Melissa Lyons, the owner of All Walks Yoga, officially starter journey to become a yoga teacher began in September 2020.
After having difficulties finding classes that offer all levels classes and variations for difficult poses, Melissa decided to become a yoga instructor.
“I hear all the time from people that they’ve never done yoga because they don’t fit what they think is the ‘typical’ yoga look or personality and I wanted to have a place to give them a chance to experience yoga,” she said.
Opening during a global pandemic brings its own challenges but Melissa said her biggest challenge was getting people to understand her style of yoga class.
“Just because my yoga classes are ‘different,’ because we use variations of poses and routines to be more accessible to everyone, doesn’t mean that they are ‘less’,” she said.
It’s a fitting sentiment: In addition to being a yoga instructor, Melissa has been an elementary school teacher in the Akron Public Schools for eight years, teaching kindergarten through third grade. She also volunteers as a high school eSports coach for the Akron STEM Eagles.
Megan is a long-term neighborhood resident and is excited to be a part of the revitalization efforts in Kenmore.
“As we continue to read the stories about the eight other businesses that have opened on the Boulevard during the pandemic, and as we talked to the residents and business owners already there, we knew that the Boulevard is a special place and wanted to bring accessible yoga to the community,” she said .
Melissa is partnering with the Rialto Theater to teach yoga classes there, but she also hopes to have a storefront on the Boulevard one day.
“Continuing to bring people together in fun and exciting ways only helps to make the Boulevard more enticing as ‘the place’ to be,” she said.
Beginning May 30, All Walks Yoga offers classes on Sunday at 9 a.m. and Monday at 6 p.m. at The Rialto Theater. Classes can be reserved at allwalks.yoga.
On a bright afternoon in March, he sits at the head of a long conference table, a few dozen T-shirts, hats, hoodies and baby bibs piled in front of him. Across the hall, canned foods line the shelves of a small kitchen.
For more than a decade, this space at 937 Kenmore Blvd. has been part of Jacobs’s vision.
In 2009, Jacobs’ mother, Kim, died of breast cancer. Every day since, he’s worked to honor her life and memory by serving and supporting women through cancer treatment and beyond.
“After she passed away, I used to go to the American Cancer Society walks every year, which is very nice and they’re doing amazing things. But I’ve always had an entrepreneur spirit,” Jacobs says. “I felt like I could do more work if I really locked in and did something on my own.”
In 2014, Jacobs founded Not Just October, a non-profit designed to raise awareness, encourage education and offer wraparound services for women and their families from the moment they receive a breast cancer diagnosis.
On May 1, the Kim Jacobs Breast Cancer Resource Center will hold its grand opening. Jacobs says the space will be open to women facing a breast cancer diagnosis and in need of anything from counseling and financial advice to a massage or a wig fitting.
“It’s hard to explain,” Jacobs says. “And some people might wonder why I put so much of my time and my finances into the community and what I do. But I just know that every single moment I invest into this I invest into my mom.”
What do families facing a breast cancer diagnosis really need?
When it comes to services and resources, Jacobs says it’s often the simple things families need most. So he uses local businesses to make sure women facing a breast cancer diagnosis can have their lawns mowed, their carpet cleaned or their snow shoveled.
“I just remember every little thing we might have had an issue with when my mom was going through it,” Jacobs says, “and that helps me know what people want.”
When a woman who received a recent cancer diagnosis called Jacobs about getting a new pair of glasses, Not Just October was able to cover the cost of her prescription and deliver a new pair right to her door.
“Her prescription was like $300, so we got her glasses and delivered them. It’s just small things,” Jacobs says. “In the grand scheme of life, it may seem small. But to a woman who’s going through the hardest battle of her life, it’s huge.”
Jacobs also plans to host financial and health insurance consultations,
counseling, group meetings and therapy for women and their families.
“I plan on having one family night per week. It’ll be one family and we’ll feed them and they can come and we’ll probably play a movie,” Jacobs says. “There’ll be a nurse on site if they have questions. There’ll be a doctor on site. It’ll be appointment based. So there will be days when the doctor is here, and you’ll be able to schedule a time to talk with the doctor.”
