(upbeat music) - Hey out there, Akronites.

Welcome, once again, to "Around Akron with Blue Green."

On this episode, we're gonna visit kayaks, honey bees, dancing, and dipped delights.

I'm gonna head down to Portage Lakes and catch up with Killinit Kayaks.

Then, I'm gonna visit Mueller Honey Bee Rescue and learn all about honey bees.

Then, it's off to the University of Akron to check out ArtSparks and see what they're all about.

Now to kick this show off today, we're gonna head down to the North Side Marketplace and meet up with Essential Dipped Delights and learn all about their dipped goodness.

Let's go see what Essential Dipped Delights is all about.

(gentle music) - Always had an entrepreneur spirit.

So I was trying to... Actually, I started around Valentine's Day just making chocolate covered strawberries, and the response from the people who supported me was a great response.

So I decided to do it more often.

And then I'm like, well, I knew I wanted to be my own boss, because I've always worked so hard for anyone else that I've worked for.

So that is where Essential Dipped Delights came from.

I had just started around Valentine's Day as like a hobby, something just to do.

Didn't really know what I was doing, was just kind of learning as I went.

And the response was awesome.

So I decided to keep doing it part-time here and there, and then I got more serious and actually made it, turned it into a business.

(chill music) So we dip fresh fruit, so fresh fruit, pretzels, Oreos, pretty much anything that won't ruin our chocolate.

(laughs) We also offer fresh fruit bowls and salads and trays.

We wanna offer some healthier options as well and not just sugar.

(chill music) It was a learning experience, but back then, Sam's Club is where I bought my strawberries from, and they were great.

It was great quality as far as big, juicy, ripe, but the chocolate was a learning experience, absolutely, because I went through so many melting and burnt, not really knowing exactly how to melt it properly, and it would stick on some.

But then I got different colors, color melts and things.

It's funny, 'cause I look back when I first started and I was like I really didn't know what I was doing, (laughs) but people purchased them.

So when I saw the support, it made me feel like, okay, you really have something here.

You can make this happen.

(chill music) It's trying out things.

When you're an entrepreneur, your mind really never quits.

You're always thinking of new ways, trial and error, what works, what doesn't work, what do people like, what they don't like.

So I then just start adding to the menu.

Now I offer dessert jars like my banana pudding, cheesecake jars.

I offer like cheesecake stuffed waffle cones, cheesecake stuffed apples, and just very unique items that you...

Some of our items, you really can't go anywhere locally to purchase them.

Just trying to offer a variety of things that I know you can't go to other vendors or shops to grab.

So people come here from all over the place, because once they try certain items, they're hooked, (laughs) so they gotta come back.

(chill music) I recently got a food truck.

So I'm looking to getting that all decked out and adding it to our brand for different services, so we can come out, get out into the area.

We'll be adding more healthier menu as far as salads, wraps, croissants, some lighter fare, pasta salads and things of that nature.

Dessert wise, we now offer ice cream as well, ice cream sundaes, which was perfect coming in right before spring, right before summer.

So we're always trying new things, and we're working on a vegan menu also, because we do get a lot of requests.

We have certain vegan options like vegan chocolates.

So we do our pineapples, pretzels, strawberries, grapes, cherries.

We have all of those that you can get with our vegan chocolate, but we're working on different vegan pastries to have those to offer as well.

(chill music) It's hard having a vision or having a dream and not having the support, because you won't find it a lot of time within your family, within your loved ones, within your friends.

They might not believe in you, but someone out there does, and you just gotta believe in yourself to know that you can do it.

Like I didn't go to college.

I took some college courses, but my nobody pushed me when I got outta high school to say, what is it you wanna do?

They just was like, "I'm good, I'm happy you graduated."

They didn't really believe in me.

So I had to believe in myself, and I wanted to break cycles for my children.

I don't want them to follow my footsteps as when I came outta high school.

I want them to be great at whatever.

I want them to know you have the support.

You can do whatever you want to as long as it's not hurting you or hurting anyone else.

