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When she was in college, Alecia Lipton’s goal was to knock news anchor Connie Chung off the air by the age of 40. Lipton, 44, instead turned her investigative sights toward a career in health care. After a 20-year career at nursing home facilities, she became Hoxworth Blood Center’s community relations manager five years ago.

We caught up with the busy Mason wife and mom of a blended family of seven children to talk about her work with the organization, which celebrates its 75th anniversary this year.

QUESTION: What are your current projects?

ANSWER: We launched our Hoxworth Plus points system in February. It’s an online system where you can manage your appointments online. You can also see where your blood was used, such as Mercy Hospital or Children’s Hospital. For every donation you give, you can accrue a number of points. You can save those up and redeem those for something big, like a $50 gift certificate to Montgomery Inn, or a $10 gift certificate to Skyline. It’s our way of saying, “Thank you.”

Q: Where does the blood go?

A: We supply blood to 31 area hospitals in 17 counties, and we’re the only supplier of blood to those hospitals. Children’s Hospital is our largest user right now, because of all the phenomenal procedures and treatments they can do there. We need at least 350 individual blood donors and 35 platelet donors (per day) just to maintain the need. That’s not taking into consideration an emergency or crisis that might happen. The weather, flu season – we have a lot of challenges we really can’t control.

Q: What blood type is needed most?

A: I’m asked that question a lot and I always tell everybody, the rarest blood type is the one that’s not on the shelf when you or a family member needs it the most. We really need everybody to donate. At any given time, 37 percent of the population is eligible to donate blood, but only 7 percent do. If we could get everybody who is eligible to donate at least once a year, we would never have to deal with a blood shortage.

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Posted in: Community, News |

Tags: Tags: alecia lipton, blood donation, community relations manager, donate blood, hoxworth blood center, mason

Cathy Nadaud always hoped to one day meet the anonymous bone marrow donor who helped her beat back leukemia.

She didn’t know that chance would come Friday evening.

The Jewish Hospital arranged a surprise reunion for Nadaud with her Pittsburgh donor, Nina Cordelli, at the organization’s annual Partners in Hope Reunion in Mason.

Cathy Nadaud from Springdale reacts after meeting Nina Cordelli, a Pittsburgh nurse who donated bone marrow to Cathy. (Photo by Tony Tribble)

Fighting back tears, Cordelli told the audience of 350 how she joined the National Bone Marrow Donor registry in 2011 when she helped coordinate a drive while in nursing school.

“The statistic they gave me was that there was a less than one percent chance I would ever be matched with anybody who needed a transplant,” said Cordelli, now 23. “I never in my wildest dreams thought that I would have been (matched).”

The call came eight months later. Cordelli was a near perfect match for a 60-year-old Springdale grandmother and teacher with acute myeloid leukemia. A bone marrow transplant, she was told, was the woman’s only chance for survival.

“I felt there was just no possible way I could say no to this opportunity to potentially save someone else’s life,” said Cordelli.

As Cordelli spoke, Nadaud sat in the audience, slowing recognizing herself. By the time Cordelli finished, there was no need to call her forward by name — she knew she was the one.

For Nadaud, the emotional reunion marked the culmination of a battle that began in 2008 when she was first diagnosed with leukemia.

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Tags: Tags: bone marrow, cancer, cathy nadaud, donor, jewish hospital, leukemia, manor house, mason, nina cordelli, partners in hope reunion, pittsburgh, reunion, springdale

Cliff Turrell won Mason’s calendar photo contest in 2012 with his photo “Proud of our Heritage and Town.” Provided

Wednesday is the deadline to enter the City of Mason’s annual calendar photo contest.

Photos must have been taken in Mason city limits in 2012 or later.  Entry forms are available online at www.imaginemason.org/things-to-do.  Digital entries are preferred and can be e-mailed with entries to PIO@masonoh.org.

