The Colonial Hills Civic Association

The Colonial Hills Civic Association is pleased to announce that we have awarded a $1,000 scholarship to the following well-qualified candidates: Alex Chomos, Lauren Curran, Lucy Darbaker, Jack Jolley, Sean Roche and Francis Scardina. All six applicants have been shaped by living in Colonial Hills and have given back and helped shape our community.

They are shown below, in alphabetical order, accepting their awards at the Thomas Worthington HS Local Scholarship Ceremony May 21, presented to them on behalf of the CHCA by Will Pearce. Photo credits to TWHS.

In their own words, from their CHCA scholarship application essays:

“This consistent kindness from the people around me did not just make the neighborhood a pleasant place to live; it actively taught me how to treat others.” – Alex Chomos

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“Colonial Hills is a place where I have felt a strong sense of community and love. It has shaped me into a person who understands how important these things are and who wants to create that same feeling for others anywhere I go.” – Lauren Curran

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“I used to wonder why “The Friendly Community” was included in the sign. Was it a reminder for residents to be friendly to one another? Was it a way to distinguish Colonial Hills from the other neighborhoods? … I realized that it was neither. It was simply the truth – Colonial Hills is a friendly neighborhood. I believe growing up in Colonial Hills has positively influenced me and made me who I am today.” – Lucy Darbaker

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“One friend that grew up elsewhere was surprised when I explained how we used to walk around the neighborhood just trying to find people to hang out with. This togetherness and type of community are something you see very rarely and we are lucky enough to have them in Colonial Hills.” – Jack Jolley

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“On top of the events, the people in my community have helped me grow as a student, a worker, and a person overall. I have had great teachers, neighbors, and role models who pushed me to do my best and treated me with respect.” – Sean Roche

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“In my neighborhood, people don’t hesitate to reach out, offering empathy and support to ensure the well-being of others. It was at that moment that I began to understand just how special my community truly is.” – Francis Scardina

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As a reminder, community service is one required part of this scholarship application so if you want to get in on the action, the Fourth of July is a great time to sign up and learn the joy of giving back!

Do you believe in Easter Bunny? I sure do; I saw Bunny, hopping along with the Bestest Easter Egg Hunt maker EVER — Annie Schuster — over at Selby Park, for the annual Colonial Hills Egg Hunt. Annie and Bunny sprinkled more of those colorful eggs than ever before in the history of egg hunts!!! It was Eggstra Amazing — Bunny, who also resides in a lovely cottage here in Colonial Hills was a big hit with the throngs of kiddos who came up to say hello and get a picture.

Thank you especially to Bunny’s Bestie (and Hunt Chair) Annie, who knocked it out of the Egg Park with lots of special touches to make this year absolutely Speggtacular — thank you Bunny and Annie, for being YOU, and for making this community so special!!

The CHCA also wishes to thank our generous sponsors for the Egg Hunt event Meacham Real Estate Company and Equitable Mortgage Corporation.

(And now for the photos (Photo Credit: CHCA Webmaster) – please click the “Continue reading” link below to see these pics which have the following descriptions)

_01 2026 Egg Hunt #1
_02 2026 Egg Hunt #2
_03 2026 Egg Hunt #3
_04 2026 Egg Hunt #4
_05 2026 Egg Hunt #5
_06 2026 Egg Hunt #6
_07 2026 Egg Hunt #7
_08 2026 Egg Hunt #8
_09 2026 Egg Hunt #9

Update, 5/28/2026: The agenda item for Rezoning for the Elford Development/Boundless PUD 01-2026 was tabled in advance of the meeting due to Elford’s notifying the ARB/MPC that Elford was not prepared to present at the meeting.

A meeting of the Worthington ARB/MPC will be held on Thursday, May 28, at 7:00 PM at City Hall, 6550 N. High St, where discussion will be held that the Elford Development / Boundless PUD Preliminary Plan PUD 01-2026 be recommended to City Council for approval.

Colonial Hills residents who determine that the information in this PUD is relevant to them might wish to review the agenda and updated Boundless PUD application documentation for this meeting, which has been extracted from the Worthington website into this PDF: ARB-MPC-Agenda_and_Boundless_PUD-05-28-2026.pdf.

This document includes updates to the PUD Preliminary Plan incorporating discussion requests from the January 22, 2026 ARB/MPC meeting.

Please sign up to help pack Buddy Boxes and join your Colonial Hills neighbors at the Worthington warehouse of the Buddy Box Connection, 6520 Singletree Dr, Columbus, OH 43229 — on Sunday, May 3, from 1:00-2:00 PM.

Many children who qualify for free lunch or reduced fee lunch at their schools have little to eat at home and return to school after weekends distracted by their hunger and unable to focus on learning.

Buddy Box Connection’s goal is to bridge the gap; to send these kids home with a Buddy Box every Friday during the school year to alleviate their hunger. A Buddy Box is a box filled with kid-friendly, nutritious, nonperishable, individual sized-food items that are easy for children to eat or prepare on their own. These meals and snacks help sustain children on the weekends when they are not in school.

