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A national organization that Gen. Colin Powell founded gave out 36 grants of up to $20,000 each this month to students around the country with good ideas about how to encourage their classmates to stay in school and graduate.

Two of those national grants from America's Promise Alliance went to 17-year-old seniors at Buchtel High School.

Akil Gregory leads a team of seniors called the Griffin Scholars who won a $19,500 ''My Idea'' grant to ensure that freshmen stay on course for graduation.

Kaliah Nash won a $10,000 grant to help students stay on track for graduation at Buchtel and three other high schools: Ellet, East and Kenmore.

Both seniors attend Buchtel, but they are associated with two different organizations.

Project GRAD helped Gregory's team apply for the grant.

Nash participates in the Educational Development and Guidance for Employment (EDGE) program at East Akron Community House, which helps Buchtel, Ellet, East and Kenmore high school students get work experience and develop job skills.

Although Ellet has a 90 percent graduation rate, which is just enough to pass the state standard, East has the worst in Summit County with 74 percent, followed by Kenmore with 75 percent and Buchtel with 77 percent, according to the most recent state report cards.

Gregory's Griffin Scholars team (Steven Harris, Shavonda Johnson, Shanik Shropshire and Brianna Reed) will focus their efforts on making sure ninth-graders start high school on a firm footing and don't lose their way.

They started planning their grant application last spring.

''When you're just coming into high school, it's hard to get acclimated to all the different stuff that you have to do that's different from middle school, how people aren't really holding your hand as much anymore,'' Gregory said.

The money will help pay for dinners and other events that bring students and parents together to hear speakers and attend cultural events such as the Tuesday Musical Series at E.J. Thomas Hall.

They also want to improve Buchtel's image in the community by emphasizing academic achievements.

''When the community gets involved with seeing these freshmen grow up and they're involved in everything, they start to see that Buchtel really is a place where you can send your students and they'll learn,'' Gregory said.

Teaching aspirations

He belongs to the National Honor Society and is state president of the Future Educators Association. He hopes to attend Brown University and major in biomedical engineering so he can teach at a collegiate level.

Gregory had been a student at Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy in Cuyahoga Falls, but he said he decided to attend his neighborhood high school when he realized that the negative things he'd heard about it weren't true.

''When I go to CVCA and then I come back, I don't see anyone from that school because it's not my community,'' Gregory said. ''When I go to Buchtel and then I come out, I can't go anywhere around here, I can't go anywhere in the city anymore, without seeing somebody that I know, and it's nice to have that type of connection.''

The Griffin Scholars grant will be formally announced Saturday at a 9 a.m. rally at Buchtel for Project GRAD's annual Walk for Success — a day of activities in the Buchtel neighborhood to inform parents about Project GRAD's many programs aimed at boosting high school and college graduation.

Social marketing

Nash got the idea for her grant because of her association with consultant Patricia Smoot Wicks, who has a youth development program and works with EDGE.

Nash's idea called ''Get it Done!'' provides social marketing tools to help students hold each other accountable for staying on track with their grades to graduate.

They'll help students check periodic transcripts to make sure they're completing the necessary credits on schedule.

They'll use Twitter to announce events, and draw students from the four high schools where EDGE is active to the Facebook page.

''We're going to make a Facebook group, and that's just our way of marketing because most people my age and even adults are all over Facebook and Twitter,'' Nash said.

Nash hopes to attend college somewhere in the south and pursue a degree in international relations.

AT&T contributed $1 million to America's Promise Alliance, described as ''the nation's largest partnership organization dedicated to improving the lives of children and youth.''

Powell founded the organization in 1997. His wife, Alma, now serves as chairwoman.
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John Higgins can be reached at 330-996-3792 or jhiggins@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the education blog at http://education.ohio.com/.

''Thank you! I just called to say thank you!'' came the friendly voice. ''This is Quaid. Quaid McIver.''

It was a voice I was pleased to hear, but not one I had any hope of making contact with so soon.

The closest I had come to the 22-year-old Akron man was heartfelt conversations with his mother, Brenda McIver, and others who are praying for him.

Quaid, an industrious type, had always had two jobs, his equally industrious mother said.

It was while working at one of those jobs, as an automotive detailer at Lexus Akron-Canton, that Quaid suffered an accident of tragic proportions.

On the morning of July 3, an unoccupied SUV that he had been working on accelerated and slammed Quaid against the wall. The accident is still under investigation.

A few hours later, Quaid was at Akron General Medical Center undergoing lengthy surgery that resulted in the amputation of both legs above the knee.

To say that it has changed his life forever would be a major understatement.

But Quaid is calling on strength and faith he never knew he had to help him rebuild his life, one that, in time, will include prosthetic legs. The folks at Yanke Bionics are already working on that.

I'm eager to put Quaid in touch with other young men who have lost their legs and are now walking on their own.

In the meantime, Quaid is getting sweet support from some unlikely sources.

A manager from Chipotle-Arlington Ridge restaurant in Green phoned after reading the July 21 column about Quaid.

Employees at the popular eatery where Quaid was a regular hadn't known what happened to him, only that they missed him.

Quaid — who had lost 100 pounds since graduating from Buchtel High School by changing his eating habits — is a vegan and ordered the burrito bowl without the meat, cheese or sour cream every time he came into Chipotle. He never wavered from his selection. So the servers would often have it ready when he came in.

To help Quaid, the servers at Chipotle-Arlington Ridge are donating their tips for two weeks to the Quaid J. McIver Donation Fund at U.S. Bank (any branch). And when the time is right, they plan to personally deliver a burrito bowl to their loyal customer.

