The Colonial Hills Civic Association

The I Am Boundless organization, along with Neighborhood Design Center, will host an open house in Building M of the Boundless campus, on Tuesday, January 22, 2019, from 6:30 PM to 7:30 PM, 445 E Granville Rd, Worthington.

For some background, please see the “Step By Step Academy Update,” 3/15/2018, blog post below (you can enter Step by Step or Boundless into the Search box, top right hand corner, to get to this blog post).

The CHCA has posted the invitation information to our Twitter feed (@CivicHills), and our Facebook page has their Facebook invitation, which includes details about the event (including the location of Building M on their campus map, north of Park Overlook), as follows:

Meet the consultant team and representatives from Boundless at an Open House to learn about:

• The Boundless Mission
• Harding Hospital site history
• Site and building evaluation
• Campus Master Plan options

Light refreshments will be provided.

We hope each and every one of you enjoyed the holiday season with friends and family as well as enjoyed the neighborhood events that occurred in December including our spectacular luminary display and holiday party. Many thanks to the leaders of these events as well as the participants!

We have a few Colonial Hills Civic Association (CHCA) updates to share. At the time of this being posted, we are in process of identifying a CHCA President, VP/Events, VP/Communications and other supportive positions. We are so fortunate to have had many express interest in supporting the CHCA in 2019 and we are working with these parties to align their interests/passion/talent with needs within the CHCA.

We are indebted to Ken Paul, the CHCA president in 2017 and 2018 for all he has done – and will continue to do to support our thriving neighborhood. Hats off to Ken for all you do for our community!

The existing CHCA officers and volunteers will continue to chug along to attempt to fulfill the annual events hosted by the CHCA (see the blog post below). One change – we are only able to publish four Couriers this year. Two will be mailed and two will be delivered by our talented trustees. We encourage all to join our neighborhood Facebook page and/or Twitter to stay abreast of events and Colonial Hills applicable items.

Here’s to a great 2019, Colonial Hills!!!

The Colonial Hills Civic Association (CHCA) Calendar of Events has been updated for 2019. Scroll down the list in “Upcoming Events” (in the right-hand column), and click on the event’s name, to get details such as when and where.

Also, you can print out a month by month Google calendar with the CHCA events marked on it. Click on the “Calendar” tab (above) to get the current month’s calendar, and then click on the Print (my calendar) icon. In the “Calendar Print Preview” screen (and any additional Print screens your computer gives you), it is recommended that you print using the Landscape orientation. Also check the “black and white” box for better visibility, as some of the colors might not print optimally on your printer.

And speaking of calendars and events – make sure that you look for your Colonial Hills 2019 Calendar of Events magnet included with the next Courier which you will be receiving in the mail within a few weeks. The article on page 1 in this Courier will thank both the sponsor of the magnet and our printer, who have combined to prepare this magnet for us at no charge to the CHCA!

We certainly are a creative neighborhood! Our judges were impressed with the variety of our homes’ holiday decorating. Some homes are charming, sweet, nostalgic, fun or downright amazing – like the high star on Park Blvd, which our judges loved, but it defied category. Hmmm…. Thinking cap on…….

It was a clear, cold night for judging, and we (our judges’ helpers/photographers) were thrilled to see an adorable red fox emerge from the brush at the corner of Park Overlook and Indianola – It ran down Indianola on swift little feet and hid behind some bushes before I could snap a good photo.

If we were recognizing blocks, the judges’ favorites were the 200 block of Loveman and the 200 block of Colonial. But every street in the neighborhood had some lovely displays, so be sure to walk around after dusk and enjoy the splendor!

Here is the list of this year’s Holiday Decorating winners:

• Best Retro: 5731 Foster – Homage to the Grinch and the old fashioned Santas are charming!
• Most Artistic: 559 Colonial – Santa Dragons bearing gifts – 3 dragons! What fun!!
• Most Lit Up: 287 Loveman – A perennial favorite with a mix of lights and BIG blow ups!
• Best Front Door #3: 5630 Indianola – Red and Green Lights and Arrow
• Best Front Door #2: 542 Park Blvd – Bright and Merry – We loved the lit up Fox; it was a sign….
• Best Front Door #1: 563 Meadoway – A lit Christmas Tree with presents, and candy cane striped columns
• Best Overall #3: 385 Park – Geese, Angels, White Star, sweet items on the porch….. Lovely
• Best Overall #2: 290 Colonial – A classic! House outlined with lights, Santa’s sleigh, Tree, Wreath
• Best Overall #1: 272 Colonial – Tree Shopping with Poppa Bear…. Awwwww.. so very adorable

Congratulations to the winners and to everyone who made our neighborhood sparkle for the holidays!

The ghostly full moon shone overhead as our fearless judges’ helpers crept though the streets and yards of our frightening neighborhood, snapping photos and taking video for our esteemed judges. Witch’s hats off to all of you who made this event fun and difficult to judge!

