A Christmas Party for kids with special needs is being held at Jefferson Primary School in Findlay.

ADDAPTCO is putting on the party on Thursday, December 1^st from 6:30 to 8 p.m.

The Sensory Santa portion of the party begins at 7 p.m.

People are invited to attend the party and enjoy some cookies, hot cocoa, crafts, pictures with Santa and more in a sensory-friendly environment.

ADDAPTCO is an All Developmental Differences & Abilities Parent Teacher Community Organization for children with within Hancock County.

It’s a 501c3 nonprofit organization run by a group of parents and educators familiar with the specific needs of children with developmental differences.

Their mission is to bring people together with a common goal of supporting, advocating, and empowering our special needs community.

Learn more about ADDAPTCO by clicking here.

The Hancock Historical Museum will host its monthly Brown Bag Lecture on Thursday, December 1st at noon.

Dr. Chuck Coletta, Teaching Professor of Popular Culture at Bowling Green State University, will give a lecture titled, “Good Grief! A History of the Peanuts Comic Strip and A Classic Christmas Special.”

Dr. Coletta earned BA and MA degrees in Literature from John Carroll University, and his doctorate in American Culture Studies from BGSU in 2000.

Thursday’s lecture is free for museum members, and $3 for nonmembers.

Reservations are requested but not required.

For more information, click here or call the Hancock Historical Museum at 419-423-4433.

The Ohio State Highway Patrol says 16 people were killed in 15 fatal crashes on Ohio roadways over the Thanksgiving reporting period this year.

Last year, 17 people were killed in 14 fatal crashes over the Thanksgiving reporting period.

Of the 16 killed this year, two were pedestrians, 10 were not wearing a seat belt and six crashes involved impaired driving.

Troopers arrested 270 people for operating a vehicle while impaired and 130 for drugs.

Troopers also issued citations for 686 safety belt and 100 distracted driving violations.

Throughout the holiday reporting period, troopers also assisted 1,542 motorists.

A statistical analysis of the Highway Patrol’s enforcement activity over the holiday is available by clicking here.

A lot of people came out to watch the City of Findlay’s Christmas Tree come aglow.

Santa Claus himself did the countdown as the 33-foot tall blue spruce lit up outside the municipal building on Friday night.

After the tree-lighting ceremony, Santa headed over to St. Andrew’s Church for Santa’s House, in which kids got pictures with Santa and enjoyed cookies and hot chocolate and wagon rides.

The 33-foot-tall blue spruce isn’t as big as last year’s behemoth which was around 45 feet tall and stood as tall as the Municipal Building, if not taller. That was the biggest tree the city ever had.

The city thanks Jim and Bonnie Albert for donating the tree and Miller Rigging for help getting the tree to Dorney Plaza and putting it up.

A man’s facing a variety of charges after allegedly leading police on vehicle and foot pursuits in Findlay.

The Findlay Police Department says an officer attempted to pull over Brendon Claypool, 30, of Arcadia, for a vehicle violation in the area of Carnahan Avenue and McConnell Street on Sunday night but he refused to stop.

The ensuing pursuit went down streets, through parking lots and alleys at speeds of up to 45 miles per hour.

Police say the half-mile pursuit came to an end when the driver exited his moving SUV and fled on foot.

Police say Claypool (below) reached into his waistband while fleeing and a police K9 was released to apprehend him.

The K9 made a successful apprehension of Claypool, who police say had three active warrants through Findlay Municipal Court.

He was also arrested for failing to comply with an order of a police officer and possession of drug abuse instruments.

A drug possession charge is pending lab results.

Claypool was taken to Blanchard Valley Hospital to be treated for injuries sustained in the K9 apprehension and then was booked at the Hancock County Jail.

The owners of a house severely damaged in a fire earlier in the year have decided to repair the damage instead of having it torn down.

The City of Findlay says the owners of 824 South Main Street had been working with their insurance to come to a determination as to whether the house was salvageable or would be declared a total loss.

Findlay Service-Safety Director Rob Martin says structural engineers surveyed the house and came to the determination that it is able to be fixed up.

He says the tentative timeline has crews starting to enclose the roof soon, and once enclosed they will work on the interior, with completion sometime next August.

The house was severely damaged when it caught on fire the night of May 1^st. (video below)

There was extensive fire, smoke and water damage and the roof collapsed.

The house had not been lived in for a while and nobody was injured in the fire.

A few weeks after the fire, Fire Chief Josh Eberle told WFIN that the official cause was listed as undetermined.

