GRAFTON — Marilyn Riddle has been providing positive morale through care packages for hundreds of men and women who are serving overseas in the United States Armed Forces.

For nearly six years, Riddle has transformed her home in Grafton into a mini warehouse fully loaded with toiletries, gum, candy, wet wipes, hand sanitizer, lotions, magazines and stationery, which allows her to send nearly 10 care packages a week to troops stationed in the Middle East.

This all started with a letter to Riddle from her youngest son, Staff Sgt. 1st Class Gerry Mark, who was deployed to Afghanistan in 2004.

“He wrote me a letter and told me that not a lot of soldiers were receiving packages or mail. He wrote one line, ‘Mom, can you help?’ ” Riddle recalled.

Almost immediately after receiving the letter from her son, Riddle began putting together box after box full of comfort items for the soldiers.

Many items are donated from Grafton VFW Post 3341, its Ladies Auxiliary and the Grafton United Methodist Church. The Blue Water Salon in Grafton, where Riddle is the manager, has allowed her to place a drop-off box for items on its premises.

Even during the tough economic times, Riddle said people still want to help the troops.

“I grew up a Navy brat. Right now, taking care of the soldiers is my main goal,” Riddle said. “The soldiers need to know that we in the United States care about them.”

Riddle said she knows not everyone can afford to send a care package overseas and she believes this is her way of helping others.

“A mom will sometimes have a son who will be deployed and she will ask me to send a box. Another mom was a single parent on a single budget and her son was sent overseas, so I sent him a package,” Riddle said.

In the beginning, soldiers would often send Riddle names of other soldiers who could use a morale boost and a care package would end up in his or her lap.

“Often times, the soldiers will share their package,” she said.

On occasion, Riddle has sent packages to hospitals when she learns a soldier has been wounded.

“I have sent care packages to Landstuhl Hospital in Germany because one (injured) soldier was picked up in a chopper and went there with only the clothes on his back,” she said.

Riddle will continue sending care packages to the troops overseas until they are all home.

“It’s something that should be done because the people that are over there are real people, not just a faceless person wearing a uniform,” she said.

Know a soldier?

If anyone has a loved one stationed in Iraq or Afghanistan that is in need of care package, call (440) 926-3387.

A donation box is at Blue Water Salon, 589 Main St., Grafton.

Send your Grafton/LaGrange/Columbia news to Melissa Linebrink, 329-7155 or mlinebrink@chroniclet.com.

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ELYRIA — Housed in a new three-story building on the campus of Lorain County Community College, the Mike and Barbara Bass Library/Community Resource Center is unique in Ohio.

Because of the innovative collaboration of a college library with a public library, representatives from the college and the Elyria Public Library System were honored Monday with the 2009 Library Innovation Award from the Ohio Library Council.

Held on the first floor of the library, the ceremony honored the library and the college for its partnership.

The result is a hybrid library/classroom building for the college and a full-service working branch for the library. The library opened in August 2008 and provides access to information and technology to students, educators, children, senior citizens, working adults and families.

Library Director Janet Stoffer said the decision to team with the college to open the North Branch was not about breaking new ground. Instead, both entities wanted to further their missions in a way that benefited the community.

“We are talking about two institutions, entities that could add one and one and come up with three,” she said. “We knew going in this was going to be a great fit for us.”

It was LCCC President Roy Church who first approached the library system about the partnership a few years back. The college was already planning to build a new library to replace its 40-year-old facility but wanted it to also include a public library option.

“LCCC is in the business of providing opportunities to stimulate innovation —– innovation in education, economic, community and cultural growth — for people, organizations, businesses and communities,” Church said. “This partnership between LCCC and the Elyria Public Library System was an innovative way to meet the expanding needs of our community for learning, access to technology and personal growth.”

The Library Innovator Award was established to recognize creative and successful initiatives started at libraries across the state.

Contact Lisa Roberson at 329-7121 or lroberson@chroniclet.com.

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EATON TWP. — Veterinarian Lisa Fox Wright said she was trying to save two Neopolitan mastiff Kane Corso mix dogs from traffic on busy state Route 82 on Wednesday afternoon when she was suddenly attacked.

The dogs, a male weighing about 140 pounds and a female weighing about 120 pounds, left her with wounds on her arms and her body.

“I fell once on my back, and the male went for my throat,” said Fox Wright, who is almost three months pregnant. “I thought my husband would find me mauled in the front yard.”

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Fortunately, her training as a vet kicked in and she did not turn and run, leaving her back vulnerable. After struggling to her feet, she was determined to get to a safe place.

“My thought was to get to the porch,” she said.

Once she was safely inside the porch but locked out of her house, the dogs circled outside marking the bushes.

She said it felt like a miracle to find her cell phone still in her pocket so she could call for help.

Her father, Dr. William Fox at Fox Veterinary Hospital, called 911, which alerted the Lorain County Dog Warden’s office about the dogs, which also tried to attack some schoolchildren.

She said she calmed down when the Eaton Township Fire Department showed up, gave her oxygen and began treating her wounds.

Several hours after the attack, the two dogs were struck and killed on the road, said deputy dog warden Nelson Delgado. Their heads will be sent off for rabies testing.

The dogs’ owner, Donald Goble Jr., 27, was charged with having dogs at large and failure to have a kennel license. The law requires such a license for anyone keeping more than eight dogs; Delgado said Goble had 11, including the two involved in the attack.

Delgado said Goble told him that coyotes had been in the area upsetting the female, which was in heat. She burrowed under her cage, and the male broke the divider fence to follow, Delgado said.

Goble, who was not at home at the time of the attack, “apologized and is sorry, but I said the bottom line is that she’s pregnant and she got attacked,” Delgado said.

Fox Wright, 25, said she feels sorry for the loss of any pet, but her husband Jim Wright Jr. was less charitable.

“I just want those dogs out of the community,” Wright said of the dogs kept by Goble on the property he rents at 36821 Royalton Road.

Wright said he thinks there are inadequate safeguards at the property and that Goble’s dogs did not act like normal domesticated dogs.

“I’ve had big dogs around all my life, and they’re gentle as kittens,” he said.

Goble could not be reached for comment.

It took nearly an hour and a half for the deputy dog warden to show up Wednesday, and Eaton Township firefighters watched cautiously as the dogs chased several cars following the attack.

Wright said he was upset that no deputy arrived to take a report and blamed layoffs at the sheriff’s department that have decimated road patrols.

“It’s an attack on a person whether it’s a dog or not,” said Wright, a volunteer firefighter in Columbia Township.

A deputy answering the phone said dog attacks are normally handled by the dog warden and not deputies.

Contact Cindy Leise at 329-7245 or cleise@chroniclet.com.

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VERMILION TWP. — An armed robber accused of holding up the Dairy Stop in Vermilion Township on Wednesday covered his face with a mask and his hands with gloves, police said.

But he forgot to cover his license plate.

As a result, police said they caught their man, and he’s now facing felony charges.

Matthew Laslo, 33, of Huron, is charged with aggravated robbery and carrying a concealed weapon after Wednesday’s incident.

According to Erie County Sheriff’s Capt. Paul Sigsworth, Laslo had parked his car about four doors down from the Dairy Stop before going in to rob it.

Fortunately, Sigsworth said, witnesses saw him leave and noted his license number. He was captured a short time later.

Laslo was being held without bond in the Erie County jail pending arraignment today.

Contact Melissa Hebert at 329-7129 or mhebert@chroniclet.com.

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