The Rough Draft Diaries with Haley Taylor

Tune in to this special 'walk down memory lane' as Haley looks back and listens in to over 300 episodes of The Rough Draft Diaries. We begin where the show began with our first episode broadcast Oct 22, 2015 and we end with a bittersweet goodbye.   

Today on The Rough Draft Diaries, we're talking to Nathan Mattimoe the Art in Public Places Director of Toledo's Arts Commission. Mattimoe manages new public art projects and oversees the maintenance and conservation of the City's more than 40 public art pieces. He's also a lover of music, a DJ and producer. Tune in to hear how these passions connect with deep roots to the city he grew up in.

Today on The Rough Draft Diaries we're chatting with Tahree Lane as she looks back on 40 years as a journalist at Toledo's local paper, The Blade. 

The mission of the Black Heritage Library & Multicultural Center is to build community awareness, appreciation and understanding of the value of cultural diversity in Hancock County and surrounding areas. Tune in to The Rough Draft Diaries as we document the challenges the center faces in connecting the community of Findlay, Ohio. 

Today we're headed about an hour south of Toledo to Findlay, Ohio. Today the Lgbtq+ Spectrum of Findlay is featured on the program, whose mission is to empower our diverse community to lead healthy, successful lives through focused resources, inclusive activities, and a vibrant supportive network serving Findlay and the surrounding communities. 

Jonny Burritos is a burrito food truck based in Findlay, Ohio operated and dreamed up by Jon Perkowski. It's a dream that came true after a time of uncertainty and change. Hear all about it on this week's episode of The Rough Draft Diaries! 

Normally, The Rough Draft Diaries looks back on someone's success months or years after they've mastered their skill or goal. Today, we're chatting to someone who is just starting out. It's artist Aliyah Hicks on The Rough Draft Diaries.

School's out for the summer and, in a case of perfect timing, a teacher has been nominated for the program. This week we talk to Erin Lottier of Toledo School for the Arts.

Mercé Culp is a 4-dimensional artist. Her work includes street art, dance, fashion, graphic design, and video. Urban Digitz is the body of work she consistently builds pushing her anthology of work into the world of fashion. And we'll talk all about it on this week's episode of The RDD.

Michelle Atkinson goes by her roller derby name, Vod. She also named her craft business after the same moniker, Vod's Here. The venture is a brand new undertaking for Vod, so learn all about it as you tune in to this this week's episode of The RDD! 

Matthew Squibb is an artist based in Sylvania, Ohio focused on spreading his passion for printmaking education. We talk about both of those things, and much more, as Matt joins this episode of The Rough Draft Diaries.

What do House of Dow, Fowl and Fodder, Old West End Festival, The V Project, Maddie and Bella all have in common? They all have logos created by Jacob Parr. Check out this graphic designer and his passion to re-design how Toledo is identified on this week's episode of The Rough Draft Diaries. 

Bradley Scherzer teaches art with Fremont Ross High School in Fremont, Ohio. Much of his recent work has been organizing/engaging communities and youth in public-art making. We'll talk about how Brad developed his own art a part of this community on this week's episode of The Rough Draft Diaries. 

Stacy's Jurich's interest in fermentation and the health benefits of kombucha lead her to make and sell the fermented drink to friends and family back in 2010. Fast forward to 2022, and Boochy Mama is now a full-time business available in nearly 100 locations in Ohio, Kentucky and Michigan. 

Today on The Rough Draft Diaries, we talk to Stephen MacDonald, the Impact Coalition Manager at the Lucas County Family Council in Toledo-Lucas County, Ohio.

Meet the youngest guest of The Rough Draft Diaries, 9-year-old Leila and her non-profit Leila's Promise. An organization that looks to empower and encourage youth voices in service, connection people of all ages and backgrounds together in a service learning environment.

Lucas County CASA – Court Appointed Special Advocates – is a non-profit organization of volunteers who work for the juvenile court judges to advocate for the best interests of abused and neglected children so that every child can be safe. Today we talk to their director, Judy Leb.

Knock-Out Parkinson's is a therapeutic boxing program for individuals of varying ages diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. We discover the origins of the program with creator and boxer, Harry Cummins on this episode of The Rough Draft Diaries. 

