It’s almost time to Take to the Lower Shaker Lake: Press Run

The Friends of Heights Parks will conduct a walk through Forest Hills Park Aug. 19 with Elsa Johnson, shown here. Read more about it below. (Photo Courtesy of Friends of Heights Parks)

SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio -- The Doan Brook Watershed Partnership will host its 10th annual Take to the Lake event from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Aug. 26. Take to the Lake is a day of paddling, guided hikes, yoga and live music along the banks of historic Lower Shaker Lake.

Canoeing on the Shaker Lakes used to be a popular pastime in the first half of the 20th century, but public boating is no longer promoted on the lakes. Take to the Lake, however, gives participants a chance to resurrect this recreational opportunity for a day and to gain a different perspective on the lakes and their place within the watershed community.

For first-time paddlers, Cleveland Metroparks Youth Outdoors will offer kayak and canoe lessons open to everyone who is at least 8 years old and weighs at least 50 pounds. The lessons are a good opportunity to learn the basics of paddling while also enjoying quality time on the lake.

Lesson costs are $15 for adults and $5 for kids ages 8-15. Class times and registration are available at doanbrookpartnership.org.

Breakaway Excursions will be offering kayak rentals from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the day of the event. The price for a kayak rental is $20 per paddler for one hour and does not include a lesson. This is an option for experienced paddlers or anyone who wants to be able to spend more time on the lake.

Registration and payment are available at doanbrookpartnership.org.

Both the rentals and skills classes include all equipment and life jackets.

Anyone who owns a kayak, canoe or stand-up paddle board is free to bring it to the event and launch from the shore. However, anyone taking advantage of this opportunity must ensure that all members of their party have life jackets and that all children have adult supervision on the lake.

In addition to boating, the event will also host onshore activities that include:

-- Free Nature and Shaker Lakes History Hikes. Nature Hike is at 10 a.m. and History Hike is at 3 p.m.

-- Luna Presence will offer a yoga class at 11 a.m. Fee is $10.

-- SpYder Stompers and Sugar Pie will perform live bluegrass music.

Lower Shaker Lake is located off South Park Boulevard, east of Coventry Road in Shaker Heights. Street parking is available along South Park.

Registration and payment information for classes, hike and yoga are available at doanbrookpartnership.org. Registrants can also contact Greg at 216-325-7781, extension 6782, or [email protected].

Take to the Lake is sponsored by the Doan Brook Watershed Partnership, with support from the City of Shaker Heights, Cleveland Metroparks Youth Outdoors, Cuyahoga Arts and Culture, the Nature Center at Shaker Lakes, the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District and DBWP volunteers.

Healthcare job opportunities for young people: The Cleveland Clinic has received a gift of more than $12 million from The Howley Foundation to double the number of its nurse scholars, beginning this fall.

In recognition of this gift and the foundation’s cumulative support, all programs within the ASPIRE initiative at Cleveland Clinic will be rebranded to honor the Howley name, including the Howley ASPIRE Nurse Scholars Program.

The nursing program is for local high school and college students and seeks to increase diversity in health care, address opportunity gaps and reduce health disparities in the community.

“It’s essential that we diversify the pipeline of our future healthcare workforce, including nurses, to better represent our patients and the communities we serve,” Cleveland Clinic CEO and President Dr. Tom Mihaljevic said in a news release.

“We are grateful for the Howleys’ continued support and passion for increasing diversity and equity in our next generation of caregivers.”

The Howley ASPIRE Program also offers additional pathways for other healthcare careers, including respiratory therapy, surgical technology and sterile processing.

Cleveland Clinic is accepting nurse scholar applications from high school juniors through Oct. 1. To learn more and apply online, visit clevelandclinic.org/ASPIRE.

Also, Cleveland Clinic announced that it has been named among top employers on the Forbes 2023 of America’s Best Employers for Women list.

Cleveland Clinic ranked number 116 of 400 U.S. corporations across all industries and number 26 in the healthcare and social sector.

Lifelong Learning Showcase: Case Western Reserve University’s Siegal Lifelong Learning will hold its second annual showcase, which will feature five 10-minute lectures by prestigious faculty on a variety of fascinating topics.

The program will be held at 7 p.m. Aug. 30 at CWRU’s Beachwood location, in the Landmark Centre Building, 25700 Science Park Drive, Suite 100. The cost of $5 per person includes a dessert reception.

The lectures are as follows:

-- “Raphael Soyer’s Dancing Lesson and Jewish American Art,” with Samantha Baskind, professor of art history at Cleveland State University

-- “ChatGPT and the Future of Programming: Is There Still Value in Bootcamps and Becoming an Entry Level Programmer?” with CWRU professor Harold Connamacher

-- “Selling the Old World to the New World: Joseph Duveen and the Transformation of the Art Market in the Early Twentieth Century,” with Catherine Scallen, CWRU’s Andrew W. Mellon Professor Emerita in the Humanities

-- “The Amazing Expanding Universe,” with Glenn Starkman, distinguished university professor and co-chair of the CWRU Department of Physics

-- “The Role of Lifelong Learning in the Global Educational Stage,” with Paul Zeleza, associate provost and North Star Distinguished Professor in the College of Arts and Sciences and visiting professor for Siegal Lifelong Learning and Cleveland College.