Professionally printed or digital entries may also be mailed or dropped off to the Mason Municipal Center, attn. Calendar Photo Contest, at 6000 Mason-Montgomery Road, Mason, Ohio 45040.

Contest winners will be selected in May.  The calendar will be available for purchase by the time of the Heritage Festival in August.

Posted in: Community, News |

Tags: Tags: calendar, city of mason, deadline, heritage festival, mason, photo contest

Joshua S. Noel of Mason graduated this month from the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office Basic Corrections Academy.

Noel (pictured top row, third from right) is among 29 graduates in the class, which held its graduation May 2 at Memorial Hall.

The class is the first Corrections Academy class since Sheriff Jim Neil took office last fall.

Posted in: Community, News |

Tags: Tags: basic corrections academy, graduation, hamilton county sheriff's office, joshua noel, joshua s. noel

Daniel and Forrest Theiss wanted to fight for their country.

Daniel dreamed of becoming an airborne medic in the U.S. Army. Forrest enlisted with the U.S. Marines.

Instead, the 18-year-old identical twins are fighting for their lives after being diagnosed with a genetic condition – so rare it doesn’t even have a name – that causes blood vessels in their body to rip and shred.

Daniel and Forrest Theiss. Provided

In the past year and a half, the once healthy and active Mason teens have each undergone multiple surgeries to repair aortas shredded like wet tissue paper. Complications during a surgery in January – Daniel’s third major operation – left him a paraplegic.

For the brothers and their parents, Matt and stepmom Kathy, the journey has been both heartbreaking and harrowing, but also inspiring – a lesson about finding joy in adversity and of the transformational power of family and community.

At first glance, it’s hard to tell Daniel and Forrest apart.

Sharing a 98 percent genetic match, both have the same tall, lanky build, aquiline nose and doleful brown eyes. Even their voices – and their infectious sense of humor – are nearly indistinguishable

The differences, they will tell you, are in the details.

Daniel, the older brother by five minutes, is practical and patient. Forrest, the entertainer, embraces the limelight, while Daniel, the quiet artist, prefers to remain behind-the-scenes.

When Matt’s job as a business analyst moved the family from Long Island, N.Y., to Mason the summer before their senior year in 2011, the boys quickly found their groove at Mason High School.

Daniel joined the cross country team. Forrest tried out for the school musical. Despite a bout of pneumonia that fall that sidelined Daniel, there was little sign of what was to come.

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Tags: Tags: acta2, aortic dissection, cleveland clinic, coddington reserve, daniel theiss, forrest theiss, fundraiser, genetic mutation, genetics, health, mason, mason high school, surgery

Dave Anderson, a 2012 Sam Adams Longshot contest winner, at a brunch in Denver, Colo. Friday, Oct. 12, 2012. (Jack Dempsey for Sam Adams)

Talk about a long shot.

Dave Anderson had only brewed one batch of beer in his life. But that didn’t stop the ambitious Mason man from entering — and winning — the Samuel Adams’ annual Longshot American Homebrew contest.

Anderson’s Strawberry Lager brew hit shelves nationwide in late April as part of a special Samuel Adams’ six-pack that includes two other winning brews. What’s more, the bottles’ label features an artist’s rendering of Anderson’s mug.

“I’m still shocked. I can’t believe it,” said Anderson. “I consider myself a rookie. I didn’t expect it to go this far at all.”

Each year the Boston-based brewery selects beers made by two homebrewers and one employee homebrewer. Anderson’s entry beat out more than 300 other submissions in the contest’s employee category.

His beer will be packaged along with two other winning brews, Magnificent Seven, an imperial India pale ale by Zack Adams of Connecticut, and Beerflower Wheat, a brew made with hibiscus by James Schirmer of California.

Anderson says he had no experience brewing beer until he began working at Samuel Adams’ downtown-packaging operations plant five years ago. Although Samuel Adams encourages employees to enter the contest, Anderson is the first person from the 120-employee plant to win, he said.