Airing just a day after International Women's Day, we're talking to the Glass City Rollers, Toledo's Premier Flat Track Women's Roller Derby League!

Dean Davis likes to create art murals and complete restoration projects. He has worked on projects like the Muhammed Ali/Mike Tyson mural for Soul City Boxing and Wrestling Gym, a mural for fallen Officer Anthony Dia last year, the Glass City River Wall Mural, and many more. Today we're talking about his plans for Toledo through the art he creates.

Valerie Thompson is a native Toledoan and a graphic designer at ProMedica, but she's more than a graphic designer, she's the environmental designer at ProMedica. A position that marries art, graphic design, interior design, and community together. Learn more about it on this week's episode of The Rough Draft Diaries. 

Since it began in 1988, TOLEDO EXCEL, a scholarship incentive program at The University of Toledo, has been striving to prepare underrepresented students for success in college. The story of Excel will be featured as our third story in our series for Black History Month. 

On this episode of The Rough Draft Diaries, we tell the story of Chuck Ealey's long and winding road to the College Football Hall. Especially long for someone who still holds the most consecutive wins by a quarterback in college football history.

  To kick off our series of Black History Month programming we're starting at the Toledo Public Library system, highlighting the programming and organizing efforts the library makes to celebrate local and national African Americans.

Fletcher Word is a native of New York City and grew up in the Washington, DC area, but today we're talking about his contributions to his local Ohio community as Word is the owner and publisher of The Sojourner's Truth, a weekly newspaper that serves the northwest Ohio area and brings its readers information about the local, state and national African-American community.

Today on The Rough Draft Diaries, we're talking to the executive director of ​Sylvania STEM Center, a 501 (c) (3) non-profit and Northwest Ohio's regional gathering place for STEM education and exploration. But it all started with a small elementary school robotics program and some Lego sets. 

This year, the Rough Draft Diaries is taking a step back in time to learn about the history of the radio play. Tune in for this year's special but also our new radio play, The Shop Around the Corner, airing tonight on FM 91.

Today on The Rough Draft Diaries we're headed over to the oldest independent art gallery in the city of Toledo, 20 North Gallery.

Today on The Rough Draft Diaries, we headed down to Bowling Green, Ohio to meet with DeAnte Shivers, the creator of TriggaMeals. It's a food business that began out of necessity but has grown into a love of feeding the people of his community.

Dream of Detroit combines community organizing with housing and land development to build a healthy community and empower a marginalized neighborhood on the Westside of Detroit. And we're talking about it here in the eastside of Toledo as Mark Crain, the CEO, joins this episode of The Rough Draft Diaries. 

This marks the 7th Thanksgiving special for The Rough Draft Diaries! Traditionally, we head into the kitchen of a local chef as they share a family recipe for the holiday season. This year, we're really sharing a family recipe as we're baking in Haley's mom's kitchen. Tune in as Sandra shares her recipe for butter tarts!

The Special Olympics athlete's oath is, "Let me win. But if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt." Today we're talking to Sue Hess, an organizer of a local chapter of the Special Olympics, Special Olympics Toledo Public.

Dennis Hopson is not just any basketball player.  Hopson's shooting skills placed him first on Ohio State's all-time men's basketball career points record and he was selected as the third overall pick in the 1987 NBA Draft by the New Jersey Nets, playing a total of five seasons in the league. Today, Hopson is the head coach of the Lourdes Gray Wolves men's basketball team which is what brings him to The Rough Draft Diaries today. 

Today on The Rough Draft Diaries we talk to Dr. Shanda Gore the principal of MBAC, Minority Business Assistance Center. A development division that supports the growth and sustainability of small, minority-owned, and disadvantaged businesses in Ohio.

Imam Ahmad Deeb has been serving communities from a very young age. Although he grew up in Orlando, FL he now happily serves as the Imam and Religious Director at the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo. We'll talk about how he got to Toledo, his leadership at the Islamic Center, and his dream to build a community free of loneliness, on this episode of The Rough Draft Diaries.

Cydnee Moore creates artwork featuring striking lines in acrylic paint, bold colors, and stories steeped in African American heritage. She believes this artwork, and all art, should be able to be purchased at a reasonable price everyone can afford. We'll talk all about it on this week's Rough Draft Diaries. 