For information and registration, visit case.edu/lifelonglearning/lectures/second-annual-siegal-showcase-person.

A walk in Forest Hills Park: You are invited to join the Friends of Heights Park at 10 a.m. Aug. 19 for a walk in Forest Hills Park with Elsa Johnson.

Forest Hill Park, 2370 Lee Blvd., was created in 1936 in the Dugway Brook watershed. It spans Cleveland Heights and East Cleveland.

Forest Hill is a 248-acre, topographically varied park of level upland meadows and oak woodlands, contrasting with steep, shaley, beech-studded hillsides overlooking valleys through which two branches of Dugway Brook flow.

While the park includes facilities for recreational sports such as baseball and tennis, the greater part is natural. This is the portion of the park to be explored during the walk.

Johnson is a longtime volunteer in the park, as well as a landscape designer, poet and artist.

Library to host Shaker book author: Washington Post reporter and Shaker Heights High School graduate Laura Meckler will discuss her new book, “Dream Town: Shaker Heights and the Quest for Racial Equity,” with Paul Mason, a member of the first Black family to move into the Shaker Heights City School District.

Books will be available for sale and signing. You can also pre-order a copy from Loganberry Books.

The discussion will take place from 2 to 4 p.m. Aug. 26 at the Shaker Heights Main Library, 16500 Van Aken Blvd. Interested parties can attend in person or online. To register, visit here.

Also, the Shaker Library will host “Shaker Talks Social Media” from 2:30 to 4 p.m. Aug. 12 in its Boulevard Room. All are invited to take part in a community conversation about emerging social media platforms and how they affect our lives. You can register here.

16th annual MusicFest at Cain Park: The 16th annual Multi MusicFest is coming to Cain Park in Cleveland Heights Sept. 9. You can get your tickets now while the choicest seats are still available, as the festival has always sold out in the past.

The festival will feature four major headliners -- Stanley Clarke, Bob James, Maysa and Hubb’s Groove, featuring “The Reason Why Reunion Band.”

The festival is an annual benefit for the MC Chatman Center for Humanitarian Services, a nonprofit organization that provides inner-city programs including child care, helping hands programs (food pantry and clothing giveaways), scholarships and school supplies, an annual health workshop and an annual march against violence.

For tickets, at $65 to $105, visit here.

Jewish Federations’ Mandel Myers Fellows: The Jewish Federation of Cleveland has announced the 2023 class of Mandel Myers Fellows who are working as staff at select Jewish overnight summer camps.

The Mandel Myers Fellowship Program is funded by three-year grants of $1.8 million from the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Supporting Foundation and a grant of $450,000 from the David and Inez Myers Foundation.

The program was established in 2022. It enables Jewish overnight camps to attract and retain high-caliber staff, helps students from Cleveland offset the costs associated with attending a four-year accredited university and adds professional development experience to the camp counselor role to make it more competitive with other internship opportunities.

Returning overnight camp counselors will receive a scholarship of $5,500. First-time overnight camp counselors will receive a scholarship of $4,500.

“This program is an amazing opportunity for me as a leader, as a counselor, as a staff head and as a member in the Jewish community who is also hoping to work in Jewish education and give back,” Camp Stone counselor and Yeshiva University student Yedidya Blau said in a news release.

“Being part of this fellowship has given me a lot of useful tools in terms of what are my goals going to be for this summer, what are my interactions with campers and staff and with the broader camp community. It has made me a better counselor and a better division head.”

New this year -- in addition to receiving a scholarship -- participants are matched with one of 10 camp staff alumni who live in Cleveland and are professionals in different career areas. Throughout the three learning workshops for the fellowship, the alumni professionals will be present and lead a session with their groups.

The Mandel Myers Fellowship Program is a program of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland and operates in partnership with the Jewish Family Service Association and the Foundation for Jewish Camp.

For more information, contact Leah Taylor at [email protected] or 216-593-2853.

Cleveland Heights Fun Run is Oct. 1: The City of Cleveland Heights and Cleveland Heights merchants invite you to participate in the eighth annual Happy 10k, 5k & 1-Mile Fun Run Oct. 1.

The chip-timed road-running event will take participants through the best of Cleveland Heights, including the Lee Road and Coventry merchant districts.

Flat and fast with plenty of crowd support along the way, the event supports the Cleveland Heights Youth Scholarship Fund.

This run is open to all ages and abilities, as well as to competitive runners. Dress up for your run and you’ll automatically be entered into the happiest costume contest around.

Dogs and strollers are welcome. To register, visit here.

Book discussion in Shaker: The topic of the next Women’s Guild Book Discussion at East View United Church of Christ will be “The House of Eve,” a novel by Sadeqa Johnson.

The discussion will take place from noon to 1 p.m. Aug. 26 at the church, 17300 Van Aken Blvd. in Shaker Heights.

The critically acclaimed historical novel is set during the 1950s in Philadelphia and Howard University in Washington D.C.

Johnson’s book explores what it means to be a woman and a mother, and how much one is willing to sacrifice to achieve her greatest goal.

The novel has been on the New York Times Best Sellers’ List and was a pick for Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club.

The discussion is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served. Feel free to invite a friend.

If you have an item you would like to see included in Press Run, send me an email, at least 14 days prior to an event, at [email protected].