Fresh Water uncovers the weird, the overlooked, the hidden, the has-been and even the naked in this rollicking roundup.

Trustees of Burton D. Morgan Foundation voted this month to make a grant of $10,000 to benefit those impacted by the recent terror attack in Orlando. The grant was made to Volunteer Florida Foundation, which is administering the Florida Disaster Fund. 
 
The Foundation primarily supports entrepreneurship initiatives in Northeast Ohio, but occasionally supports programs unrelated to entrepreneurship that benefit the surrounding community, or communities experiencing natural disasters or unprecedented tragedy. 

“Our Morgan Foundation trustees and staff are deeply saddened by the recent tragedy in Orlando, Florida," said Deborah Hoover, foundation president and CEO in a release. "We believe it is important to demonstrate our support for the victims, the families affected by the tragedy, and the entire Orlando community, as residents cope with loss and recovery," she added. 

"It is about one community reaching out to another with hope and encouragement."
 


 

In just three years, the Cleveland Culinary Launch and Kitchen has produced a wealth of successful food businesses, some of which have outgrown the incubator and moved on to their own locations.

For this week's Fresh Water, managing photographer Bob Perkoski chronicles the dazzling aftermath of the Cavaliers' historic championship win - with a royal narrative by Erin O'Brien.

Chess is a game that crosses racial, language and socioeconomic barriers, say its players and proponents. South Euclid resident Mike Joelson is doing his part to teach the millennia-old tradition to thousands of Northeast Ohio students.
 
Joelson is founder of Progress With Chess (PWC), an organization that offers after-school programs and camp-based instruction to 50 regional K-12 schools, reaching about 2,500 students annually. In harnessing a mission to improve the lives of area children and teenagers, PWC works with private schools as well as students from Cleveland's inner-ring suburbs and inner-city.
 
"We serve the entire spectrum of the community," says Joelson, a card-carrying national chess master who founded PWC as a nonprofit in 2000.
 
After-school sessions are held one hour per week. Though hourly instruction costs $9 per class, PWC also offers free programming to the Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD), paid through foundational and corporate grants.
 
"We have more demand than we can fill," says Joelson. "We're always looking for additional funding to help us serve more schools."
 
Chess skill level doesn't matter, as PWC takes on everyone from newbies to more seasoned players. 

"Students are divided into groups based on their age and skills," Joelson says. "We start off showing what the pieces do and how to play a legal game. More advanced students are taught advanced strategies and checkmate patterns."
 
Young chess charges are taught by two dozen independent contractors, some of them tournament veterans themselves. PWC instructors will be out in force this summer at chess camps in Beachwood, Parma, Westlake, CMSD's Patrick Henry School and elsewhere.
 
Joelson, who continues to play chess competitively on a local, state and national level, says the grand game embraces higher-level thinking abilities like pattern recognition and strategic planning, along with the critical life lessons of sportsmanship and perseverance.
 
"Every move you make has consequences, similar to life," says Joelson. "If you lose you're cool early, you'll keep that habit for the rest of the game."
 
Chess - and by extension PWC - is also a wonderful vehicle for exposing young people to those of different backgrounds.
 
"Multicultural and multiracial players are sitting in the same tournament and having a dialogue," says Joelson. "It's a win for everyone." 

Per Politico:

A slot at the Republican National Convention used to be a career-maker — a chance to make your name on the big stage and to catch the eye of the Republican donors and activists who make or break campaigns.

In the year of Trump: Not so much.With the convention less than a month away, POLITICO contacted more than 50 prominent governors, senators and House members to gauge their interest in speaking. Only a few said they were open to it, and everyone else said they weren’t planning on it, didn’t want to or weren’t going to Cleveland at all — or simply didn’t respond.

Read the whole story - including who they queried - here.

Tomorrow, June 25, from 2 – 5 p.m. in Lincoln Park on W. 11th Street in Tremont, the fourth annual Cleveland Big Wheel Relay to benefit the Cleveland Hearing & Speech Center will roll out.

Adult teams have raised funds to compete in a tournament racing Huffy Green Machine three-wheel bikes, which are designed to handle adult bodies. This year, an additional track will allow individuals to participate in timed, individual races. The event is free to attend.
 
The Big Wheel Relay is organized and hosted by the New Partners of Cleveland Hearing & Speech Center (CHSC), an associate board of young professionals focused on advancing CHSC’s mission both through service and fundraising. For more details about CHSC New Partners and this event, please visit this page.
 

Fresh Water contributor Nikki Delamotte offers up a perfect slice of Cleveland with an insider's tour of the Cedar-Lee neighborhood.

Meet Italo Gonzalez. He rides 6.6 miles to work most every day – including those marked by rain, sleet and snow. And he's not alone.

Last week in Cleveland, some 200 Forward Cities attendees from across the nation explored strategies that foster entrepreneurship and social innovation in minority communities.