Hey out there, Akronites!

Welcome once again to Around Akron with Blue Green.

And yes, we have an amazing show ahead of us today.

We're going to head down to Nimisila Lake.

Then I'm going to head over to downtown Akron to Museville.

And to kick this show off today, it's over to meet up with Jeremy Caudill, also known as The Bossman.

Let's go see what the Bossman is all about.

- I'm Jeremy, the Bossman, Caudill, and, the Bossman— A very interesting situation with the Bossman where that name came from.

I'm in pro wrestling also.

On Ohio Championship Wrestling, and that name started being thrown out there, and it kind of stuck.

So everybody is calling me Bossman.

So that's where that came from.

My whole entire life I've been an entrepreneur.

At a young age, I started doing singing telegrams way back in the day.

I was always into theater and choir and... Yeah.

So I started doing some singing telegrams back then, and that kind of just, then I kind of rolled with my own company for a while doing that.

I had no idea what I was doing.

My son was very little.

He was about four years old.

And I get all of these opportunities.

It seems like coming by me daily.

And I’ve seen a pro wrestling company, that's kind of cool.

And I was like looking at it.

And he was four years old.

He was like really into pro wrestling back then.

And I'm like, “Hey son, would you want to do this business?” You know, I was thinking this would be a good learning situation.

And in my head I was like, well, if we can't make the wrestling work, we're going to have some killer birthday parties.

I was like— So and next thing you know, I got hooked up with the right people, and it's really taken off from there.

More, like, the Vince McMahon type, you know, where every once in a while I'll get hit with a chair.

It seems like I get hit with chairs more often than I do the hitting.

This is our summer tour that we're on now, and in August, we're getting ready to do the Mogadore Festival.

We got a place in Paolino’s we're going to hit in August.

We do our last match here is our summer, like, big show, and then we're doing a cage match.

So the Kill Box Comedy Club.

I'm partners with Mr.

Chris Harvey on that.

He's a local comedian, and he tours around with Steve-O.

I had the building and I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it.

And some people approached me, and then I've worked with Chris in the past on some things.

You know, I was thinking, it's going to really struggle until, like, you know, the later fall that's usually when it’s taken off, but it's really done great.

Yeah.

He's been getting some good talent over there.

Like tonight we have open mic night and open mic night’s getting so big where we have to, like, really turn people away.

Something I’m really passionate about is Bossman Rides.

So Bossman Rides is, well, I ride around the country and I go around just, spreading the awareness of the 22 veterans that die daily of suicide.

And there's one active duty member that loses their life every day to suicide.

It's unbelievable the numbers.

And, you know, that gives me an opportunity to go around and just spread that.

And I love spreading the word, doing the karaoke around the world or around the country.

This location, this is a dream come true for me.

I am so passionate about this place.

I grew up right down the road in Lakemore, and I used to swim all the time in Springfield Lake.

And when we got to come here, it was like, oh my gosh, this is like the beach.

You know, this was like— My grandma used to bring me here.

This place has been open since 1952, is when he started it, when he got it off the ground, it was in the late 50s.

Yeah.

And I had an opportunity to get this, and it actually came on the market, and I bid on it, and I didn't get it.

And I told the realtor, I said, “Listen, I really, really would want this place if it comes back on the market.

So feel free to call me back.” They called me back a little over a year, and they asked me if I still had interest, and I said, absolutely.

And at the time, I knew nothing about the swimming business.

And so Mr.

Patton is the one that built this.

So he was in World War Two.

When he came back from World War Two he had this vision, this dream, and it's unbelievable how he designed this and build it, how it filters itself.

There's an underground river here.

And he was able to tap into that river.

That spring that's going on behind me there.

That is tap directly into the river.

That's 50 degree water coming out now.

It's just clear and pure as can be.

Yeah, guys, another thing we're doing now in the mornings.

So in the big pavilion back there, we have three pavilions.

And the big one, we have this huge coffee set up.

So, people are coming in the mornings walking the beach.

So like four times around it's almost the size of a track.

So they've been coming out.

You know, we usually start around 7:30-8:00.

And people come out, get some exercise, drink some coffee.

There's no cost to it.

Just come on out and enjoy the park.

I’ve been just trying to get people here to enjoy this.

I’d love for your followers to come on out and just check this place out, man, because this is, this is like a gym that's been around since the 1950s.

And this is generational.

Like my grandma brought me here, my mom, you know?

- Well, next up it's off to downtown Akron to meet up with Stephanie Serna and learn all about how she turned tragedy into something amazing.

- I'm originally from California and born and raised in California.

Long Beach mainly.

And I moved here in 2005.

Well, you know what, it was magical at first, you know, snow and living and all that.

But then my family was like, oh, how long is this going to last?

But I actually really enjoyed the seasons, you know, we didn't have those in California.

And it's funny because when winter would come in California, I would feel like I wanted to kind of shut down a little bit.

And LA, everything's like, all the time, you know, people are just going, going, going.

So it actually kind of suited me moving here.

I really enjoyed the seasons.

When I was 20, I started getting headaches and I had a really bad sinus thing, and I thought it was just this ongoing cold.

But the headaches got worse and worse.

And so I kept going to the doctor, and sometimes it’d get so bad I’d have to go the ER.

But I was misdiagnosed for like five months and come to find out, it was a tumor.

And by the time they caught it, it was almost inoperable.

They went ahead and decided to go through the surgery.

I went through a couple of different second opinions.