It's the month of October and we are checking in to see how local organizations are handling another year of holiday programming in a pandemic, featuring the Toledo Lucas County Public Library and The Arts Commission.

Today we're talking to Rhonda Sewell, the first director of belonging & community engagement at the Toledo Museum of Art. Although Rhonda is filling a new position, she is not new to Toledo. She is a proven community leader, deeply engaged with many local organization's boards, committees, and community stakeholders. If you don't know her yet, tune in to this episode of The Rough Draft Diaries to meet one of Toledo's brightest servant leaders.

Today we're talking about a mural, a mural that brings urban renewal through hope, positive messaging, education and community outreach. It's a big undertaking and a big mural, the largest in the United States, and we'll talk all about it on this week's episode of The RDD.

Social workers are among the frontline workers with nurses, doctors, and police battling COVID-19, and most of them are women. Today we talk to Sara Koppus about dealing with the on-the-job and personal challenges of social work in a pandemic.

On October 3rd, 2010 Jeremy Bigelow was in a car accident that left him paralyzed from the shoulders down. It's been a long road, but the road continues as Jeremy looks to tackle new issues in the home and in state of Ohio for the spinal cord injury community. Tune in to hear more of Jeremy's story on The Rough Draft Diaries.

Today we're talking to Debra Buchanan, a contemporary artist working in multi mediums. She was awarded a scholarship to Columbus College of Art and Design where she received her formal training earning a BFA, studied in Europe for a summer, and went on to earn a Master's in Education at Bowling Green State University. But Debra came from humble beginnings. Which is what we'll talk about on today's episode of The Rough Draft Diaries.  

The Solheim Cup is headed to Toledo, Ohio in just about a week. It's a biennial golf tournament for professional women golfers with teams representing Europe and the United States. But this year it's also representing Toledo, Ohio and Diana Patton wants to make sure the event paints a true picture of what Toledo is made of. A city of diversity and growth.

After being hospitalized for a month due to a complicated surgery that resulted in a blood infection, Sonia Flunder-Mcnair turned to food and the power of herbs to regain her health. She's been advocating for others to do the same though a health, community based, grassroots initiative called Urban Wholistics, created to beautify open land in neighborhoods that have been historically excluded from access to holistic green spaces.

Oshae Jones continues to make history at the Tokyo Olympic Games 2020 after becoming the first female to represent Team USA and Toledo, Ohio in the welterweight division of boxing. She's already set to secure a medal as she heads in to semi-finals. But we're looking back to 2016, when The Rough Draft Diaries interviewed Oshae as a young boxer dreaming of gold.

Gail Christofferson's passion for glass, community projects, and creating mosaic art has taken her on a wonderful journey. From working in visual communications and marketing for many years to falling in love with the tactical quality of glass, we'll talk about how Gail got to where she is now on this episode of The Rough Draft Diaries. 

This week on The Rough Draft Diaries, The RDD visits India... at least Toledo's Festival of India. It's a unique experience with participants from all around the Greater Toledo Area, bringing Indian culture to Northwest Ohio and Southeastern Michigan.

We're headed outdoors on this episode of The Rough Draft Diaries, headed to the park! But not just any park a new inclusive park located in Perrysburg, Ohio. Tune in to hear Jamie O'Brien, a local physical therapist, explain what an inclusive park is and why it's particularly special to our community. 

This week on The Rough Draft Diaries we chat with Gabe Ng, the owner of Spacebar, an IT company that to connects the community to their technology and the technology to their community. We'll talk about more than computers though, it's a conversation on the joys of joining and supporting the small Midwest community, Sylvania.

This week on The Rough Draft Dairies we talk to Jerry Gray, artist and the creator of Bozarts Fine Art and Music Gallery, as he returns to an ever changing Toledo, looking to reconnect with the art scene he helped establish.

This week on The Rough Draft Diaries we're talking to Josh Lightle, a local filmmaker working alongside the Sylvania Arts to create programming for up-and-coming filmmakers. We'll talk about the 50-Hour Challenge, Shorties-U, and what the future holds for filmmakers in the Midwest.