According to a 2019 report published by the American Cancer Society, breast cancer is the second leading cause of death among Black women in the United States.
Between 2012 and 2016, breast cancer death rates were about 40% higher among Black women than they were among white women, largely due to late-stage detection.
That’s why producing educational content is a big part of Jacobs’s vision for the Center.
“It’s not uncommon to find a lump,” says Jacobs. “We should encourage women not to be afraid. Sometimes they’ll find a lump and say, ‘Oh, that wasn’t a lump. I’ll just go about my life.’ But it’s important, because early detection is key. If you find a lump, go to your doctor immediately. They might find it early, get it all taken care of, and you might never have to go through chemotherapy or radiation.”
Encouraging Black women to administer self-tests — and helping them find access to mammograms and other preventative care — is something Jacobs says he’s proud of, and hopes to continue.
‘She was always there for me’
Jacobs was just 20 years old when his mom, Kim, received a breast cancer diagnosis.
“We had a really close relationship,” Jacobs says. “We used to lay around and watch soap operas. She loved All My Children and General Hospital. She could cook. She cooked really good lasagna. She was always there for me,” Jacobs says, smiling. “She’ll defend me until the end, even if I’m wrong.”
Jacobs says his mom passed along her creativity, kindness and grit. “She also had an entrepreneur spirit. She had a little [craft] store where she [made and] sold jewelry. She did cross stitch and quilts and things like that.”
With the grand opening of the Kim Jacobs Breast Cancer Resource Center quickly approaching, Jacobs says he expects the moment to be an emotional one.
“It’s very bittersweet,” Jacobs says. “There’s certain things that I wish my mom could take part in. The fact that she never met my wife and she’ll never meet my kids? That’s very difficult. But I know she’s around.”
Opening the Center in her honor has helped Jacobs feel close to his mom, even more than a decade after her death. But arriving at this moment hasn’t been an easy journey.
When Jacobs’s wife left for California in December to work on COVID-19 assignment as a registered nurse, Jacobs took on parenting their two sons. By day, he drives a bus for the Akron METRO Regional Transit Authority. By night, he works on building out the Center’s resources — whether that’s packaging hoodies and T-shirts or answering calls from families with new cancer diagnoses.
In between, he picks up his 1-year-old son from daycare, and meets his 12-year-old at the bus stop.
“It’s not for everybody,” he says. “And it’s hard. I’m so busy. I’m tired.”
But Jacobs says those busy days are a small sacrifice — especially in the weeks ahead of the resource center’s grand opening.
Jacobs says he hopes the Kim Jacobs Breast Cancer Resource Center will help bring something good to Akron’s Kenmore neighborhood, and act as an example of service and community — for his own sons, the neighborhood and beyond.
“That’s what powers me every day,” Jacobs says. “That’s what energizes me, when I know I can do something good for someone.”
“I took a huge risk to do this, so I don’t minimize this moment,” Jacobs says. “We’re at the mountaintop. But there’s another mountain over there, and we’re about to climb that one too.”
If you or someone you know have been diagnosed with breast cancer, contact Lavar Jacobs at (330) 760-9956 to learn more about the Kim Jacobs Breast Cancer Resource Center.
H.L. Comeriato covers public health at The Devil Strip via Report for America. Reach them at HL@thedevilstrip.com.
She now devotes time to another passion: Marigold Sol, a retail gift store with a vintage vibe featuring an eclectic collection of crafts, gifts, furniture and specialized solvent-free paints and more.
Julien on Thursday opened Marigold Sol in the heart of Akron’s Kenmore Boulevard Historic District. It’s in the neighborhood’s tallest building, at three stories, that dates back to the early 1900s. The space at 962 Kenmore Blvd. previously was occupied by The Dragon’s Mantle gift shop, which moved to another nearby site on Manchester Road.
Marigold Sol is the sixth small business, and the third owned by a woman, to open on the boulevard during the COVID-19 pandemic. Kenmore merchants and others say that’s a good sign for the working class neighborhood that has been struggling to fill empty storefronts even during good times. The city has made the boulevard a top economic revitalization priorities as part of its Great Streets Akron program; the opening of Marigold Sol merited a ribbon cutting visit by Mayor Dan Horrigan.