“My coworkers asked me if I had any left,” he said with a laugh.

Anderson brewed up his first batch two years ago in his home kitchen, a chocolate bock.

“It didn’t come out very chocolatey at all,” he said. “It was a good beer, it just didn’t taste the way I wanted it.”

In his second batch, Anderson used three pounds of strawberries in his five gallon concoction.

Photo provided

The entire process took more than a month during which the carboy (a fermentation container) took up half of the refrigerator. Anderson says wife Sarah wasn’t a big fan of his new hobby — at first.

“She hated it. She wanted to throw it out,” he said with a laugh. “After I started winning different rounds in the competition, she was okay with it.”

Anderson said he was shocked by his second attempt. The light and fresh wheat beer has a strong strawberry aroma, but not too overpowering berry flavor, he said.

A panel of industry judges and Samuel Adams’ founder Jim Koch selected three finalists in each contest division for a final showdown at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Colo. last fall, where crowds crowned the craft champion.

Anderson says he and his wife received a “once in a lifetime” trip to Oktoberfest in Germany as his prize.

Entries for this year’s contest are accepted May 10-24 at www.samueladams.com/longshot. Anderson hopes to retain his title with a new brew, a Belgian chocolate quad with bananas.

His advice to aspiring homebrewers? “Try to make whatever you think will taste good and make it. You’ll be surprised,” he said.

You can find the 2013 Samuel Adams LongShot American Homebrew Contest six-pack at local stores, including Party Source in Bellevue.

Posted in: Business, Community, News |

Tags: Tags: beer, dave anderson, great american beer festival, jim koch, longshot american homebrew contest, sam adams, samuel adams, strawberry lager

Each year, The Enquirer recognizes a select group of area women for their contributions to our community through its Women of the Year program.  The Enquirer honors its 2012 Women of the Year class today at a luncheon at the Hyatt Regency.

Ruby Crawford-Hemphill earned the nickname “Cassius Clay” in the ninth grade after she stood up to bullies tormenting a classmate.

It’s a fighting spirit the Mason nurse would carry with her all her life as she works to care for women, children and the indigent.

Born the oldest daughter of a working class family of six, Crawford-Hemphill was used to being a caretaker. So when the prom queen and drill team captain earned a full college scholarship, she knew she wanted to become a nurse.

As the assistant chief nursing officer of the Women’s Health Center at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, Crawford-Hemphill has been instrumental in expanding the hospital’s medical services to 13 community-based health centers across Greater Cincinnati.

She’s a charter member of Queen City Links, which she helped found eight years ago to improve the quality of life in Lincoln Heights, and helped launch the Women’s Health Fund, which has improved access to underserved women and their children.

She also serves on the boards for the Center for Respite Care, a 14-bed facility that provides medical care to homeless people recuperating from illness, and Every Child Succeeds, an organization that helps first-time, at-risk mothers provide an optimal start for their children.

Crawford-Hemphill is active with Delta Sigma Theta, a philanthropic group of professional women, and Bridges for a Just Community.

She also mentors at-risk girls through Rise Sister Rise.

“Ruby has a determination and fire in her belly that drives her to help our community,” said Nancy Barone, chief operating officer of University Hospital. “Her motivation is infectious and it is truly her life mission to help those in need.”

More about Ruby

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Tags: Tags: assistant chief nursing officer, babies, charity, children, enquirer women of the year, mason, nurse, philanthropy, ruby crafword-hemphill, university hospital, university of cincinnati medical center, volunteer, volunteerism, women, women of the year, women's health center

United Way of Warren County has named Margaret Hess and John Lazares to its board of directors.

Hess served as superintendent of the Warren County Career Center.  Lazares is superintendent of Warren County Educational Service.

“Margaret and John’s record of helping children and families throughout Warren County is phenomenal,” said Executive Director Aaron Reid.  “They are a perfect match for helping our local United Way continue to grow and impact lives every day.”

