​Happy Spring Equinox! As the days become longer, today marks the halfway point between the Winter and Summer Solstices when the days becomes equal to (and then longer than) the nights. The word 'equinox' deriving from the Latin for "equality between day and night,"
The exact moment happens today, at 5:58pm EST so breathe a sigh of relief, and enjoy that extra daylight!

Jerrie Mock first flew in an airplane when she was seven. She told her parents she would grow up to be a pilot. From Newark, Ohio, after graduation, she went on to study engineering at Ohio State University. She was the only woman in their program. She was also the only one to score 100% on the exams. When she met her husband, she dropped out of school to be a housewife. Both she and her husband shared a love of travel, aspired to be pilots and took turns acquiring their licenses. Three children later, Mock planned her trip around the world because she wanted to see the world and said that she was "bored." When they realized no woman had tried the feat since Amelia Earheart, the news spread. A headline of the Columbus Sunday Dispatch read "Bexley Housewife Plans World Flight. Hopes To Be the First Woman To Go Around the Globe by Air." On March 19, 1964, the fulltime housewife and mother of three departed Port Columbus to a crowd of hundreds, beginning the historic flight that would forever cement her place in history. It took about a month (returning on April 17th) but, in her single-engine Cessna 180, “Spirit of Columbus," (nicknamed "Charlie") Jerrie Mock became the first woman to fly solo around the world. She didn't set out to become famous but by the time she landed she was a household name. With this trip, and several future ones, she earned praise and set many records. However, with the development of space race only a few years later, the public's attention fell higher in the sky and Jerrie Mock was all but forgotten.
For an extremely nice article on Jerrie Mock, click here.

Jerry was the First Woman to...

• fly solo around the world
• fly around the world in a single-engine plane
• fly U.S. – Africa via North Atlantic
• fly the Pacific single-engine
• fly the Pacific West to East
• fly both the Atlantic and Pacific
• fly the Pacific both directions

Speed/Distance Records

• Speed around the world, Class C1-c
• Speed around the world, Feminine
• Speed over a closed course of 500  km, Class C1-b
• Speed over a recognized course
• Distance in a straight line, Feminine
• Distance in a closed course, Class C1-c
• Distance in a closed course, Feminine

Awards and Honors

• Federal Aviation Agency Gold Medal for Exceptional Service
• Ohio Governor’s Award
• Louis Bleriot Silver Medal(World-Wide award of Fédération Aéronautique Internationale)
• American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Distinguished Service Award
• Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce Award of the Year
• Experimental Aircraft Association Special Award
• Ohio Aviation Trades Association Sparky Award
• Amelia Earhart Memorial Award, 1964
• Aero Classic Aviation Progress Award, 1965
• National Aviation Trades Association Pilot-of-the-Year Award, 1964
• Glenn Hammond Curtiss Silver Medal, Pittsburgh OX-5 Club
• Milestones in Manned Flight Trophy, Trans World Airlines
• Wadsworth, Ohio, Aero Club Special Award
• Kansas 99’s Special Recognition Medallion
• Special Award of Bexley Civic Association
• Women’s Aero Association of Wichita Award
• Award of Appreciation, Licking County (Ohio) Historical Society
• Columbus Transportation Club Special Award
• Sports Woman of the Year, Columbus Citizen-Journal, 1969
• Citation of Wichita, Kansas, Chamber of Commerce
• September 14, 2013 was declared Jerrie Mock Day by an official proclamation by Jeff Hall, mayor of Newark, Ohio. On the occasion, a life-size bronze sculpture of Mock, sculpted by Renate Burgyan Fackler, was unveiled in the courtyard of The Works museum.

(list of awards and recognitions taken from the Jerrie Mock Wikipedia page)

On this day in 1631, the Catholic Church established a Feast Day honoring St. Patrick, the Patron Saint of Ireland, who'd died in the mid-400s.
As the legend goes, St. Patrick's name was Maewyn Succat and when he was 16, Irish pirates attacked his family's estate (in lowland Scotland or Whales). The young Succat was kidnaped and sold into slavery in Ireland. Six years later he managed to escape. He joined the Catholic Church and studied as a missionary, taking the name Patricius (or Patrick) meaning "father figure." As a Bishop, Succat returned to Ireland after having a dream calling him back to spread Christianity among the Druids. Apparently he had a lot of luck!
The shamrock didn't become a symbol of St. Patrick's Day until the 1720s when the church gave an official plant to all saints and the color green wasn't associated until eighty years later, during the Irish Rebellion (1798). Before that, the color was blue (a main color in both the royal court and ancient Irish flags). Since the British wore red, the Irish chose the opposite color, green. The song “The Wearing of the Green” during the rebellion, "cemented the color’s relevance in Irish history."
As far as the drinking goes, up until the 1900s Ireland had a law that kept everything closed on St. Patrick's Day, including pubs. And the green beer? You can thank Budweiser's 1980s marketing team for that one.

Sources:https://www.irish-genealogy-toolkit.com/history-of-st-patrick.html and http://time.com/4261456/st-patrick-day-2016-history-real-saint/

The winners of the 1st Annual Harmon Student Art Exhibition have been announced! We'd like to thank all the talented young artists that submitted their work to make the show a success. They made it a very difficult decision. The artists of the winning pieces were awarded scholarship money as well as a ribbon.
Some of these, and many more fine works done by these talented artists, are up for auction here. The students keep 100% of the earnings so why not help a young artist and get something beautiful for your home?

​"Nick Reynolds is a Lebanon-born artist and certified Bob Ross instructor. He started oil-painting his senior year of high school and three years later, received his certification to teach in the Bob Ross method. Beyond simply teaching students to paint, he hopes to convince those around him to see talent as nothing more than a set of simple skills, attained through practice." - taken from Nick's website.
Nick will be teaching art classes on March 16th.
View more of Nick's work in his gallery.

​Valerie Sherwood Rask creates both realistic and abstract artwork in glass. She enjoys being challenged by clientele with unusual requests. She has accomplished everything from a portrait of a pet donkey to a multi-paneled depiction of the original Lebanon Public Library to celebrate its centennial. She is always thrilled and fascinated to coax glass into shapes and textures that mimic the wonders of the natural world. Valerie’s one-of-a-kind jewelry in fused and dichroic glass is also sought after by buyers across the country.

In addition to her studio work, Valerie has taught stained glass classes for adults for two decades, branching out into glass art for kids in 2009. Since 2013, the Arts Alliance has hired her to teach intensive week-long Glass Art Camps for children in third to sixth grade. She never tires of the excitement when the kids score and break their first piece of glass!
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Valerie and her husband Michael have raised three amazing young adults on the Little Miami River in southern Ohio. Her studio is in their country home surrounded by natural beauty that continues to inspire her work. She enjoys kayaking and gardening as well as a night out at the theatre.