fish Blue (Wednesday, March 19, 2008) - Upcoming -- Tonight, we get to go over to Fat Fish Blue to see how the new space works for the Blogger Meetups:

CHANGE OF VENUE: Downtown Cleveland at Fat Fish Blue. As I said, you never know what might happen at our monthly blogger meetups. See you There! February turned in to a great blogger meetup. We had just heard that WKYC invited us to collaborate with them during the Presidential Debate. You want to attend if you can because you just never know what opportunity may have turned up.And the opportunity for great conversation and help with blogs and websites and gaining new perspectives to troubling questions is always available.

Homepage
http://meetthebloggers.net

2234--here's who's been involved in this blogging tonight at WKYC

from Brian Lehman, to all of us:

Brian Layman to collisionbend, Derek, Will, Roger, gloria, Roger, gloria, George, me, Gloria, Derek, will, franpro, Jill, Jeff
show details 9:01 PM (1 hour ago) Reply

http://subsetofderek.blogspot.com/ Derek Arnold
http://Timferris.blogspot.com Tim Ferris
http://www.twitter.com/frampro Joel Libava
http://www.gloriaferris.net Gloria Ferris
http://www.collisionbend.com Will Kessel
http://fsgf.blogspot.com Roger Bundy
http://www.onevotematters.com Brian Layman
http://www.twitter.com/georgenemeth http://www.twitter.com/meetthebloggers George Nemeth
http://laurakessel.blogspot.com Laura Kessel

______________________________________________
Brian Layman
b5media Inc.
www.b5Media.com / www.TheCodeCave.com
Skype: BrianLayman
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/brianlayman
Cell: (330) 858-3446
Fax: (416) 849-0347
TF: 866-652-7189

the decline of mediocrity

A Farewell Note From a Departing Yahoo - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog#comment-105418#comment-105418 -- I got such a kick out of the thread following the writer's column that I just had to draw your attention to it, and link to it. Here's the kickoff comment, and it gets better as everybody else chimes in (I came in myself after #38.):

Yahoo is on its last legs. And good riddance. While the internet is now turning into what it was invitable it would become–nothing but a forum for junky business and illiterate bloggers–yahoo has contributed to the rapid decline of mediocrity that is the hallmark of the United States of stupid people. The transition to News Corp would be a final decline into the abyss of nothingness from which it will,hopefully, never recover. Google is slighter better, but promotes the same mediocrity. It was a great shame that the internet was not,
and is not, confined only to academics, and only serious ones at that. Mediocrity is the hall mark of the United States, and the internet has helped the American populace to decline to the last stages of degradiation of all that was beautiful, intellectual and moral. If there were a god, it would have designed the internet because of its ability to turn a slightly literate populace a into totally brain dead sub-human blob of shivering jelley.

— Posted by jake moons

Roger works it out

Cleveland Equanimous Philosopher: Oh, Philosopher, Where Art Thou? -- Like the chronically constipated novelist Henry James, Roger Bundy has worked through and unbound a complex issue; Henry used to do it with a pencil, Roger uses a blog.

Based on Roger's fine arguments, I, too, am resolving the issue of anonymity here and on the Save Our Land blog. Henceforth, I will no longer rail against or abuse the anonymous commentors, nor will I continue to collaborate with them or to host them; I will not moderate comment, but will instead require that the commentor at least be a registered Googler. That should help somewhat. Here's Attorney Bundy's well-reasoned if prolix take, pro bono publico:

I believe that one of the fundamental aspects of a blog necessary to accomplish the above goals is to be open to comments with no restrictions or editing. This gives a blog credibility. I also believe that one of the fundamental, if not THE fundamental, aspects of enlightened public discourse is that participants stand by their views, comments, thoughts and ideas with their name. This gives credibility to their participation in the discourse.

Unfortunately, these competing principles have created, for me, a conundrum -- accepting unresricted comments to be a credible blog permits anonymous posters with little or no credibility to hijack and crash the level of public discourse I hope to attain and maintain.

And that conundrum is a giant cold prickly that made me subconsciously avoid my blog since September. Until this morning.

I know there are many of you out there who are thinking right now -- Whoa, this guy is certifiable. Who cares, just post, you are WAY overthinking this. Well, part of me feels that way too. However, because I put my name on my blog and my posts, because I genuinely care about community, and because I sincerely want my blog to be a positive contributer in this new paradigm of communication; I'd rather err on the side of overthinking these matters than do otherwise. If nothing else, you now know that I take these matters very seriously. Hopefully, that will add to my credibility. If you just think I'm nuts, well that's fine too, as there is probably a grain of truth to that statement for all of us, even you.