Julien isn’t new to running a retail operation; she had side gigs, including furniture refinishing, while still working as a nurse.
“This isn’t my first shop,” she said of Marigold Sol. “I had a shop [Salvage Style] for four years in Wadsworth and the property got sold and the owners had new plans.”
Between closing in Wadsworth and opening in Kenmore, Julien sold at shows and rented booth space at other storefronts. She knew she wanted to open another shop of her own and was looking for the right opportunity.
“My husband and I were walking down the boulevard one day and I realized that Dragon’s Mantle moved out,” Julien said. “I reached out to Tina Boyes at Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance and she connected me to the owner and here we are.”
They turned the space around in 30 days, with the lease signing taking place in March, Julien said.
“I said, let’s just do it,” she recalled. “I love what the Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance is doing here on the boulevard.”
New shops are transforming thoroughfare into a trendy destination
Marigold Sol and the other nearby retailers are largely destination businesses, said Boyes, executive director of the Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance community development corporation. The stores include long-standing hobby shops, new and established food operations, and others, she said.
“We’re lucky to have businesses that have weathered storms in the past,” she said. “Kenmore has seen its share of tough times.”
It’s nice to have Marigold Sol, which should appeal to many female shoppers, as the boulevard’s next destination site, Boyes said.
The boulevard also should see a coffee shop/cafe open in upcoming months, and an entrepreneur is looking at opening a craft brewpub in the relatively near future, she said.
“Food and beverage is a high priority for us right now,” Boyes said.
Seth Vaill, co-owner with his brother, Nate, of The Rialto Theatre at 1000 Kenmore Blvd. and parent company Just A Dream Entertainment, said he expects the addition of Marigold Sol and the other new businesses will help the neighborhood.
“The new businesses, that’s been fantastic,” he said. “There are some amazing new additions to what we’ve got going on here.”
The Rialto closed during the pandemic and will reopen in the near future with the new addition of a kitchen and bar at the front of the building, Vaill said. A related recording studio business has remained open, which is “helping pay the bills and keep the lights operating,” he said.
“We are still here. We will get the place rocking again,” he said.
John Buntin Jr., owner of Kenmore Komics & Games on the boulevard and president of the Kenmore Chamber of Commerce, thinks the opening of Marigold Sol and the other new businesses is a good sign. He said he thinks the new shop will do well.
“As for the boulevard, it amazes me with American ingenuity,” Buntin said. “Tina Boyes has been doing a lot to promote Kenmore. The city has done a lot recently to fix up.”
Buntin said his business has been supported by his regular customers and has been “doing all right” during the pandemic. “Some of the businesses on the boulevard are doing OK, some are a little slow,” he said.
Howard Evans, owner of E&S Hobbies & Trains at 980 Kenmore Blvd., said his shop – he calls it the largest of its kind in Ohio – is doing OK being open just two days a week, Fridays and Saturdays, during the pandemic. He expects to be open more days when the pandemic ends.
“We’re not doing bad,” said. “I don’t know how the rest of them are doing.”
Ron Mohlmaster, pastor of The Church on the Boulevard, said in the couple of years prior to the pandemic he was seeing new life come back to the neighborhood. The church moved to Kenmore from Green in 2008 and has about 150 members in its congregation.
“The past year suppressed what was coming up,” Mohlmaster said. But it looks like most of the businesses have not been closing down, he said.
“There’s still a lot of life on the boulevard,” he said.
Dan Shinn, co-owner of Lay’s Guitar Shop, a service and retail store at 974 Kenmore Blvd., praised the efforts to help the business district. His specialty service business that involves repairing and restoring guitars draws in customers from outside Ohio.
He thinks other nearby businesses should be able to attract his customers as they wait to pick up an item or have a repair made. Shinn also hopes to sponsor live music events behind his shop and said he is looking forward to the reinstatement of the First Friday entertainment programs on the boulevard that bring people to the neighborhood.
