LAKESIDE — Artists of the Ohio Plein Air Society will congregate in Lakeside for the sixth annual Ohio Plein Air Society Competition, Sept. 11-13. Artists are encouraged to paint throughout Ottawa County, but will meet in Lakeside for special events.
The weekend will include a variety of events for plein air painters and onlookers to witness. Toledo artist, Larry Golba, will give a demonstration in watercolor, as Larry Rudolech of Hanover, Ind., will do the same in oil paint on Friday evening. Both demos will take place on the lakefront near the Lakeside Pavilion. On Sunday afternoon, there will be a Quick Paint competition, as well as judging of the final competition.

After several years of product development, a licensing agreement has been signed by Marblehead Design Company and Dicksons of Seymour, Ind. Dicksons is one of the largest distributors of Christian-based gifts in the United States.
Jodie McCallum has granted national and international right to distribution to the Christian bookstore market and also includes the major bookstore chains in the United States and abroad. The 12-piece set is scheduled to start distribution to the market on Sept. 15.

LAKESIDE —  “The Solemn Blessings,” a cantata based on the Beatitudes by Michael Shirtz, was performed Sunday, Aug. 23, in Hoover Auditorium in Lakeside. The composition had five movements and was originally written for full orchestra but was adapted by the composer to a reduced version to fit the circumstances of the Sunday performance. The composition was a fusion between jazz and classical music and was well received by the audience: it was followed by standing ovations from the audience.
Performers were: musical director Craig Dietrich, composer/pianist Mike Shirtz; organist Dee Dee Gain; Lakeside Choral Festival Choir; soprano soloist Ruth Ann Cunningham; tenor soloist C. Andrew Blosser; Tamara Kagy — flute; Virgil Lupu — violin; and The Mike Shirtz Quartet.

FREMONT — The Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center’s vintage base ball team — the Spiegel Grove Squires — plays its next home match at 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 30, on the center grounds. They are joined in this competitive demonstration of 1860s-style base ball by the Clodbusters Base Ball Club. The match is free and open to all. It takes place in the open field behind the Hayes Museum.
The sport of base ball (two words in the 19th century) just was reaching the level of a “national pastime” in the late 1800s. Professional teams were organizing and rules of play were being standardized. By the 1860s, most large cities hosted matches of what was known as the “gentlemanly sport of base ball.”