Tuesday, August 2, marks College Hill's second annual celebration of National Night Out. Last year, somewhere between 700 and 900 people attended a cook out and had a fun time in the College Hill Presbyterian Church Parking lot. That celebration, lead by Amy Finnegan, won College Hill a Rookie of the Year award from the NNO sponsor, National Association of Town Watch.

This year will be bigger and better. Residents are encouraged to meet at the former Shuller's Restaurant property at 6:00 PM for a walk down the Avenue to the CHPC parking lot. By 7:00 PM things will be hopping at the parking lot. The Fire Department will be back with hoses for those who love playing in the spray. There'll be live entertainment and free food and drinks. We'll have a DARE van with police talking about drug prevention. Police motorcyclists will give riding demonstrations. Kids can try out the Smoke House, a training device teaches how to escape from a burning building. About a thousand of your neighbors will be there and volunteers from the various College Hill organizations will be sharing information about what's happening in College Hill.

National Night Out has been a summer event across the country for the last 21 years that now boasts parties and parades in nearly 10,000 communities and all 50 states. All across the country, residents are encouraged to flip on their porch lights, join their neighbors at cook outs and parties to make a statement that our communities are together in fighting crime.

Meet Cincinnati's mayoral candidates at the College Hill Forum meeting Tuesday, July 26. Each will have 10 minutes to speak and answer questions from the audience. The meeting starts at 7:00 PM in the Recreation Center. Come early if you want to park close.

To call the 25 or so people involved a "Glenview Task Force" may be overstating the case a bit, says Anita Buck, Tanglewood Lane resident, but what is true is that they got city funding for a Safe & Clean grant to buy additional cameras to monitor illegal dumping spots along Glenview Avenue. Anita reports, "The cameras are simply an amazing deterrent. People know they shouldn't be doing this and they're afraid of being caught. We have not had one major dumping incident since the cameras went in in February. We used to have at least one a week: furniture, appliances, construction rubble, household waste, you name it."

"The members of the Ministerium are committed to being partners in the life and growth of our College Hill community. We see our diversity as a gift and a treasure from God and we are working to fulfill Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream." With these words, Fr. George Jacquemin, representing the College Hill Ministerium, recently updated the leaders of many of the College Hill organizations on how the ministers of College Hill see the role of church in the community.

The clergy of most of the College Hill Churches are active members of the Ministerium. Initially, the Ministerium's purpose was simply mutual support and fellowship, however, it was not long after they began meeting that the ministers realized that they were being called beyond fellowship to action in the community.

The Ministerium's action arm is Christ's Community in College Hill (CCCH). Christ's Community's activities include an eight-week summer program for 50 to 75 youth, Clean Cut, a summer employment program for youth and young adults cutting grass for College Hill residents, year-round emergency assistance, counseling and referrals, and a Thanksgiving/Christmas Program. Christ's Community's energy is currently focused on increasing their work with the youth of the community.

"Hello everyone! I just wanted to report on our success with coordinating a summer project between students from Pleasant Hill School and the College Hill Quality of Life (QOL) Team!" So begins an email from Tamara Grimm, QOL Volunteer.

She continues, "On Saturday, June 18th, four volunteers from the QOL team met six students from Pleasant Hill and one student from Aiken to clean up the campus of Pleasant Hill School. We used "litter getters" (provided by QOL) to scour the campus and gather an incredible mountain of trash. The students were excited to be there and brought a lot of energy into the project! Following the clean up, we ordered pizza and pop for the kids and had a picnic on the campus. The students earned two hours of community service for participation in this project. The Quality of Life Team is super proud of the kids and is excited about involving them in another community project sometime in early August."