“I know the neighborhood alliance has been working real hard to get the storefronts open,” Shinn said. “I always thought the boulevard would be a great place to have an eclectic assortment of businesses. … I’m happy. They’ve been working real hard to get the storefronts full.”
With those kind of efforts going on, Shinn said he expects many currently empty Kenmore Boulevard storefronts will be filled in the next two years.
Neighborhood seeing dividends from Great Streets program
Back at Marigold Sol, Mayor Horrigan said at the ribbon cutting that “this is what Great Streets is all about.”
The Great Streets Akron program, created in 2018 and modeled after a similar Los Angeles initiative, aims to help out 12 neighborhood business districts, including the one in Kenmore.
Afterward, Horrigan noted that the city in recent years has been making changes in Kenmore in response to needs, including helping out the people taking on risk by opening businesses.
One of the most noticeable streetscape changes in recent years involved in part putting in bike lanes along the boulevard. Lines were painted to narrow the road and create new parking patterns as a response to ongoing speeding issues, he said.
A top goal for the changes was to create an urban, walkable district, Horrigan said.
Julien said she plans to hold furniture painting and refinishing classes in the back portion of Marigold Sol. She is the county-exclusive dealer of Wise Owl Paint, solvent-free and zero VOC coating and paint products.
“I’m not here alone. I have some amazing, talented vendors that are sharing space with me,” Julien said.
“I love the old, walkable retail storefront area,” she said. “I love what the Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance is doing here on the boulevard. I want to be a part of that.”
AKRON, Ohio – While much of the business world remained closed over the past year, Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance has been filing storefronts on Kenmore Boulevard, with the business district welcoming its sixth new business since the pandemic started.
Marigold Sol will open at 962 Kenmore Boulevard on April 1 at 1:30 p.m., followed by a public grand opening from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. The store will offer new and vintage furniture, home décor, gifts and jewelry, as well as classes in custom furniture refinishing.
Marigold Sol is owned by former nurse Lori Julien who said she has decades of experiencing in furniture refinishing and resale. She chose Kenmore Boulevard as the place to turn her part-time passion into full-time work, she said
“I have a deep respect and appreciation for communities that are investing in neighborhood revitalization and what they’re doing here on Kenmore Boulevard is really inspiring,” Julien said in a release.
Over the past few months, several small businesses have joined Kenmore’s popular music and hobby businesses on the Boulevard.
“I really believe that when people were sent back to their neighborhoods they tended to do more in their neighborhoods, and when you’re able to offer amenities and services that residents need within their neighborhood, they’re more likely to support a local business,”
Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance (KNA) Executive Director Tina Boyes said.
KNA is a nonprofit organization working to drive economic development in the neighborhood. The Boulevard is one of Akron’s Great Streets Districts, a program overseen by the city’s Office of Integrated Development designed to help bring business and vibrancy back to 10 Akron neighborhoods with small-business districts.
Great Streets offers business owners low-interest loans and facade-improvement grants, working with organizations like KNA to enhance business districts’ infrastructure, from new lighting to street improvements.
“Great Streets districts like Kenmore Boulevard serve as hubs of business and social activity in our community,” said Mayor Dan Horrigan in a release. “Marigold Sol will undoubtedly be a wonderful addition to this district and add to the vibrancy and community pride of the Kenmore Boulevard area.”
Improvements on the Boulevard’s physical storefronts and other projects has resumed after the pandemic suspended the work last spring, Boyes said.
On June 4, the neighborhood’s popular First Friday events will restart as well, she said. Since 2018, the monthly outdoor parties have drawn thousands, celebrating the Boulevard’s musical backbone, and helping keep the neighborhood’s energy alive, she said.
“I think a lot of our momentum came from the public events that we were doing, so not being able to do a traditional First Friday event, that was hard,” Boyes said. “But we pivoted, and when numbers plateaued or started to go down during the summer, we were able to do some socially distant parking-lot concerts.”
With several recording studios on the Boulevard, Kenmore draws all calibers of music and instrument aficionados, Boyes said.
The Rialto Theatre is a live-music venue and studio. The Guitar Department is a new and used consignment shop offering music lessons and Lays Guitar Shop has been known since the ’60s for instrument repair and restoration.