Fran and Larry Booker, who did not know Quaid McIver, also responded in positive fashion. The Tallmadge couple provided him with a wheelchair.

''My husband has an electric wheelchair that was used by his 59-year-old brother, an amputee,'' Fran Booker said in an e-mail.

''My husband was getting ready to put an ad in the paper to try and sell it.

''It can be used outside in the backyard, on rougher surfaces, sort of an all-terrain chair. . . .We would be happy to donate this chair to Quaid if he could use it.''

Many thanks to the Bookers for showing us how to love thy neighbor.

Deb Allen is a spokeswoman for Famous Supply, a wholesale distributor of plumbing, heating and cooling supplies. She called to offer her company's help after learning that the family had need of a handicapped-accessible bathroom. ''We would just need a contractor to offer to do the work,'' Allen said.

Allen said she had missed seeing Brenda McIver making her FedEx deliveries there and had wondered what happened to her.

''All I know is that we have to do something to help this family,'' Allen said.

Here's hoping an army of others feels the same way.

POSTED:  12:17 p.m. EDT, Aug 27, 2010 
Jewell Cardwell can be reached at 330-996-3567 or jcardwell@thebeaconjournal.com.

For 13 years, alumni of Akron's Buchtel High School have been gathering around the Thanksgiving holiday to commiserate with fellow Griffins past and present and boogie into the night at the annual Turkey Day Jam — All Class Reunion.

The Turkey Jam once again returns to the John S. Knight Center on Saturday, and this year's entertainment lineup will feature WZAK (93.1-FM) personality Kym Sellars, class of 1984, and actor Leland Jones, who has appeared in Tyler Perry's House of Payne. The music will be provided by two generations of home-grown smooth R&B crooners: Blake Carrington and Howard Hewett.

From his home in Harlem, N.Y., Carrington, class of 1988, has been building his career the old-fashioned way, independently releasing an album, Traveling Man, and a mix tape, The First R&B Street Soul Mix-Tape Vol. I. He has worked and recorded with artists such as Kid Capri and DJ Premier and has performed his contemporary R&B stylings as the opening act for Ne-Yo, Jagged Edge and Keyshia Cole.

Hewett, class of 1974, became a famous singer shortly after he left Akron for Los Angeles and hooked up with Shalamar, featuring Soul Train dancers Jody Watley and Jeffrey Daniel. Shalamar had a string of R&B/disco hits in the late 1970s and early '80s including The Second Time Around, A Night to Remember, Make That Move and the Hewett co-written and ''Quiet Storm'' staple For the Lover in You.

Hewett went solo in 1986 and had a string of solo hits, including I'm for Real, Stay and Say Amen.

Hewett will be back in his hometown this weekend to perform for the first time in quite a while. It will also be rare that Hewett will be visiting Akron during cold weather.

''I hate coming back in the wintertime, man. It's just way too cold. That's one of the reasons I left. But Akron is always home,'' he said laughing while driving through the nonsnow-covered streets of Los Angeles where he lives with his wife, Angela, and 10-year-old daughter, Anissa (he also has three other children).

''The thing that has always been a plus for me is the fact that I get so much support,'' he said. ''I come home and I get crazy response and crazy, total support from everybody I went to school with to everybody I came in contact with growing up.

''The people that are still there in Akron like claiming me, and it's just a really cool thing.''

During his formative years, Hewett performed in a gospel group with his sisters called the Hewett Singers and played in a local R&B band called Lyfe (''We were funky, man. Real funky,'' he said) with area musicians he still counts as friends.

For the Turkey Jam, Hewett said his set will cover his entire career from early Shalamar hits to his early solo hits to his latest releases, 2007's If Only and the season-appropriate Christmas. Christmas, released last week, is Hewett's first holiday disc and features 11 Christmas songs including two originals, I Remember Christmas and That's Christmas.

Helping out Hewett on the project are Earth, Wind & Fire drummer Ralph Johnson, who produced several tracks featuring fellow EWF members, as well as longtime friends George Duke and Monty Seward. The classics include The Christmas Song, featuring a lovely harmonica solo from Stevie Wonder, a bilingual take on Baby It's Cold Outside with young singer Jasselle offering her half of the duet in Spanish, and Donny Hathaway's modern classic This Christmas.

While many artists fill their holiday albums with choirs, strings and elaborate arrangements, Howard and company purposely keep things simple with many songs featuring a basic quartet offering smooth R&B and jazz-inflected support. On a brief yet contemplative version of Silent Night, Hewett takes considerable liberty with the tune's familiar melody accompanied only by EWF member Myron McKinley's tinkling piano. It's one of Hewett's favorite tracks on the disc.

''We had talked about different string arrangements and things, but I just love the simplicity of it,'' he said. ''I love the jazz influence on some of the songs. And as I looked at everything before we went into the studio, I just decided I wanted to keep it as simple as I can, more straight to the point and more organic.''

Hewett laments that he will miss the official family Thanksgiving dinner (though he is hoping someone will save him a plate or two) and he won't have much time to hang out with friends, fans and family.

He has to return to Los Angeles to prepare for a quick holiday tour and for his duties as a national spokesman for the Defeat Diabetes organization, which focuses on bringing awareness to diabetes. The cause is close to his heart because his mother suffered from the disease and died from diabetic complications.

Although his stay will be short, he said he is very excited.

''It's an honor to come back and play for the Turkey Jam and, hopefully, we'll have a packed house in there and everybody will be happy and we'll have a good time.''