At its annual meeting in January, the Press Club of Toledo elected Matt Schroder as its new President and Candice Harrison as its Vice-President.
Matt Schroder is currently a Communications Leader on the Corporate Affairs team. In this role, Matt has responsibility for connecting and engaging Owens Corning Roofing employees by elevating the employee and other stakeholder experience with impactful communications.
Candice L. Harrison is the External Communications Manager for the Toledo Public Schools. A native Toledoan and proud graduate of Central Catholic High School, Harrison received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Toledo in 2001 and earned her master’s degree in communications in 2014 from Spring Arbor University. She most recently served as Director of Communications at Toledo Museum of Art and Senior Communications Manager for the Toledo Zoo and Aquarium.
Press Club Welcomes Charles Welch and Erin Marsh as New Board Members
Charlie “Mack” Welch, is the Program Director for the Juice 107.3 and a Realtor at Key Realty.
Charles Welch is a proud native Toledoan. Charles loves what the area has to offer. After living in Atlanta for a few years he moved back home to join his father in starting the new family business – The Juice 107.3. Besides being Program Director at The Juice, he has also hosted the morning drive and afternoon drive. He currently limits his on-air duties to Saturday mornings.
After losing his daughter, Sydney, to leukemia at the age of 11 months he began volunteering at The Toledo Children’s Hospital where Sydney’s Playroom is now located in her honor. Besides focusing on his career as a Real Estate Agent, Charles is also a Minister, a husband and a father.
Erin Marsh fell in love with books and writing as a little girl, and her professional career is evidence that her passion never died. She studied English literature and French at Miami University of Ohio, graduating magna cum laude, and moved to New York City to join AmeriCorps upon graduation.
Once her AmeriCorps fellowship ended and her Master’s degree was complete, Erin continued her career overseas, working as Director of Student Activities for Miami University Dolibois European Center in Luxembourg. She then returned to the States, teaching high school English for almost ten years, before she transitioned to writing as her primary career.
Erin has been writing for Adams Street Publishing Company since 2012 and became the Assignment Editor for Toledo Parent in 2019. In addition to her journalism work, Erin is the social marketing manager for local nonprofits and undertakes freelance writing and editing jobs for small businesses and individuals as needed.
When Erin isn’t writing, she spends her time teaching yoga, biking, hiking, and exploring Toledo with her family.
Well, it wasn’t the event we expected to have at the beginning of the year, but we put the 2020 Touchstone Awards into the books nonetheless.
Thank you to the 82 people who attended our virtual event. We appreciate your support so much.
Also, we thank our generous sponsors who supported the event. Because of their support in these unusual times, we were able to increase the scholarships to $1,000. We were happy to give the good news at the event to Kennedy Ellison of the University of Toledo and Shayne Nissen of Bowling Green State University.
The 2020 Touchstone Awards! A Toledo Press Club Virtual Event
October 21, 7:00 PM (RSVP pressclub@bex.net for login instructions), free for members and non-members alike.
The Touchstone Awards are the highlight of our year at The Press Club of Toledo. It’s our chance to honor people who make a difference in this community, whether that’s in the field of community service or in journalism and communications.
We can’t meet in person this year, but we have taken our event virtual. We’ll be honoring our lifetime and community winners and announcing our winners in the journalism and communication fields, as judged by the Press Club of Salt Lake City.
We hope you will join us. As we did with Pressing Issues, please RSVP to the address above and we’ll get you login instructions. Feel free to share this with anyone…thanks to our generous sponsors above, the event is free and open to all.
The Press Club is proud to honor Dr. Romules Durant with a
Touchstone Contributor Award. This award is given to a member of our community
who has made a significant contribution to our region in the past year.
Dr. Romules Durant serves as the Superintendent and CEO of
Toledo Public Schools, the fourth largest urban school district in the State of
Ohio. On the afternoon March 12, Governor Mike DeWine announced the closure of
all schools in the state of Ohio beginning on March 16. With just four days to
plan, Dr. Durant made the decision to close the schools and pivot to a 100%
learning environment. Realizing that TPS has more than 23,000 families, Dr.
Durant established many innovative ways to continue to serve the students of
TPS while removing barriers to learning. Some examples include using the school
bus fleet to park in underserved areas for community use of Wi-Fi, distributing 8,000
Chromebooks to students who had no access to technology, leveraging partnerships
to get internet access for students in need and providing grab and go breakfast
and lunch daily for all children in need, not just TPS students.
As graduation approached, Dr.
Durant expressed that it was important for him to do his best to make this year’s
commencements memorable for the class of 2020. Not only did TPS host virtual
graduations for all 10 high schools separately, they hosted 10 drive through
graduations for families who were comfortable to come out and receive their
diploma. Dr. Durant also learned of a graduate that would be deployed on the
day of the drive through commencement, he decided to deliver the diploma to his
home in a surprise pop-up at his home.
Aside from COVID related
innovation, many other accomplishments occurred under Durant’s leadership in
the 2019-20 school year. TPS moved up a
letter grade in the state report card, he has led and successfully passed two
levy campaigns, opened Escuela Smart Academy- a bilingual school for students
and the Aerospace and Natural Science Academy, Jones Leadership Academy of
Business, two new STEMM Academies and established countless partnerships for
the benefit, growth and development of TPS students.
Dr. Durant is a proud graduate
of the Waite High School Class of 1994 and is truly TPS Proud.
The Press Club is proud to honor Wendi Huntley with a Touchstone Contributor Award. This award is given to a member of our community who has made a significant contribution to our region in the past year.
Wendi Huntley is the Executive Director of Connecting Kids to Meals, an organization that provides vital nutrition to children in our region.
On March 12, when Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced the temporary closure of all K-12 schools, the rug was pulled out from under many kids and families.
For many, lunches that are normally provided during in-person school days were the only meals they would receive all day. These kids count on eating at school.
Under Ms. Huntley’s leadership, Connecting Kids to Meals responded in this hour of need, providing food kits for kids to get them through remote school weeks. Approximately 5,000 students participated in weekend meal pick-ups each week.
The Press Club thanks Wendi Huntley for her contributions to this region.
