The Colonial Hills Civic Association

Summer is here – time to start getting ready for our annual 4th of July Celebration and “Run Through the Hills” 5k run! All events take place at Selby Park on July 4, 2016. 5k check-in starts at 7:30am, race starts promptly at 8:30am. Independence Day Extravaganza with bounce-houses, midway games, music, and food occurs 10am-1pm.

5k race registration is OPEN! Cost is $15 for pre-registrations completed / received before July 1, 2016; $20 registration day of the race. Registration includes a T-shirt (for 1st 150 registrants), awards, refreshments, and a great time running through the hilly tree-lined streets of Colonial Hills neighborhood (race map). Click here to register online. Mail-in registration is also available, click here to download the form to print, complete, and mail-in with your check. NOTE: if you are registering multiple people, please register and pay for each person separately so that we can capture details for each runner (name, age, gender).

As for the Independence Day Extravaganza, we are upgrading this year: new chairperson (Jenny Kendall), new games, CH-resident-owned Kenny’s Meat Wagon food truck, Kona Shaved Ice food truck (shaved ice treats paid for by CHCA), and round tables under the big tent to better enjoy the day.

More info to come – looking forward to a great event this year!

Applications are now available for the CHCA 2016 Educational Scholarship! All graduating high school seniors who will be pursuing any educational program after high school are eligible (e.g. college, vocational, technical, business institutes, etc).

Applications are available here (MS Word) and here (PDF), and are due April 12; see application for additional details. In addition to the usual sort of information & requirements, it is necessary for an applicant to attend at least one CHCA monthly meeting (Tuesday, March 8 is the next one) and have neighborhood service hours (Easter egg hunt still needs volunteers March 12 & 19!). See calendar at right for more details on upcoming CHCA events.

We hope to have a number of applicants this year– get on it Seniors! And Juniors & Sophomores, we offer this scholarship opportunity every year, download the application so you can start working on the requirements now.

Hope everyone enjoyed the luminary lighting last weekend! While we were all wandering the streets taking in the sights of our beautiful neighborhood, our judges were busy evaluating holiday decorations. Here are the winners of our CHCA 2015 Holiday Home Decorating Contest:

Best Front Door
1st Place: 468 Meadoway
2nd Place: 5631 Indianola
3rd Place: 451 Park Overlook

Most Lit
426 Selby North

Most Original
435 Selby North

Most Artistic
363 Loveman

Best Retro
276 Park

Honorable Mention (Best Blow-Up)
287 Loveman

Best Overall
1st Place: 426 Selby North
2nd Place: 71 Southington
3rd Place: 143 Lakeridge

Thanks everyone for your participation and hard work to get your homes looking good. And thanks to Kelly Jaeger for recruiting judges and coordinating the awards. Signs are being posted on a rolling basis and pictures will be posted here soon.

Happy holidays Colonial Hills!

Turnout was outstanding for our Luminary Kit Assembly and Holiday Party this past weekend– thanks to everyone who helped! Participation for the luminary kit assembly was particularly noteworthy- what took 3 people over 8 hours to do in 2014 was accomplished by 20+ people in under an hour this year. Many hands make light work! Plus it’s a great experience for us to work together with our neighbors to make Colonial Hills truly “The Friendly Community” in action as well as in spirit. Special thanks to Will Pearce for coordinating luminary assembly year after year and making it a success. If you haven’t already received your luminary kit, it should be arriving on your porch soon via your trustee.

This upcoming Sunday evening, December 13 at 7pm, will be our Luminary Night as well as judging for the Holiday Home Decorating Contest. Be sure to set up & light your luminaries at 7pm, turn on all your outside decorations, turn off your porchlights and other non-holiday lights, and then wander the neighborhood and enjoy the festive spirit! If possible, please do not leave any vehicles parked in the streets between 7-9pm so that people can fully enjoy the sights. There will also be hot cocoa at the Selby Shelterhouse starting at 7pm for a casual holiday gathering.

Happy Holidays!

