Talk of the Town by Patty Reiman

Road trips, vacations, getaways – whatever you call the time away to physically be in other spaces (maybe new, maybe not) and spend days or weeks away from your usual routines – I hope you enjoyed some of that over spring break. If not, maybe you have a summer trip planned in the warmer months ahead? Tell us about it at news@scriptytpe.com.

Jack Warner has been one busy Hudsonite over the last month or so. Jack, a senior at Hudson High School was the district’s only wrestler to qualify for the OHSAA state championship while also joining his bandmates in advancing to Tri-C High School Rock off finals.

Hudson High senior Jack Warner sets up a
tilt in his first consolation match. Warner
went on to win the match with a pin in
2:35 and finish his senior year 43-9. Photo
by Bruce Hulme.

“One Saturday, March 2, I qualified for the state tournament in the morning and then I drove straight from North Canton Hoover [High School] all the way up to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame to play there that same day,” Jack said. “So that was intense.”

The 165-pound wrestler fell in the “blood round” during his premier trip to the state championship, where he said the “margins are so tight that you have to pretty much wrestle a perfect match. … I thought I wrestled really well. I got a pin in the earlier rounds, which was super cool. Little mistakes are what will cost you that level.”

As for Floor Band, which includes Jack on guitar and fellow seniors Ella Choi and Miles Muller, the band has only been playing together since the beginning of the school year. He describes their sound as folkish, with covers from the Lumineers and indie-type bands. At the Rock Off, they recorded original songs at Tri-C’s Gill and Tommy LiPuma Center for Creative Arts and performed at the Rock Hall twice but ultimately weren’t crowned “The Best Band in The Land.” It should be noted, however, that HHS senior Charles Hutchins did win that honor as part of the band Screams of Sanity, that also has students from Chippewa and Wadsworth.

“The Rockoff was a very cool experience,” said Jack, who has been accepted at the Air Force Academy but is considering wrestling at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. “We just got so many people from the school and the community to come watch. It was amazing.”

 Congrats to all of you and best of luck for whatever comes next!

Congratulations also are in order for Dr. Patricia Raimer, who recently took on the position of medical director at Akron Children’s Hospital’s pediatric intensive care unit. She was recruited to Akron Children’s PICU team in 2016 to create and direct an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) program there. ECMO is a life support system for a patient’s heart and lungs.

Dr. Patricia Raimer

 Patricia credits her Honors Biology teacher at Parma Senior High with seeing her and encouraging her to pursue medical school.

“When I got accepted to medical school, I reached out to her and thanked her,” she said. “We continue to keep in touch by mail, and I just got a letter from her this week, after I told her about my promotion.”

Patricia pays that advice forward by being a mentor to other young women in the medical field. She also gives back through her involvement at Flying Horse Farms in Mt. Gilead, a medical specialty camp that provides experiences at no cost for kids with serious illnesses. She is on its medical advisory committee and volunteers to help with campers’ medical needs for a week each summer during camp.

Around Hudson, you might see Patricia on the soccer sidelines with her oldest daughter, Juliet (eight grade) and golden doodle, Sunny. Patricia’s husband, Jason Richards, a pediatric dentist, plays on a soccer team, as do three of her children: Grant (sixth grade), Scarlett (third grade), Bennett (first grade).

A final kudos goes to five Hudson City Schools students who are finalists in the Stop the Hate contest, sponsored by the Maltz Museum. Hudson’s five students are among the 26 finalists selected from across Northeast Ohio, as they competed in essay and poetry contests. Senior Helena Pearl is a finalist from HHS. The other four from Hudson Middle School are Anissa Halmaoui, Vandy Ickes, Mia Teusan and Elizabeth Jia. Winners will be named on Wednesday, April 3, at an awards ceremony at the Cleveland Museum of Art.  Good luck, ladies! ∞ Judy Stringer contributed to this report.