Colonial Hills is full of graveyards, skeletons, bats and ghosts…….. and a few surprises! The demonic delights included Ghosts playing “Ring Around the Rosie” on Kenbrook, a dragon on the 500 block of Colonial, cemeteries at 283 and 291 Kenbrook, and bats on the windows in the 100 block of Loveman. Hauntingly charming were the cornucopia at 175 Loveman, and the lovely lighting with spiders and Peeking Tom skeleton at 5644 Indianola.

It was really hard to find and see your addresses sometimes, so I am sorry that some are missing. Neighbors: Take a walk at dusk and enjoy all the decorating! Don’t miss the 200-300 block of Loveman, which is fabulous. Huge Black Cat and graveyard at 287 Loveman, A pirate Themed house at 322 Loveman and a Big Wing Waving Dragon at 306 Loveman. Wow!!

This year we recognize:

Spookiest: 363 Loveman with its truly creepy graveyard and huge bat. Spook house too!!

Friendliest: 5684 Indianola – Our judges loved the family of grinning Jack-o-lanterns

Most Creative: 244 Colonial with the O-H-I-O ghosts, graveyard and LOTS of hanging Jack-o-lanterns

Best Effects: 570 Kenbrook with its Ghostbusters theme, purple lighting, Hologram ghosts in the windows and a big Stay-Puft marshmallow man!

Best Activity: The haunted trail at 418 Park Overlook – Fun and screamin’ scary. Don’t miss this on Halloween – weather permitting

Our judges wished that they had a few more categories to award. Hmmmm….we will think about that.

Enjoy the season…. The leaves are finally turning.

On 9/11/2018 the CHCA joined the “Twitterverse.” The Civic Association will curate our user account @CivicHills to try to communicate major issues and events on Twitter. We will select, link and edit such news items from our other CHCA communication platforms Facebook, the Courier and the website.

This means that even though you may not be a member of our CHCA Facebook community, but you are on Twitter, you would then be able to receive our most important news items in a timely manner. Just be aware that we will not be tweeting items such as the daily lost dog and kitty, found backpack or homeowner service questions and recommendations, as there’s just too many of these – that would be a fulltime job, and we’re just volunteers!

Please feel free to follow us on Twitter at: Colonial Hills Civic Association @CivicHills

Not sure what goes in your curbside recycling bin? You’re not alone. For her Girl Scout Silver Award Project, Colonial Hills resident Andrea Nadolny has partnered with the City of Worthington to create a Residential Recycling Guide.

Look for her Recycling Guide in the next issue of the CHCA Courier, or download a copy of the flyer here in PDF format or here in JPEG image format.

Andrea has also created a Facebook page to share her project called Worthington Residential Recycling – A Girl Scout Silver Award Project.

Congratulations to everyone who participated in the 39th Annual Run Through The Hills this year – results are in! Click on the links below to view:

• Results by age group
• Overall Results

Big thanks to Courtney Jolley and Jeff Spain for organizing the race (again!) this year. And a huge thank you to Jenny Kendall for coordinating everything for the Independence Day celebration later that day, and to all the volunteers who helped. It was *HOT* out, but we had a ton of people attend and everyone seemed to be having a great time.

Enjoy the rest of your summer, and maybe think about helping out with the CHCA events coming this fall: Halloween party (Oct 27), Food Drive (Nov 17), and Luminary Kit Preparation (Dec 8).

Time to register for the 39th annual Run Through the Hills 5k! The 5k run takes place on Wednesday, July 4, 2018, at Selby Park.

Race registration is OPEN, so register now!

Pre-registration is open now through July 2. Check-in starts on the day of the race at 7:30am, with the race starting promptly at 8:30am. Pre-registration cost is $25 for adults, $20 for children/students 19 and under (pre-registration ends July 2). Day-of registration is $30 for all. Registration includes an athletic shirt (for 1st 150 registrants), race bib with embedded chip for timing, awards, refreshments, and a great time running through the hilly tree-lined streets of Colonial Hills neighborhood (race map here). 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).

Following the 5k run, Colonial Hills Independence Day Extravaganza will continue, with bounce-houses, midway games, music, and food 10am-1pm.

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

Firefighters from the Worthington Division of Fire & EMS are going door-to-door in the Colonial Hills neighborhood to ensure every household has a working smoke detector. The Division of Fire is partnering with the American Red Cross on its “Sound the Alarm” program to distribute and install smoke detectors on Saturday, April 21st between 10am and 1pm. They plan to distribute 400 smoke detectors to the homes bordering on Park Blvd. to the north and Selby Blvd. to the south. If you are not home when the firefighters knock on your door, and are in need of a working smoke detector, you can still participate by calling the Worthington Division of Fire at 614-885-7640.