Go out there.

This is a big world.

Use that brain, that mind.

My kids are so smart and intelligent.

Like I'm just waiting to see what comes out of them as grown adults.

So me building this foundation right here for them to know it's possible.

One day I do plan on having multiple locations and being able to franchise.

That's the goal, giving other people the opportunity to see wow, Takila did that?

She did that.

I know I can do that.

(chill music) - Next up, we're gonna head down to Portage Lakes.

Do you ever wanna go kayaking but you don't wanna buy all the equipment?

Well, Killinit Kayaks got you covered.

Let's go see what Killinit Kayaks' all about.

(gentle music) - Actually I always kind of worked for somebody else until I just one day realized that I don't wanna work for somebody else anymore, and that's kind of what got it going.

I moved out to this community and saw an absolute need for the service I provide, and it just all clicked.

And here we are (laughs) literally.

(gentle acoustic music) The idea started as I bartended at a local bar out here that was called Howie's at the time.

It's now Dano's I just saw a bunch of kayakers come in, and I thought to myself, why doesn't anybody rent these out on the lake as much as everybody wants to get into this?

And this is like seven or eight years ago.

I started writing down in a notebook ideas, and I had a business plan drawn up in about a year in my head and everything else, had some sketches of trailers and the whole thing.

And I actually sat down at my parents' house and ran it past them and said, "This is what I think."

And by the time I got done, they were like, "Get the checkbook, we'll help you out."

And I didn't even expect that.

You know what I'm saying?

That's not what I was...

I was just trying to get it outta my head and say this is what I wanna do.

So I started out with...

I took the little small loan they gave me, and I got six kayaks, six paddle boards, and a $100 trailer.

And I built the trailer outta wood, which I still use today, same trailer.

And I did it out of my house that I didn't even live this close to lake.

I lived down by Manchester Road down further down.

So I did that for about, I don't know, say, maybe three months.

Driving down the road and this place came available, the house, and it just so happened something was going on where I had to move outta that place.

The landlord needed to sell it.

They were selling their house, something weird.

Literally on the phone, came here, found this place.

And within, I'd say, two months of living here, this place came available, which is right next door to the house.

So, just everything, it's like it was meant to be.

Everything went, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

And then, that was my first season outta here, half the season outta that other house, and then the rest of the season outta here.

So, it was awesome.

(gentle acoustic music) Throughout the years, a long time ago, the house and this, this was a garage.

This was a towing company called Wallace Towing years and years and years ago like in the 50s and 60s, maybe 70s, something like that.

Then sometime in the 90s, a family lived here that did all kinds of video work actually for the gas company, the electric company and stuff.

They filmed videos, instructional videos, commercials, things like that in this house, and they stored all the tapes here.

So it was like a storage unit for a while.

When I moved in, this was an apartment.

So there was actually people living in there.

And so then they moved out and then I gutted it out and made it a shop.

(gentle music) It really, really took off the most during COVID when everybody kind of had nothing to do.

Everybody had a couple hundred dollars extra in their pocket.

Everybody went and bought kayaks to the point where they actually created a bubble of a year out on kayaks on a lot of places to be able to buy them.

So it's literally probably tripled or quadrupled in two, three years.

I was probably on a nice even gradual rise.

And then 2020, it went straight up just to the sky, and it's still just kind of flat lining up there, and people were still interested in it.

It's the cheapest thing you can do.

It doesn't cost any...

There's no noise.

There's no gas.

No, it doesn't cost you any more than the rental.

You go out.

You go all day.

You do whatever you want in it.

You can bring your own lunch, pack a lunch, stop off, do whatever you want.

You're at your own power.

You're at your own speed.

It's probably one of the most relaxing things to do honestly.

(upbeat music) Thanks to COVID, again, we kind of changed the structure of how we do things.

We do reservation only, do it online.

In the summertime, it's probably best to go 24 hours in advance and put in your reservation, but you just fill out a reservation online.

Then once you've reserved, you'll get a text back from us and we'll say, hey, you're confirmed and be here this time, whatever.