The nonprofit organization supports 53 charitable organizations in Warren County.  Information: www.warrencountyunitedway.org.

Posted in: Community, News |

Tags: Tags: board of directors, john lazares, margaret hess, united way of warren county

Marissa Kruthaup, 22, plants vegetables in their High Tunnel on The Kruthaup Family Farm in Morrow. Her father, Ken, is at left. The Enquirer/ Liz Dufour

John Faherty reports:

Any person who grows one, or anyone who wants to eat one, knows that the wait for a good, juicy, locally grown tomato can feel interminable around here.

The soil is willing, but the weather will not cooperate. The winter lingers, the spring takes awhile to begin and tomato plants typically cannot go into the ground until May. The tomatoes themselves are not ready to be pulled from the vine until sometime around the Fourth of July.

But no solution has been forthcoming. After all, there’s nothing to be done about the weather.

• Photos: Building a better tomato, earlier

Unless, that is, you are a farmer willing to listen to your then 21-year-old daughter who is studying agriculture at the University of Kentucky and has this crazy idea that her dad might want to think about.

That is exactly what happened in Warren County, where a family farm was inspired to be more sustainable and more profitable. This old farm is now using new principles to make more tomatoes. The idea increases sustainability by extending the growing season and allowing people to eat locally more often.

In short, it means fresh tomatoes sooner, and planting in stages, allowing for a longer stretch of perfectly ripe produce. It works on the farm and it can work in the backyard.

A high tunnel, sometimes called a hoop house, is essentially a greenhouse set over a bed in a field. That last distinction is important. A high tunnel is different from a greenhouse because the high tunnel means the plants go directly into the ground.

These are simple structures covered in plastic. The plants are heated by the sun and protected from the wind. Tomato plants like them so much they yield ripe fruit in early June, four to five weeks earlier than normal.

Marissa Kruthaup is the agriculture major, now a senior graduating a few weeks, who brought the idea from the classroom to her father’s Morrow farm two years ago.

It was, she said, a little nerve-racking.

Eight acres on the family’s 75-acre farm are used to grow produce. Farmers, like Marissa’s dad, are often reluctant to change the way they do things – and for good reason. Farming practices are tried over time and crops only come once a year.

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Tags: Tags: farm, ken kruthaup, kruthaup family farm, marissa kruthaup, morrow, tomato, warren county

This planned development concept submitted to the city of Mason by Crossroads shows site and landscaping renovations to be done to the property at 990 Reading Road. The Oakley-based church plans to open its Mason branch in August 2014. Photo provided

Expansion of a Crossroads church in Mason can move forward now that the purchase of an industrial building was finalized last month.

Crossroads purchased the property at 990 Reading Road for about $1.4 million March 15, according to the Warren County auditor’s website.

The newest location of the interdenominational mega-church will serve its rapidly growing congregation in Butler and Warren counties.

• Deal expected to bring Crossroads to Mason

The church expects to spend about $16 million renovating the 129,000-square-foot building and site formerly occupied by International paper, which owned the property but closed in 2008, said Chuck Moore, Crossroads’ director of multi-site.

Construction plans are not yet finalized, but Craig Dockery, the church’s communications director, said the church could break ground as soon as June with a possible fall 2014 opening.

Crossroads held its first public service in a rented room at Peoples Middle School in Oakley in 1996. Since then, the church moved into its current location on Madison Road in Oakley, expanded that building to 262,000 square feet and opened another facility in Florence in 2012. The congregation averages nearly 15,000 each weekend at the two locations.

The church, which bills itself as a “a church for people who don’t like church,” began conducting Sunday services four years ago at Mason Middle School. It now has about 1,200 members, said Moore. That number is expected to grow to 2,500 to 2,800 members with the opening of the new building.

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Tags: Tags: chuck moore, church, community, crossroads, finalized, international paper, mason, mason city council, oakley, religion, renovations, rezoning, sale, west chester