Congratulations to our June Hometown Hero, Officer Windham. Officer Windham is the School Resource Officer for Upper Arlington and is also the Director of Upper Arlington’s Safety Town program. His tireless dedication to the children that attend schools within Upper...

Congratulations to our April Hometown Hero, Ohio Army National Guard Sgt. 1st Class, Joshua Mann. Mr. Mann is the historian for the Ohio Army National Guard and is the leader of Pickerington Boy Scouts Troop 1147. Mr. Mann selflessly gives up his personal free time,...

Congratulations to our March Hometown Hero, Ben Nease. Ben started training in karate many years ago as a shy and unconfident individual.  In 2016, he took the position of Head Instructor. During this time, he helped raise money for local charities. Since 2016, Ben...

Congratulations to our February Hometown Hero, The Heart of the City Foundation.  The Heart of the City Foundation seeks to address, through a variety of programs, the relational, physical, educational, and spiritual well-being of the diverse population of Columbus,...

Congratulations to our January Hometown Hero, Tonya Kelly. Tonya is a 4th-grade teacher at Horizon Science Academy, but in addition to parenting and teaching, she has started a nonprofit organization to help our local children called “Empower Our Youth Foundation.” ...

Congratulations to our December Hometown Heroes, Columbus Firefighter Shawn Smart and his wife Ashley. Firefighter Smart and his wife Ashley are the founders of The Give Smart Foundation, which is a nonprofit organization committed to lessening the burden of any...

Congratulations to our November Hometown Hero, Teja Kancharlapalli. Teja founded Sahara-Columbus in March 2020 to help those affected by COVID-19. Sahara means “help” in Hindi, the national language of her native India. Her group focuses on getting children involved...

Congratulations to our October Hometown Hero, Krista Schrader. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Krista co-founded Magical Moments Foundation, a Columbus-based wish-granting charity that restores hope and dreams to children with facial differences that are the...

Congratulations to our September Hometown Hero, Ashley Gregg. In 2018, Ashley’s son Deany passed away from brain cancer at the age of 7.  Through that pain came purpose.  For the last nine months, Ashley has been working at The James as a patient care associate and...

Congratulations to our August Hometown Hero, Mick Yinger. Mick retired from the Columbus Division of Police where he spent 21 years. After the line-of-duty deaths of two Westerville police officers in February 2018, Mick saw the need for an organization to help all...