As reported by Realtor.com, Colonial Hills is in the 2nd “hottest” ZIP code in the US for the first half of 2015! A few highlights from the article, which was re-reported by a number of news agencies:

• “Homes in these top 10 communities sell four to nine times faster than the national average, and spend 20 fewer days on the market than their respective metropolitan statistical areas. Their listings on our site are viewed three to eight times more often than overall U.S. listings—an average of 2.3 times more often than their respective metros.”
• “‘Each locale on this list is emblematic of the key trends driving housing this year—healthy local economics, job opportunities, and affordability,’ said Jonathan Smoke, chief economist of realtor.com®. ‘For first-time home buyers, these communities provide great opportunities to enter the housing market, build a career, and raise a family; older generations are able to build wealth and enjoy a variety of lifestyles.'”

Read the entire article here: http://www.realtor.com/news/trends/top-10-hottest-zip-codes-in-america/.

Looking good Colonial Hills!

Congratulations runners on a great Colonial Hills 36th Annual Run Through the Hills 5k this past Saturday! Results are now available for Juniors (19 & under) and Adults (20 & over) (note that posted ages are rounded down to be the lowest for the age group– you’re welcome!). Overall results for all runners is here.

Thanks to our presenting sponsors for helping make the race a great success: Columbus State Community College Center for Workforce Development, Worthington Community Center, Road ID, and The CyMack Group! And as always in recent years, thanks to Jeff Spain, Courtney Jolley, and the rest of their volunteers for putting together a great event. Hope to see you again for next year’s race!

Our 4th of July extravaganza is this Saturday! The lineup of events includes:

• 8:30am: 36th annual “Run Through the Hills” 5k – check-in and day-of registration 7:30-8:15
• 10:00am: Spirit Parade – children ride their decorated bikes, trikes, strollers, etc around the park; awards for best decorations!
• 10:00am – 1:00pm: Festival! Live music includes Colonial Hills’s own musical talents: Arnett Howard, Tyler Moore, and Matt Steidle. Also there will be midway games, bounce houses, and concessions. Tickets for bounce-houses and games are 25 cents each; “all-play” bracelets are $5

Volunteers needed! Sign-up online to volunteer: www.SignUpGenius.com/go/10C0F4DA4AC2DAAF58-4thofjuly/

Looking forward to seeing you there!

This year’s Colonial Hills Neighborhood Garage Sale is Saturday, June 20, 2015, 9am-2pm. All are invited to participate! If you plan to participate as a seller, please contact Rachael Dorothy via facebook or at rachaeldorothy@gmail.com. Rachael is creating a master list of addresses to publicize the event, and also distributing “garage sale care packages” (care of CyMack) to anyone hosting a sale.

Remember, if you are hosting a garage sale for this event (or at any time), it is necessary to request a permit from the City of Worthington at least 7 days in advance and pay a $5 fee. More at the City Clerk website at http://www.worthington.org/index.aspx?NID=468#.

Invite everyone you know to come shop the Colonial Hills Neighborhood Garage Sale on June 20, and help make our event a success!

Attention all High School Seniors living in Colonial Hills: the CHCA is offering post-high school scholarships. Applications can be found at CHCA Educational Scholarship 2015 Application (MS Word) and CHCA Educational Scholarship 2015 Application (PDF).

Any graduating senior is eligible, and scholarship money can be used for all types of educational programs beyond high school (e.g. college, vocational school/training, technical, business institute, etc).

Applications (with transcripts) are due April 10, 2015 (if mailed, postmarked by April 8). Please see application forms (links above) for more info and application form.

For any questions, please contact Jenny Kendall parrothead614@yahoo.com or Doug Knight  dougknight314@gmail.com.

Best of luck to each of you!

Hope that everyone had a great summer, and that your fall/autumn is going well! This is the time of year when our neighborhood events calendar starts to heat up again. Here are the upcoming Colonial Hills events:

• Sunday, Oct 26 @3:00 pm: Halloween Party! (Selby shelterhouse)
• Friday, Oct 31 @6:00 pm: Beggars’ night (door-to-door)
• Tuesday, Nov 11 @7:30 pm: Monthly CHCA meeting (Selby). CHCA officer elections!
• Saturday, Nov 15 @9:00 am: Food Drive

…and then we get to December and holiday and end-of-year events. See the “Fall 2014” edition of the Courier for more info.

Also, if you’re new to the neighborhood, we do have regular curbside leaf pickup. See the Leaf Collection page of worthington.org for more about that.

Look forward to seeing you at one or more of the above!