He said there was a significant amount of damage done to the area of origin, making it hard to pinpoint the exact cause.

And when investigators can’t arrive at a specific cause, a fire must be listed as undetermined.

He said they had 16 firefighters respond to the blaze and called in another six personnel from the previous shift.

Hancock County Job and Family Services is letting people know that their drop box has been relocated.

It can now be found in the back parking lot of the Hancock County ESC/OMJ building at 7746 County Road 140 in Findlay.

People are asked to use the drive between the Liberty Township Fire Department and the ESC/OMJ building.

The drop box will be on the left hand side of the lane right before the lane opens up into the back parking lot.

Officials say the change will not conflict with daily operations or current policies or procedures.

The Arlington Local School District has a lot of work ahead of it now that voters approved an income tax and bond issue for a new school earlier in the month.

Superintendent Kevin Haught was on with WFIN’s Chris Oaks to talk about the timeline for the new school.

As Kevin mentioned in the audio above, he expects the design phase to take from 12 to 18 months, and the building phase to take 18 to 24 months.

The new school will be located on 40 acres of land the school district purchased behind the current school.

Kevin says they hope to begin the public input process on the design for the new school in April.

He says the current 100-year-old building will be torn down, except for the 1992 addition, which has the current gym and some classrooms.

Kevin says he’s thankful to voters for their support of the new school and says it will be a big benefit for the entire community.

(BGSU) – A Bowling Green State University senior is creating public good after recently discovering that he was a blood stem cell match for a woman living with leukemia.

Late one night in January, Dylan Coleman was scrolling through TikTok when he came across a video of a little girl from St. Louis meeting her life-saving bone marrow donor – a sophomore in college.

The video had such an impact on the Findlay native that he began researching Be the Match, the organization credited with the video of the pair meeting.

“It was a really powerful video,” Coleman said. “It was so heartwarming to see that the selfless act of one person saved that little girl’s life.”

By the next day, Coleman had ordered his swab kit from Be the Match, the first step in joining the national registry of potential blood stem cell donors.

Be the Match is a national nonprofit organization that connects patients, including the thousands of people diagnosed every year with leukemia, lymphoma and other life-threatening diseases, with their donor match.

On Oct. 31 – the same day the University was holding its own Be the Match registry event – Coleman received a call notifying him he was a match for a woman with leukemia.

The process has been swift for Coleman, who has already had a comprehensive physical and was scheduled to donate blood stem cells Nov. 21.

“It’s kind of hard to put into words,” Coleman said. “I’m an organ donor, but I’ve never donated blood or plasma before because I get nauseous around blood and needles. This is different, though. You might be the only match this one person has. You could be their only hope.”

Coleman is set to make a peripheral donation, one of two methods used for donating blood stem cells for bone marrow transplants. Similar to donating blood platelets, the blood passes through a machine that collects the stem cells, and the remaining blood is returned through a needle in the other arm, according to Be the Match.

Coleman said he might be sore for a few days following the procedure, which can take up to eight hours, but there are no long-term side effects.

“I’m definitely willing to endure a little pain, especially considering what the patient is going through,” he said.

Coleman said the entire process has been truly eye-opening, and he’s looking forward to potentially meeting his recipient someday.

“If she agrees to it, we can exchange anonymous communication after six months and can share our names and contact information after one year,” he said. “I would love to meet her and share a moment similar to the one I watched on TikTok that inspired this entire journey.”

(picture and story courtesy of BGSU)

The Findlay-Hancock County Convention and Visitors Bureau invites you to kick off your holiday shopping on Small Business Saturday on November 26th with a ribbon cutting across Main Street at 9 a.m.

Santa and his elves will be on-hand to cut the ribbon to mark the beginning of the holiday shopping season.  Small business owners and Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors will join the celebrations.  Many small business owners will then return to their stores to open early for the day.

The ribbon cutting will take place across Main Street in-between Sandusky and Crawford Streets.  Main Street will temporarily be closed for the ribbon cutting.

Many local stores, restaurants, coffee shops, and bars will be offering extended hours and specials in celebration of Small Business Saturday.

In addition to Small Business Saturday, local businesses are also offering discounts and special hours for Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Giving Tuesday.  See a complete list of hours and discounts by clicking here.

First introduced by American Express in November 2010, Small Business Saturday encourages holiday shoppers to take advantage of the local businesses in their community.  Since then, the event has grown as an official day recognized by the United States Senate and championed in all 50 states and territories.

According to a 2016 Small Business Saturday Consumer Insights Survey 15.4 billion dollars were spent at independently owned businesses and restaurants on that day.