To promote the business district, KNA is also seeking an artist to help launch a marketing campaign, Boyes said.
“If you go to go to any small town downtown in a mainstream community across the United States, you will see a cool logo, you’ll see a nice tagline, you’ll see businesses advertising together,” she said. “You see efforts in the community to bring people down to the district. We want to help them succeed.”
KNA is looking for an artist who can capture the neighborhood’s legacy of combining hard-work with quality play by designing a logo that features a cardinal, Boyes said. Design submissions are due April 1, and guidelines can be viewed on the alliance’s website.
Marigold Sol will join Just a Dad from Akron clothing store, which was opened in March by community activist Kenny Lambert, who donates a percentage of profits to help struggling young parents and those battling addiction.
BrightStart Early Preschool opened at 1069 Kenmore Boulevard was started by former Kenmore High School student Aletha Harris.
Also opening were ManiKitchen Tea Shop opened at 979 Kenmore Boulevard; My Love Health Care at 983 Kenmore Boulevard and ThaiSoul Fusion Grill at 992 Kenmore Boulevard.
Boyes said more businesses are in the works.
Not Just October, a nonprofit offering resources to breast cancer patients, survivors and their supporters, is planning a grand opening on May 1 for its Kim Jacobs Breast Resource Center.
A June opening is planned for a café at 975 Kenmore Boulevard featuring outdoor seating, and serving organic tea, coffee and natural foods.
Kenmore seeks artists to design neighborhood mascotCreate Our Cardinal winner will receive $500, have design featured regionally
March 18, 2021 (Akron, OH) – Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance is offering $500 to the artist or designer who can best capture Kenmore’s proud, hard-working history and quirky, playful nature in the Create Our Cardinal design contest.
Submissions are due April 1, and the Alliance will choose three finalists for a community vote, which will take place online April 5-12. The cardinal design with the most votes will be announced April 15 and adopted as the Alliance’s mascot “promoting Kenmore both locally and regionally,” said Tina Boyes, Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance’s executive director.
In a February survey, Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance followers overwhelmingly voted the cardinal as their preferred mascot. For more than 100 years, the cardinal represented Kenmore High School as its mascot, outlasting Kenmore’s city status which ended with annexation by Akron in 1929. In 2017, the Akron Public Schools merged Kenmore High School with neighboring Garfield High School, bypassing the cardinal for Garfield’s Golden Ram.
“We hope the new mascot can reignite community pride while reflecting a new generation of creative and innovative Kenmore residents,” Boyes said.
Create Our Cardinal contestants must submit their cardinal as both a front-facing and side-facing design. Entries will be judged on the basis of creativity, originality, composition, simplicity, visual impact and how well they communicate and promote the Kenmore neighborhood. Preferred designs will be fun, friendly, modern and easily applied to any kind of media.
For more information, or to submit a cardinal design, visit betterkenmore.org/cardinal. To receive contest updates, register for the Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance’s e-newsletter at betterkenmore.org/news.
ABOUT KENMORE NEIGHBORHOOD ALLIANCE
Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance is a community development corporation formed in 2016 to preserve, enhance, promote and develop the Kenmore neighborhood in southwest Akron by engaging residents and stakeholders in effecting physical, cultural, artistic, recreational and economic revitalization. For more information, visit www.betterkenmore.org or follow KNA on Twitter or Instagram @kenmoreohio, or on Facebook @betterkenmore.
Originally Posted Wednesday, 10 March 2021 via Akron Beacon Journal
Photo: Mike Cardew, Akron Beacon Journal
This tiny shop was born of the pandemic and love of tea.
Jeewaka Costa opened the Mani-Kitchen Tea Shop 2Health 4Life, offering 120 varieties of its own brand of loose tea — last fall at 978 Kenmore Boulevard in Akron’s Kenmore neighborhood.
The shop offers a dizzying array of tea types and flavors — from the traditional English Breakfast to Lemon Meringue herbal tea to Toasted Hazelnut Crunch black tea.
There are more than a dozen flavored green teas, including Lavender Clouds Over Ohio.
