The Labor Day History Hiding Near Dublin's Border

Local News

Here’s something we didn’t know was happening right here in Dublin.

Children of Valor, a national nonprofit headquartered here, helps kids from military families keep up in school — even when their family gets transferred somewhere else in the country.

And apparently, that happens a lot. Military children can move six to nine times before graduating high school. Every move can mean a different school, different curriculum and, sometimes, pieces of their education that simply don’t line up.

That’s where Children of Valor comes in. The organization provides things like one-on-one tutoring, learning-disability testing and help navigating special education. And when a family gets transferred from, say, Virginia to Florida, the support can move with them. They’ll find another tutor near the child’s new home and keep going.

The organization started back in 2011 after Extortion 17, the deadliest single incident for U.S. forces during the war in Afghanistan. Two children living around the Navy SEAL community in Virginia Beach wanted to do something for other military kids. With their mother, they raised enough money to provide tutoring for 12 children that first year.

Today, Children of Valor says it has helped more than 1,600 children across the country and is now headquartered right here in Dublin.

So the next time you hear about a military family being transferred across the country, there’s a group here in Dublin helping make sure their kids don’t have to start over academically, too.

You can learn more about Children of Valor here.

Local News

We crossed 4,000 subscribers this week.

Thank you. Genuinely.

Every one of these milestones still catches me a little off guard. Dublin Daily started on May 7 and somehow there are now more than 4,000 of us here reading along.

But the number I’m probably even more grateful for is this one: nearly two-thirds of you read Dublin Daily every single day.

That’s kind of incredible to me. There are a million things competing for everyone’s attention, and the fact that so many of you make time to open this email day after day is something I don’t take for granted.

And one of my favorite parts of this has been hearing from you. I read every email you send me, even if I don’t always manage to respond.

You’ve made Dublin Daily better because of it. The story ideas, tips and random things you notice around town have helped me find things I never would have found on my own.

So if you want to help us get to the next milestone, just keep sharing Dublin Daily. Forward it to a neighbor, send someone a story you think they’d like, or tell a friend about us.

That’s how we got to 4,000.

Thank you for being part of it.

- Nick

Local News

Did you know there’s a community right on Dublin’s border that has been getting together on Labor Day for generations?

I didn’t either.

It’s Lucy Depp Park, just north of Shawnee Hills along Dublin Road. And once I started reading about it, I realized there’s a whole lot of history sitting practically next door to us.

It starts with Abraham Depp, who came to Ohio from Virginia after gaining his freedom and bought hundreds of acres there in 1835. His farm became the first African American-owned farm in Delaware County and later served as a stop on the Underground Railroad.

Almost a century later, part of that land became Lucy Depp Park. Beginning in the 1920s, African American families from Columbus came there to spend their summers, build cottages and eventually make their homes there.

And apparently Labor Day became a pretty big day there. Families and neighbors would gather at the old Goode house, a tradition that was still being described as an annual Labor Day get-together decades later. In 2016, the community also used its Labor Day picnic to dedicate a historical marker recognizing the area’s Underground Railroad history.

There’s of course also another Dublin connection you may recognize. Abraham Depp Elementary was named after the same Abraham Depp whose story started there nearly 200 years ago.

So if you’ve ever driven Dublin Road past Shawnee Hills without giving Lucy Depp Park much thought, you’re definitely not alone. I had no idea how much history was sitting right there either.

You can learn more about the history of Lucy Depp Park ⁠here.