So you show up at the shop and once you show up at the shop, you pay, then you'll follow us to the park.

And it's simple as that.

Then you just go out, do your thing, come back to your car, and we pick up the kayak and everybody's on their merry way.

(gentle beat music) I would say like especially if you're out here on the main lake where there is boats, a lot of times when you're kayaking in any kind of waters, you're gonna encounter some sort of a boat or something, the small craft that's not powered by a motor has the right away, but that doesn't always resonate with a lot of boaters that don't know the rules.

So my advice is I would say you have miles and miles and miles of shoreline of inches of water that you can kayak in.

You don't need to be out in the middle of the lake for any reason.

A lot of water, the boats can't really physically get into, because they're shallow enough that it's gonna hurt their motors or whatever, and you can just go right through with no problem.

So I always advise people to kind of stay off to the edges, and kind of think of it like a car when you're passing people.

You want to kind of go the direction like when you're driving, 'cause that's generally what the boats are gonna be doing too.

Never sight see or take pictures in the channels or the bridges.

Just keep moving.

(laughs) Be moving and stay out of the way of the boats.

(gentle music) - Next up, we're gonna head over to Mueller Honey Bee Rescue.

Now honey bees are very important.

They're one of our biggest pollinators.

And without them, we wouldn't have a lot of food.

Now they rescue the bees and give them a proper life.

Let's go see what Mueller Honey Bee Rescue is all about.

(upbeat drum music) - My sister started beekeeping.

She did some awesome work out in California.

And so she came back to Ohio and started her own hives, and she was just so into it and telling me all these different things that just seemed amazing about bees.

And so over time, a couple of years, I just kind of got used to being around them, listening about them, and sharing their importance with other people.

And so actually, my dad had always wanted bees, so we bought him a father's day present and bought him a hive.

And so he expanded into about 10 to 15 colonies, and they kept dying every year.

So my dad gave me an empty hive and we had it.

However, we lived in a very small area and had landlords, and they were not down with us having bees.

So it kind of stopped there for a year.

And the following year, we moved, and I put up an ad on Craigslist to catch a free storm of bees with just high hopes, 'cause our budget didn't have like the space to afford bees at the time.

And somebody called us from Hartville, and there was a swarm up in the tree of an apple tree.

And my husband and I went out.

I was like six months pregnant.

So he's the one that did the removal.

We had never had any hands-on experience.

We had never been next to a swarm, and we didn't have any bee suits.

(laughs) So he climbed the ladder, and he went to knock the bees down into a box just the way we were told that it was super easy.

And when he did that, all the bees spilled all over him.

And that was my husband's introduction to honey bees.

I took off running, 'cause I was pregnant.

I was scared to death.

He didn't get any stings, and that was kind of a realization like, wow, these insects are really amazing.

They recollected themselves into the box.

We closed it up and we drove away.

We put them in that empty box, and they survived winter.

Once they survived, I had to do what's called splitting.

So the hive grows so large, I have to put it in two.

And from there, we ended up going up to 18 hives the second year.

(upbeat jazz music) I love it.

It's like this huge adrenaline rush.

People like to race bikes and things like that.

I love to catch bees.

What is it like?

I mean you have 10 to 20,000 bees in a ball, and you have to first go up to it and kind of learn its demeanor and see what their personality's like.

Some bees are totally cool with you, and some bees are going to attack you and they're gonna let you know that they are just not welcoming of your presence.

That's the first thing I do is I read the swarm and just kind of understand if they are appreciative of me being there.

And if not, I have to put on a bee suit.

If they don't mind, which most swarms, I mean, I would say 95% of swarms do not care.

It is usually just gray weather and rainy weather that they will kind of get a little bit testy, because they don't wanna be rained on.

It's such a feeling of success when you take this possible chance of... Like honey bees are methods of survival.

They pollinate a lot of our food, most of it.