Please visit Buddy Box Connection for more information about additional opportunities to volunteer or donate.

Below is a photo of Colonial Hills neighbors after packing Buddy Boxes.

Please volunteer at the shelter house via our SignUpGenius for Egg Stuffing, 3/21 and/or Egg Hunt Course Setup, 3/28

On Saturday, March 21, starting at 10:00 AM for about an hour, volunteers will help stuff plastic eggs with candy and prize tags. It’s an easy, fun way to pitch in, and it makes a huge difference for everyone who looks forward to this tradition every year.

Then on Saturday, March 28, starting around 9:00 AM, for about an hour, volunteers will help set up the Easter Egg Hunt course, by stringing flagging tape around and along the stakes to delineate the lanes, taping age-group signs at the end of the lanes and spreading out in the lanes the plastic eggs that volunteers stuffed the preceding Saturday. With many volunteers, we should have our course completely ready before the exuberant start of the Egg Hunt at 10:00 AM sharp!

An application to re-zone 20.3 acres at the southeast corner of the Boundless site as a PUD to allow multifamily development, will be considered at the next meeting of the Worthington MPC/ARB, Thursday, January 22, at 7:00 PM, at City Hall, 6550 N. High St.

The complete agenda for the meeting, and the detailed documentation for the Boundless PUD application have been extracted from the City of Worthington website into this PDF: ARB-MPC-Agenda_and_Boundless_Item-01-22-2026.pdf. Images of selected pages are shown below.

Colonial Hills residents who determine that the information in this PUD application is relevant to them might wish to attend this meeting. Also, analysis of what this PUD may mean for Colonial Hills might be found in the Colonial Hills Advocate Together (CHAT) Facebook Group.

A great big Thank You to Event Chair Erin Zelinski Righter and her volunteers for the neighborhood holiday party they put on at the shelter house Sunday, December 14!

Although it was a frightful, frigid 7 degrees outside, inside it was a delightful afternoon as shown in the photos, where guests enjoyed decorating cookies, playing games, doing crafts – and even seeing Santa!

(And now for the photos (Photo Credit: CHCA Webmaster) – please click the “Continue reading” link below to see these pics which have the following descriptions)

_01 Holiday Party #1
_02 Holiday Party #2
_03 Holiday Party #3
_04 Holiday Party #4
_05 Holiday Party #5
_06 Holiday Party #7
_07 Holiday Party #6
_08 Holiday Party #8

The Colonial Hills Civic Association (CHCA), Worthington, wishes to express their great appreciation for the generous gift of a box of 2000 plastic grocery bags donated on October 13, 2025, by the Kroger Charitable Donations Organization, Mr. Mark Bruce, Corporate Affairs Manager, the Kroger Company. This box of 2000 bags are 200 more than what we need every two years, and completed the other necessary supplies which the CHCA purchased for our luminary kit assembly event Saturday, December 6, in which we assembled 902 luminary kits for the 826 homes in our neighborhood – each kit containing 5 pounds of pea gravel, 5 tealight candles and 5 white lunch sacks.

And the CHCA wishes to greatly thank our two Luminary Event sponsors for their very generous donations for this event: The Roof Detective and Erin Hunt Glowacki, the Powell Buehler Group.

Also, I want to heartily thank each of the 34 volunteers, including 12 youth, who assembled all these kits in a record-tying time this year of around 10:50 AM! Please see the photos below which show the fairly good, but seasonable weather for our volunteers that day, which was one of the few non-raining days in the previous week.

And I cannot thank enough our CHCA Trustees, who delivered the luminary kits to each home in their district (plus their year-round work in delivering our Courier newsletters and CHCA membership packets, and some of whom have additional roles within the CHCA) – and many trustees also volunteered for luminary kit assembly. And I must thank Al Smyth, who has continued since 2014 to backstop our event, by delivering to nine trustees who were not able this year to pick up their bundles of kits by 1:00 PM on Saturday, including one delivery to all the homes in one district!

Mother Nature, year after year, inexplicably (knock on wood) had given us fairly, if not completely, no-raining, non-heavily snowing, and unseasonably mild days, for both Kit Assembly Saturday and Luminary Display Sunday. This year for Luminary Display Sunday, Mother Nature gave us two out of three of these conditions, including no noticeable wind – but eliminating the effect of the polar vortex was not possible – so it was a frigid 7 degrees. Thus, although the night was fine for the luminary display itself, it took some resolve on the part of our residents to make it happen.

But, braving the cold, a very high percentage of residents set out their luminaries – although the bone-chilling temperature prevented folks from getting out and walking the streets to enjoy the luminary and holiday decorations handiwork of their neighbors. And although I observed while driving each street that it was not the festive night it usually is, anyone out and about that evening was treated to wonderfully continuous displays of luminaries on many streets – for instance, on E. Selby all the way from the apartments and condos to around Foster, plus the virtual 100% participation on Meadoway, Park Overlook, E. Southington, the west, cul-de-sac end of Loveman, and portions of Indianola and Park Blvd.