The shop also sells custom made glass tea cups and tea pots with the ManiKitchen logo on them, as well as spoon tea infusers and other tea ware.
The shop does not offer prepared tea.
Tea fan Costa, who is from Sri Lanka, a top-producer of tea, was laid off from his aircraft maintenance job last spring amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that hit the airline industry hard.
Months later in September, Costa and his wife, Pradeepa — both of whom grew up drinking tea in Sri Lanka — opened the shop.
“Without COVID, we never would have thought of having this shop,” said Jeewaka’s 13-year-old son, Suvik Costa, at the shop one recent afternoon.
During the ongoing pandemic, he and his sister, Sadali, 12, have been attending school remotely, often logging on to their computers at the ManiKitchen Tea Shop.
They set up in a small space behind the ManiKitchen counter.
The couple’s daughter Sithu, 4, attends pre-school.
“COVID has brought us together,”
Jeewaka Costa said. He noted that he previously commuted to Indiana from the family’s home in Stow to work in aircraft maintenance.
He has a bachelor’s degree in aeronautics from Kent State University. Pradeepa Costa also received her bachelor’s degree — in education — from Kent State. She also has a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Akron. The ManiKitchen name is a riff on her nickname, Manik.
Jeewaka Costa owns the shop space, having bought the property in 2016. He had leased it out for a time, but it has been vacant for several months.
Cup of comfort
He had long wanted to do something entrepreneurial. Selling tea amid the pandemic made sense, he thought, what with people concerned about their health and wanting the comfort of a cup of tea.
The tea is produced offsite, with Jeewaka Costa working with a friend of his father’s who has experience in the tea industry.
Photo: Mike Cardew, Akron Beacon Journal
Costa, like many other tea lovers, praises the potential health benefits of tea. Researchers say tea may offer some health benefits, including fighting depression and inflammation, as well as offering potential immune boosting properties. A review of studies published last year in the Advances in Nutrition Journal said drinking tea daily may be associated with lower cardiovascular disease. Costa said his family members have for years combined Sri Lankan herbal medicine with Ceylon teas made famous by the British Empire. Ceylon — now called Sri Lanka — gained its independence from British rule in 1948.
Dozens of varieties of loose tea — packaged in 4-ounce sealed containers — fill shelves that line the hop’s two side walls, as well as shelves running through the middle of the room.
The teas are organized by type — green, chai, rooibos (a red tea popularized in South Africa), white, purple (very low in caffeine), herbal and others.
Among black teas, there are traditional blends, such as Earl Grey (Mani-Kitchen calls its version Earl Grey Supreme), English Breakfast and Russian Caravan (a blend of oolong tea — a Chinese tea baked in the sun) and other teas.
There also are 20 flavored black teas, including Amaretto, Belgian Chocolate, Pomegranate, Ginger Peach and Mango Ceylon.
Next to the tins of each kind of tea is a small glass jar with a flip lid that contains a small amount of the tea. This way, customers can smell before buying.
A spot of tea trivia: Black tea, green tea, oolong tea and white teas are all made from the cured or fresh leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant. Tea producers control the level of oxidation in processing the leaves; green tea is made from leaves that are not as oxidized as those used to make black tea. Oolong tea is somewhere between green and black teas in oxidation.
Herbal tea is technically not tea, but rather a concoction of fruit, flowers, spices or leaves steeped in water. The popular chamomile tea is made with flowers from the daisy-like chamomile plant.
Available online, at area businesses
All of ManiKitchen’s teas can be purchased online at www.manikitchen.com.
ManiKitchen teas also are available at Cafe O’Play in Stow, Olive My Heart in Hudson and Stahl’s Bakery in Kent.
Organizations such as sports teams and Scout troops also can sell the tea to raise funds, Jeewaka Costa said.
Soon, the Costas will introduce the makings for kola kenda at the shop. It’s a Sri Lankan herbal leaf porridge (which includes rice and coconut) that some people say has healing properties. It also will be sold in a 4-ounce tin.
Jeewaka Costa hopes to land another job in airline maintenance. He would keep the tea shop and employ someone to oversee the shop.
He thinks fate led him to opening the place and introducing people to tea.
