A Keg, a Tennis Court, and 85,000 People Later

Local News

I almost skipped past this one. I'm glad I didn't.

Adaptive Sports Connection has been running adaptive kayaking, cycling, and skiing for veterans and people with disabilities out of Central Ohio since 1992. Their current facility along the Scioto is deteriorating and no longer safe for participants or volunteers, according to the nonprofit — they're currently raising money for a replacement. So when a group of Dublin Jerome's boys' lacrosse players showed up this summer to clear poison ivy, haul equipment sheds, and clean up the riverbank, it wasn't just a nice gesture. It's exactly the kind of physical labor a stretched-thin nonprofit can't always find people for.

Most of the group's regular volunteers are retirees, so having a team of teenagers handle the heavy lifting means those volunteers get to spend their time actually out on the water with the athletes, instead of hauling gear.

What stands out to me is that this happened in the offseason, when nobody's watching and there's nothing on the line. That says more about a program than any championship banner does.

Local News

Authorities have now identified all five people who died in Sunday's tragic drowning in the Scioto River near O'Shaughnessy Reservoir Park.

The Delaware County Sheriff's Office identified the remaining three victims this week, following the identification of the first two earlier in the week by Honduran officials. The victims ranged in age from 18 to 34.

According to investigators, all five lived in Columbus. Four of the victims were Honduran citizens. Authorities believe the group had been fishing before one person entered the river and began struggling. The other adults went into the water in an attempt to help, leading to the tragic chain of events.

The two young children who were with the group remain in the care of Franklin County Children Services.

Our thoughts continue to be with the victims' families, friends, and everyone affected by this heartbreaking tragedy.

Local News

So here's something wild: the biggest three-day Irish festival on the planet isn't in Ireland, or Boston, or Chicago. It's in a park off Post Road, in a town some German settlers built.

You may have heard the story. It turns out the whole "Irish" thing comes down to one guy. A surveyor named John Shields who laid out the village back in 1810, and as a thank-you, they let him pick the name. He was from Dublin, Ireland — so that's what he went with.

The Festival itself started about as small as it gets. One of the longtime volunteers says it kicked off in 1988 as basically a backyard hangout — a handful of people at Coffman Park trying to keep parents entertained while their kids competed in a dance contest. They brought in the Irish Brigade (the only Irish band in town at the time) and a keg, set up on the tennis courts, and called it a night. It went well enough that the next year, they made it a real festival and brought in an actual headliner.

Fast forward to last year: 85,000 people showed up. Seven stages, more than 800 performers, USA Today even called it the best cultural festival in the country. More than half that crowd isn't even from around here — they're driving in from outside Columbus just for this.

It takes a lot of people to pull off, too. Over a thousand volunteers put in almost 9,700 hours last year, and the Festival turned around and gave more than $108,000 to local groups, plus food and cash for the Dublin Food Pantry.

So the short story? We didn't inherit any of this. One guy picked a name off the top of his head, and two hundred years later, we’re making the myth a reality.