And so me being the vessel to put them in a box and take them home and know that they're safe and they're not going to be sprayed or killed or get inside of somebody's wall where they would be exterminated, it just is such a feeling of an accomplishment, a huge adrenaline rush.

(bees buzz) We do bee beards to raise awareness about the importance of honey bees and also their docility, how gentle and sweet they are.

And so we do the photo shoot for that purpose, but I almost have to like sit here and think about it for a second.

What is it like?

It is like fear and excitement in one ball (laughs) kind of thing.

So here in Ohio, I might be one of the oddities, but out there in California, it's kind of a normal thing that they do.

The bee beard is almost a representation of how connected you are with nature and your bees in general.

And so being able to put them on my body and sit there and be able to be in that meditation state where I don't feel fear and I am connected that closely, it's just awe inspiring.

Like it really is.

There's a huge adrenaline rush.

And then once you get the bees off of you, I would say the scariest part is getting the bees off, because the pheromone's on you from the queen.

And so it's a little bit difficult, but once they're off, then you go woohoo, I lived.

(laughs) Like I'm alive, and it's okay.

But then I look at the pictures.

Kendrah Damis Photography is who does it every year for me.

And when I look at the pictures, I'm just like, how does she do that?

Like how does she create this?

But we do it together, these amazing photos, just to kind of show, one, how weird we are and, two, how awesome honey bees can be.

(bees buzz) Planting flowers, native species especially, because something like petunias and impatiens, they look pretty, but they don't do anything.

They don't feed bees.

So it's providing the right food sources.

Native species, especially are really great.

You can plant trees.

Believe it or not, maple trees are really beneficial.

They collect the pollen from those early on in the spring.

Allowing your dandelions to grow.

Dandelions are bees' first food.

So when you are killing your dandelions, whatever chemicals you spray on those dandelions, the bees will collect and take 'em back to their hive, and it will slowly kill out the hive as well, or as they're building their comb with the wax, 'cause they grow the wax on their abdomen, they're mixing in those chemicals into the wax.

So the wax becomes unsafe for people to consume for chapsticks and stuff.

But other than that, if you see an insect, don't kill it, Just admire it.

Just look at it and say, oh wow, it's really neat that they can be on a flower.

Instead of killing and smashing them out of fear, just allowing them to do as they want to, allowing your flowers to grow.

We have five and a half acres here, and we've basically allowed four acres of it to overgrow.

And at nighttime, I mean it looks like a festival of lights with all the lightning bugs.

People across the street, they're like, "We haven't seen lightning bugs in years," and here we have billions of them.

It's because we don't use any chemicals, no pesticides.

We allow nature to grow as it's supposed to, that kind of thing, just allowing nature to survive, and everything else will survive with it.

(gentle music) - Now to wrap this show up today, we're gonna head down to the University of Akron and learn all about the ArtSparks Program.

It's so much goodness you just gotta see it.

Let's go see what ArtSparks is all about.

(upbeat music) - So I was a dancer my whole life.

In fact, I sort of grew up on the campus of the University of Akron.

And when I started teaching here, I realized that I really wanted to bring a program into the public schools like I had witnessed in my past.

And just sort of by great luck, I was here at the university and had some fabulous students who could be unbelievable teachers out there, and it just was a sort of a synergistic moment for me.

And I had great partners at the time to help me start the organization.

ArtSparks started, because of a program that's in the New York City public schools that was founded by Jacques d'Amboise who was a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet.

And his company, National Dance Institute, is a company that I had known about and studied with.

And so their pedagogy is just so unique and so transformational for so many students in New York City that I wanted to bring that to Akron.

(upbeat piano music) - Going into my eighth year with ArtSparks.

Kara Cea, our wonderful founder, was actually my professor here at the wonderful University of Akron, and she caught me at just the right time when I had an injury that was taking me out of the professional dance world.

And she said, "You know what?

"I think you might make a really great teacher."

And she got me involved with ArtSparks, and I haven't looked back.

This is just a wonderful way to share my love of dance, and it's so rewarding being with kids who love it as much as I do, which I never thought I'd be in a whole room, a whole world of students that love it as much as I do.