“God has not given us a bad situation,” he said. “Everything happens for a perfectly good reason.”
The shop is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Sometime in April, the hours will change to 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
Kenny Lambert is setting out to change the world in one particular city in the 330 area code one shirt or hoodie at a time.
His clothing company, Just a Dad From Akron, will open its first storefront at 937 Kenmore Blvd. on Saturday.
He says he is peddling more than just clothes: He is also selling a message that you don’t have to be perfect to love one another and be a better person.
Lambert, 30, readily admits he was once — not that long ago — a pretty despicable person. He grew up in Springfield Township and started drinking at around age 15. He soon graduated to smoking weed and then just about every other drug, recreational or hardcore, you can imagine by the time he hit his late teen years in Akron.
Lambert said he was a mess.
A user of not only drugs but anyone who set out to help him.
There were arrests along the way along with stints in rehab and even jail.
None of it stuck, and he continued to drink and use drugs.
He hit proverbial rock bottom just over three years ago.
He was about to be a dad and was living out of his car after he had exhausted the kindness of every last friend and relative who had offered second chance after second chance and a spot on their couches — only to be rewarded with having to deal with either a drunken or high house guest.
Things were so bad, Lambert said, he even prayed that God would either take his life or send along an angel in the form of the police officer to bust him either for possession or driving under the influence.
God sent the latter. He ended up arrested and in rehab once again.
But this time was different, Lambert said. He was ready to make some changes.
For you see, God sent another angel, and her name was Amelia.
“She really turned my life around,” he said of his baby.
He had not only his fragile grasp on sobriety to worry about now but also this loving, unjudging baby to live for.
But there was the not-so-small matter of finding work.
Not an easy task for someone with a criminal record and a history of substance abuse. He began working construction jobs and rebuilding his own life.
Lambert said he wasn’t so sure construction was the ultimate answer.
He had previously organized large parties where alcohol flowed freely and sold clothing he designed on the side to the revelers. He knew that wasn’t the answer this time — he knew he had to stray from his partying past, but he still wanted to tap in to this creative side while making ends meet to help co-parent his daughter.
It was a chance encounter — albeit at a distance — with Just a Kid From Akron that changed the course of his life.
He like hundreds of others watched LeBron James as he sat courtside and never touched a basketball at a youth basketball game in Akron.
Lambert said he was mesmerized watching LeBron just be a dad excited to watch his son play basketball.
Like a thunderclap, Lambert said, the idea came to name his new venture “Just a Dad From Akron” to sell clothing with messages about change and being a better person and in turn a better father.
There are now some 15 different designs, from one that says “do it for the kids” to another that makes a plea to “stop the violence.”
In the early days, Lambert said, he would make the shirts after work from his construction job and then hand-deliver them to customers.
Most of the orders were from in and around Akron in the early days, and it was a lot easier and cheaper to drive them to people’s houses than mail them.
He saved as much as he could from his construction job to help support the fledgling business.
Interest in his shirts began to spread — along with interest in the story of how he had turned his life around and was working to make a difference in the community, one shirt at a time — and folks wanted to meet him.
Lambert is active on social media with a website and Facebook page that use the Just a Dad From Akron monikers.
He spent time talking to customers — many who, like him, were looking to turn their lives around and be part of change in the community.
Lambert said he became an evangelist of sorts, sharing his own story of imperfection and working each day to remain clean and sober for his daughter
He decided early on to set aside some proceeds to help sponsor events in and around the city, from a rally calling for an end to violence to a free picnic providing a chance for folks to gather and break bread.
He picked up some friends along the way who helped keep the young business alive. One of them was Sebastian Spencer, 20, who was recently killed in an ATV accident on Portage Lake.
Lambert said Spencer was his real first employee as he struggled in the early days to fill the orders for gear that started coming in at a clip of 30 an hour.
Spencer’s tragic death was a sobering challenge, Lambert admits, to his nearly three years of sobriety.
The fun-loving friend had stopped by the storefront not long before the accident to help with renovations.
Lambert points to a door frame where Spencer scrolled his own name after they struggled to make a paint pen work. This same cursive name is now one of the many tattoos that mark a life hard-lived on Lambert’s body. It holds a place of prominence on his head right behind one ear.