If you look at the most recent posts prior to my hiatus, I spent a great deal of time sparring with Anonymous posters about issues that, as far as I am concerned, are in the gutter of public discourse and community dialogue. I made no bones about the fact that I think anonymous posting and anonymous blogs are an act of cowardice and are antithetical to enlightened community dialogue. After all, community and anonymity are practical antonyms. They cannot co-exist. You simply cannot have a community of anonymous people.

Therefore, beginning today, Cleveland Equanimous Philosopher has adopted a new commenting and posting policy.

Cleveland Equanimnous Philosopher will no longer accept unsigned, anonymous comments or posts. If you have factual information regarding a post or comment on my blog that contradicts or enhances the dialougue, but need to remain anonymous for extraordinary reasons, you may feel free to contact me directly to discuss your factual information and I will incorporate it into subsequent posts and/or comments and I will protect your identity. If you don't trust me, then you shouldn't be reading my blog anyway because you already believe I have no credibility. Opinion and commentary will not be entertained from anonymous sources under any circumstances.

The conundrum being, temporarily at least, resolved, Philosopher doth return.

making critical distinctions

Washington Wire - WSJ.com : Did Bill Clinton Go Too Far? -- I like the way this dialogue is getting framed out [bold emphasis mine] :

Mr. Clinton stirred up controversy on the campaign trail by saying he’d been told his wife would lose because voters were choosing candidates “because of their race or gender.” Before the polls closed, Mr. Clinton pointedly told a TV reporter – who asked why both Clintons were needed to beat Obama in South Carolina – that Jesse Jackson had won the state in 1984 and 1988. At the time, Jackson was often seen as the black presidential candidate, rather than a presidential candidate who also happened to be black.

“Do you think President Clinton was engaging in racial politics there?” George Stephanopoulos asked. Obama on ABC’s “This Week.”

The Illinois senator, who won almost four out of five votes from African-Americans, didn’t rise to the bait. Instead, he talked about health care, college costs, the credit crunch and the subprime-mortgage mess. “As long as we were focused on those issues, we thought those would transcend the sort of racial divisions that we’ve seen in the past,” Obama said.

MTB reunion, and convergence

Last night, Madame Gloria and I took a ride over to 44111 in the Kamms Corners area to chat with Rosemary Palmer and Paul Hackett, who came up from down by the river to help open the new Palmer campaign office at 15735 Lorain. Both are MeetTheBloggers alumni, Paul back in the day when both a podcast and a transcript were part of the standard offering, Rosemary far more recently.

One thing I remarked at the end of the evening was that we certainly had grown some interesting new groups of friends. The other candidates may have the support of the other local politicians, the unions, and all the other intrenched interests that essentially have gotten us to where we are today, but the people we spent 4 hours with yesterday are interesting, impassioned, outraged, and genuine and human. They're our neighbors. They're speaking out against the same structure that has disadvantaged you and me.

Beyond the HopeMobile, outside 44111, the quibbling and niggling proceeded amain, and the Weenie Wars raged on.

for the ferrets

Bowling Benefit at Meszar's Lanes (Sunday, January 13, 2008) - Upcoming -- One of my seldom mentioned alter egos, Tim Ferrets, really wants you to know about this one--there are very few similar events, anywhere, ever, so you might want to take advantage of this unique window in time and hurry on over to Meszar's this Sunday.

This event reminds me of the fact that we who live in Brooklyn Centre are in proximity to a lot of small community gathering places like this bowling alley--the bars, the restaurants, the libraries, the churches, and so forth. As a matter of fact, community places are really dense and readily available. We are already perfectly suited to form, or re-form, the type of community that takes care of itself and its own. But, back to the friendly, frolicking ferrets:

Sunday, January 13, 2008
4:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Meszar's Lanes
4231 Fulton RoadCleveland, Ohio 44144-1866

Ferrets Unlimited Ferret Shelter (The only ferret shelter in Northeastern Ohio) is having a bowling benefit on Sunday, January 13, 2008 at Meszar’s Lanes 4231 Fulton Rd Cleveland. The party goes from 4:00 - 8:00 PM and includes open bowling, pizza, raffles, door prizes and lots of fun. There is also a cash bar with reduced prices.Tickets are $20 advance (deadline for advance tickets is Jan. 8, 2008) or $25 at the door. Children's tickets (ages 6-11) are $10 in advance or $15 at the door. For ticket information please call 216-351-4694 and speak to Elaine or Sarah.Please help spread the word!

Homepage http://www.ferretsunlimited.org/