(upbeat music) - We have a preschool program that's supported by the GAR Foundation here.

It's part of the essential experiences in Akron public schools, and we reach every single preschooler in the school district with our Ready Spark Kindergarten Program.

- We have a lot of programs, yes.

So this program that's right behind me is our scholarship students.

These are the students who all had ArtSparks in one of their public schools.

So most of their students come from Cuyahoga Falls and Akron public schools.

We work with each of those districts during the school day through pretty much the duration of their school year, their 30 week programs.

And we see the students once a week for a 45 minute class block where they're learning not just dance, but also learning through dance.

They're diving into a core curricular subject that will become this big, fantastic performance at the end of the year at a big theater with live musicians, full set, and costumes.

So it's a really rich experience.

- Then we have a program that's also in the Akron public schools that's called our Dynamite Duos Program, and that program pairs students with developmental disabilities with their typically developing peers.

And that program is just phenomenal in the way that it brings children together, helps children realize that no matter who you are and what maybe your perceived limitations are that you can be creative and be supportive of others in ways that are really impactful.

So really proud of that program.

We have popup programs that are in the summer.

We work with Akron public schools in their mystery camps.

We have a lot of really fabulous partnerships with people like Weathervane and the Akron Symphony Orchestra.

Oftentimes we come in and we'll work in their camps or help them with some of their programming.

So we've really sort of been integrated into the community in so many really wonderful ways.

(upbeat music) - [Erica] The more I study dance, the more I realize that it used to be something that was so accessible.

Everyone sees dance, I think, stereotypes that almost as only if you train in ballet or if you go and take tap and you're ready for musical theater, those are the only people that can dance.

Dance used to be something that everybody just did, because it was part of social interaction.

It was a part of celebrating our culture.

It was a part of just training our bodies and training ourselves for social standing.

It was something that everybody did, and that's just at our very, I think, root of who we are as humans.

Sometimes I can't explain it, but I feel like I feel that anytime I bring dance to a new group of students.

It's like this is what we've always been supposed to do.

(upbeat music) - Typically what will happen is somebody will come into the very first class.

It's September.

We're in their school.

They're not quite sure about, what is this dance program?

And they're shy, 'cause they realize, oh, I'm gonna have to do this in front of my peers.

And yet the environment is so supporting of them that they start to take risks and start to blossom.

And it's so interesting, because so many times it's that child who is hiding in the back row that ends up in the front row at the performance, because they have found a way to be a star on stage whereas in a typical classroom, maybe they might not feel so empowered.

(upbeat piano music) - Five, six, seven, eight.

(kids shout) Mhm, add that on.

From the beginning, which is a... (kids murmur) There's so much I could say about what we do.

(laughs) It is really special, I think, to see what happens when you really commit to giving kids the best.

That's a quote that we kind of live by, always making sure that we have professional musicians, professional level experiences, that our kids are performing on a professional stage that we give the kids the best, so that they know that they're worth it.

You're worth being the best, and that maybe someday that you will go on and pass the best to someone else.

♪ Thank you, ♪ Thank you, teachers ♪ Thank you, thank you, teachers ♪ ♪ And thank you Blue Green ♪ And thank you to Blue Green ♪ And thank you to PBS ♪ And thank you to PBS ♪ And thank you to the band ♪ And thank you to the band ♪ And ♪ And ♪ And and and and ♪ And and and and ♪ Oink oink oink ♪ Oink oink oink ♪ Goodbye ♪ Goodbye (Erica murmurs) (drum rolls) - Thank you, once again, for watching this episode of "Around Akron with Blue Green."

Now if you have any questions or comments, you just wanna drop me an email, you can reach me or you can catch me on social media.

Thank you and have an amazing day.

(upbeat music) Let's go see what Mueller Honey Bee... Ah, Honey Bee Rescue.

(upbeat music) (sighs) Kayaks, honey bees.

Ah.

(clears throat) (scats) (upbeat music)