Will Pearce
Luminary Event Chair

(And now for the photos (Photo Credit: CHCA Webmaster) – please click the “Continue reading” link below to see these pics which have the following descriptions)

_01 Inside Kit Assembly #1
_02 Inside Kit Assembly #2
_03 Inside Kit Assembly #3
_04 Outside Kit Assembly #1
_05 Outside Kit Assembly #2
_06 Outside Kit Assembly #3

Below are the winners of the 2025 Holiday Decorating Contest! Congratulations and thanks to all who participated. The snow on the ground really helped bring out the festiveness of the displays.

The judges decided to name each display after a Christmas song.

• Best Overall – First Place: 120 E. Riverglen – “Christmas Time is Here”
• Best Overall – Second Place: 524 Colonial – “Nightmare Before Christmas”
• Best Overall – Third Place: 265 Kenbrook Dr – “Christmas is for Children”

Front door category included front porches, yards and sometimes the whole shebang per the judges’ determination.

• Best Front Door – First Place: 5603 Indianola – “Mele Kalikimaka”
• Best Front Door – Second Place: 384 Colonial – “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”
• Best Front Door – Third Place: 547 Park Overlook – “We Wish You a T-Rex Christmas”

Best Retro, Most Artistic and Most Lit Up Categories

• Best Retro: 287 Loveman – “Frosty the Snowman”
• Most Artistic: 435 Park – “Welcome Christmas”
• Most Lit Up: 212 Colonial – “Deck the Halls”

And a huge Thank You to Event Chair Dave Nadolny and his secret judges! And also, thank you to everyone who decorated their homes!

Dave wanted to let everyone know a little history on the signs. “15 years or so ago, the CHCA decided that the annual winners should have a sign in their yard. I enlisted our local Cub Scout pack who did the festive (although odd in some cases) artwork on the back of the signs. I then stenciled the lettering on the front and waterproofed them. They’ve held up pretty well, but I think they are near end of useful life. Maybe new signs and categories next year!”

(And here are the pics, with photo credits to the Secret Judges – please click the “Continue reading” link below to see these photos)

_01 Best Overall – 1st Place
_02 Best Overall – 2nd
_03 Best Overall – 3rd
_04 Best Front Door – 1st Place
_05 Best Front Door – 2nd
_06 Best Front Door – 3rd
_07 Best Retro
_08 Most Artistic
_09 Most Lit Up
_10 Most Lit Up – Back of House

Please sign up, using our SignUpGenius, for Luminary Kits Assembly, Saturday, December 6, starting at 10:00 AM.

We hope to be completed with our assembly tasks by around 11:00 AM, the same as last year, when 29 adult and 13 youth volunteers, completed assembly for 902 kits for our 826 homes in Colonial Hills at 10:50 AM, one of the fastest times on record. Volunteers for any task can include any youth middle-school age or older, and this event is an excellent opportunity for high school seniors to add one missing CHCA event credit for their scholarship application in 2025 before their schedule fills up.

Please sign up for one of these positions:

• Inside the shelter house component assembly (up to 2 volunteers per each of the 8 workstations)
• Outside the shelter house component assembly (up to 9 volunteers, plus the Event Chair)
• Bundling supervisor (1 volunteer)
• Pea gravel shovelers (up to 8 volunteers), who are requested to bring their own standard-size, pointed-tip garden shovel. There will be teams of two people at each of the 4 shoveling station chairs. Each shoveling team can decide how long each member will shovel, while the other team member holds open the grocery bags (team members could switch roles halfway through)
• Bundles concierge (1 volunteer)
• Take down / clean up (1 volunteer)

The same as the previous three years, signing up via our SignUpGenius for a given position and arriving about 5 to 10 minutes before 10:00 AM, will reserve this position for you. After all reserved positions have been filled, we will assign those volunteers who didn’t sign up beforehand, to fill any remaining inside and outside positions — and please note that we very much appreciate all volunteers, whether previously signed up or not, and we have always been able to find a position for everyone.

Dunkin’ donuts, coffee and hot chocolate will be served, and plenty of hand sanitizer will be provided inside the shelter house.

Regarding the Trustees picking up their bundles of kits for their Districts: We are asking the Trustees to start coming over no earlier than 11:30 AM on Saturday morning to pick up their bundles, so as not to increase the number of people present in the shelter house area during the kit assembly timeframe, which is expected to be 10:00 AM to about 11:30 AM, especially if it is not raining too hard that day.

Light Your Luminaries! Our luminary display evening will be Sunday, December 14, starting at 7:00 PM per the instructions which will be enclosed in each resident’s luminary kit.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions, or if you encounter any difficulty using our event’s SignUpGenius.

Thank you,
Will Pearce, Luminaries Event Chair
365 S. Selby Blvd
614-888-8236
willpearce@columbus.rr.com