Learn to compost Thursday, May 31, at Riehm Farm Market in Tiffin. Pre-registration is required for the event, which is sponsored by Riehm Farm, Sandusky County Park District, Ottawa County Soil & Water Conservation District and the Ottawa, Sandusky, Seneca Joint Solid Waste Management District. There are two available sessions because of limited space: 10 a.m. and 6:30 p.m.
Registered participants will be put into a drawing to win composting and gardening door prizes. In addition, participants will be provided with snacks and a tour of Riehm Farm’s compost area and green house. The farm market is located at 7224 N. Ohio 53, Tiffin.
Sign up by calling the Sandusky County Park District office at 419-334-4495 or toll free at 1-888-200-5577. Pre-registration deadline will be Wednesday, May 30, and the cost to participate is $5.
Information regarding the workshop can also be found on the OSS Solid Waste District’s website, www.recycleoss.org, or by searching Ottawa Sandusky Seneca Green Recycling Scene to view posts from the District’s Facebook page.

A large gathering of Republicans with a smattering of disenchanted Democrats attended Thursday night’s reception at Mon Ami on Catawba to welcome a number of candidates for national, state and local office.
“We are in a car going 100 miles per hour headed for a brick wall,” said Ohio Treasurer and U.S. Senate candidate Josh Mandel when he spoke to the group.“Unless things change dramatically in the way business is done in Washington, D.C., we will no doubt leave every child born in America a bill for thousands of dollars of debt.”

Past members, pastors and friends will join the congregation at Firelands Presbyterian Church Sunday to celebrate 30 years of history and look to the future.
In 1980, two couples — Pat and Bud True and Betty and Sam Carter — met with officials to start a Presbyterian church in the area. The first service was held that year in the fellowship hall of Catawba Union Chapel on Porter Road. Two years later, on May 30, 1982, the growing congregation was chartered as Firelands Presbyterian Church and a tradition of dedication and community was born.
“I thought there must be something really wonderful happening here because there was no ambiance,” said Connie Brand, of the Union Chapel site. “It was just a room filled with enthusiastic people and this old record player.”
Throughout the years, that enthusiasm has helped the church to grow.

Karen Demangos, then executive director of Joyful Connections, was recently honored with the Larry L. Noblitt Liberty Bell Award. The accolade was given by the Ottawa County Bar Association for outstanding service to the community for her work at the supervised exchange and visitation site in Oak Harbor.
“It was very exciting,” Demangos said, but not just for personal reasons. “I’m just glad for Joyful Connections to get this recognition.”
Perfect timing.
May is Supervised Visitation Awareness Month and the local organization is using this — and the representative orange ribbon — to get the word out about what they do. There is a coloring contest, the Rally for the Kids event last weekend in Bassett’s Market parking lot and literature being handed out around town.
The board for Joyful Connections was formed in 2007 as a Leadership Ottawa County class project. Next came bylaws, 501(c)(3) status, the hiring of an executive director and securing the site at 8200 W. Ohio 163, Oak Harbor.
“There was nothing here but junk,” Demangos said.

The Oak Harbor Area Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring the third annual village-wide Garage Sale Days on June 1-2. Anyone in the Oak Harbor area may sign up, and some of the downtown businesses will be having sidewalk sales as well.
New this year, the chamber will have spaces available at Flat Iron Park for rent for those who live out of town but would like to participate. A 10-foot by 20-foot space will be $20 for Friday and Saturday.