Spencer is also remembered inside the store with a small memorial right behind the counter. “When the store opens it will be like he’s behind the counter working,” Lambert said.
The store itself, Lambert hopes, will serve not only as a place for customers to buy gear but also a place to lend an ear for someone looking for help in changing his or her own life around.
This is not your typical business plan where the primary goal is to sell shirts, shirts and more shirts.
Long before it opened, Just a Dad From Akron helped distribute Christmas gifts to needy neighborhood families from the then-empty storefront.
The site that was a former beauty salon in a previous life now sports an eclectic collection of murals from budding Akron artists. The walls are sort of like the collection of tattoos on Lambert’s body — a hodgepodge of artistic expression.
“I’ve completely turned my life around,” he said. “No matter where you are in your life — I’m an example that you too can turn your life around.”
Craig Webb can be reached at cwebb@thebeaconjournal.com.
Details What: Just a Dad From Akron storefront Where: 937 Kenmore Blvd. in Akron For more: Visit https://justadadfromakron.com/
February 18, 2021 (Akron, OH) – Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance is bringing the fun back to First Fridays on Kenmore’s Boulevard, popularly known as Akron’s “music row,” beginning June 4, 2021. The Alliance is now inviting musicians, vendors and sponsors to contact them for opportunities to be part of the fun.
Since June 2018, Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance’s First Fridays have welcomed thousands of residents and visitors for a night of live entertainment, food trucks, craft beer, children’s activities and more. First Fridays have featured some of the region’s best local rock, country, hip-hop, jazz and blues musicians.
Performer pay ranges from $50 for a half-hour set to $250 for an hour. Sponsorships range from $500 to $2,500. Vendor spots are $15 per event. Musicians and local businesses can find out more about First Fridays opportunities by visiting www.betterkenmore.org/events.
ABOUT KENMORE NEIGHBORHOOD ALLIANCE
Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance is a community development corporation formed in 2016 to preserve, enhance, promote and develop the Kenmore neighborhood in southwest Akron by engaging residents and stakeholders in effecting physical, cultural, artistic, recreational and business revitalization. For more information, visit www.betterkenmore.org or follow KNA on Facebook (facebook.com/betterkenmore), Twitter or Instagram (@kenmoreohio).
Aletha Harris, owner of BrighStart Early Preschool, is known to many to be a determined, strong and professional businesswoman: She attended Kenmore High School and has worked and lived in the area for many years. But it was her love for children that motivated her to open her own daycare business and accumulate more than20 years in the industry.
In June of 2020, Harris’ strength and determination came in handy when, during the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, she chose to open her second daycare location at1069 Kenmore Blvd.
Long time coming
“l had been eyeballing this building since 2012,” said Harris said. “I used to go to the doctor here.”
The building’s former use worked out in Harris’ favor: Many of the pandemic-related CDC recommendations became that much easier to implement.
“There are sinks in each classroom…I intended to keep the sinks by the entryway so children can come in and wash hands,” she explained. “We limit what children can bring in and my staff is constantly cleaning and sanitizing. We are keeping classroom sizes smaller.”
While Harris said she is proud of the way her staff has stepped up during theCOVID-19 pandemic, she is proudest of the great reputation the business has earned over the years. BrightStart frequently gets referrals from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services as well as positive reviews from parents. And given her decades in the business, Harris has also had the opportunity to care for several generations of the same family.
“When people say my establishment is awesome, that makes me very proud,” she said.
Looking forward
In addition to the well-equipped building, Harris chose the Boulevard as her second home thanks in part to recent revitalization efforts., including the Kenmore First Friday events coordinated by Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance.
“I noticed all the festivities happening on the Boulevard because, for a while, it seemed like nothing was happening,” she explained, adding she looks forward to participating in upcoming events and connecting with more Boulevard business owners. “I love my location on the Boulevard,” she said.
BrightStart Early Preschool is open 6 a.m. to midnight Monday through Friday and accepts students age 6 weeks to 4 years. For more information, visit their Facebook page or call 234-571-3003.