The first HMO that I went to was not— If I had gone with them, I probably wouldn't be alive right now.

So I went ahead and got the surgery at City of Hope, California.

Great place.

And I survived.

But little did I know that the doctors told my family that I had like a 5% chance of surviving.

So, you know, and I kind of had this deal with God, you know, when I, when they were wheeling me in there, I'm like, hey, God, listen, if you want me to die of cancer, please just take me on the table, you know?

But if I wake up, I know I have a purpose.

So I have to say, that moment that I woke up out of that surgery, which was a 17 hour surgery, by the way.

When I woke up, I was like, I'm alive.

I'm alive.

All right, let's go.

You know, even though I had to go through a lot of things after that, you know, radiation, chemotherapy and I was in the hospital for a month and all that.

I knew that there was something for me.

When I was in the ICU, I had this strange experience where I saw children around my bed.

And I, and they were just, like driving me crazy because they were playing and playing and playing hide and seek.

And I finally, you know, I couldn't talk.

And so I would write things to my family.

And one day I was like, “Whose kids are these?” And my mom and my sister said, “There's no kids in here.” I was like, “Oh, okay.” And I sort of forgot about that, you know, that little vision I had in the ICU until years later when I opened ARK, Artist Reaching out to Kids, and the kids were all running around the gallery playing hide and seek and I’m like, oh, my God, this is what I saw, you know?

One of the doctors told my family, like, this is the worst case of negligence.

I would pursue this legally.

And they did.

And I got a settlement.

And with that money is when I opened that nonprofit in California.

So.

And that all worked out, you know, and, isn't it strange how things work out like that?

I have been a musician since I was a teenager.

You know, I played guitar, and at that time I was involved in music in the church and all that kind of stuff.

And yeah, I was involved with that.

I studied music therapy.

Well, after I had the surgery and all that.

But in my 20s, I started out as a music therapy major and, I was in music school for a while and, but yeah.

And then I continued on with music and some bands, and then I taught children and developmentally disabled adults, music.

as well as some musical (unintelligible) and some were super talented.

I often say that good things happened in my life as a result of tragedy.

It's kind of strange how that happens, you know.

Like, for instance, ARK happened after I had the cancer thing.

I took care of a neighbor of mine in the last three years, three years ago.

And she was someone who had taken care of everybody in her family, and they all died.

And then now she was left alone and she needed help.

So I started helping her.

And then, as it turned out, she ended up eventually moving in with me and I took care of her the last six months of her life.

Well, I really didn't know that she was going to leave me money, but she did.

And so that money... I used it as a, you know, to pay for half of the building.

And then my partner, who took a second out on his house and we were able to find a place cash.

So we're still kind of funding it out of pocket, but you know, we just wanted to have a place to call our own and open the doors and say, come on in what do you want to do?

Okay, let's talk about it, you know?

And that's what's happening.

People are coming in and saying, “Oh, I want to do this.

I want to do that.” Yeah.

We have learning workshops.

People are putting up shows.

People are curating music shows.

- Now that we know Stephanie's story, let's go see what Museville is all about.

- They wanted Pure Intentions to stay.

And I'm... Maybe I'm the new version of Pure Intentions.

At least we're starting with Pure Intentions.

In fact, a friend of ours, Ralph, who does his open mic here once a month, he came up with a saying, “Pure intentions paved the road to Museville.” And we have it right there.

Right where the entrance is.

I've been on a spiritual path my whole life, but honestly, it all comes back to the Wizard of Oz, it really does.

You're like, well, what religion are you like?

Well, I'm iin the church of The Wizard of Oz, which is basically everything you need is inside of you.

If you want to have happiness, you're going to have to go beyond your own backyard.

You know?

I went to Kansas and brought back this little girl, this little trailer, we're calling her Dorothy.

As you can see, we have the Wizard of Oz theme going on here.

And when I brought her back, my friend Nicole is an amazing artist.

She was here when I pulled in the Dorothy trailer and she just took a look at it against that white wall, and she's like, “I'm going to do a mural.” “I'm going to paint a whole scene behind that.” And then she then— And then she's like, “And now I'm going to do a rainbow over here.” So she just kind of went wild and I couldn't stop her.

I'm like, “Go, go, do it.” So that's Nicole (unknown), amazing artist.

She was involved in the workshop.

This one is like the art trailer.

This is a piece of art itself.

This is completely refurbished.

The woman made it to its original standards.

It's got, like, birch wood, and it's got (unknown) inside.

It's really a beautiful piece.

And so that's the trailer that we meet artists in and have private meetings.

You can probably also rent it out for two for two, or there's tarot readings that happen in there.

Miss Julie brought her crystal ball and did readings in there.

So that's a very special place for people that want to have, you know, a private meeting.

I moved here and ARK closed and everything.

I've been wanting to try to open something like that here, and I've met so many artists and musicians who... Well, first of all, Pure Intentions was a great place for all of us to gather and just do our thing and not, you know, not have to worry about... Kathy Evans was just a wonderful person.

She just let us come and go as we wanted, and we would have an open mic.

We'd have parties and things like that here.

And when she ended up leaving last year, there was definitely a gap in our community, you know?

But, so I thought about this place, but it wasn't for sale.

So I've looked at various places over the last ten years.

I've looked at a couple of churches, I looked at a house, I looked at some other places and nothing really worked out.

And so I was talking with a friend of mine, (unknown) Hutchins, who... She's one of the people who would introduce me to the community here.

And her husband passed away.

And after he passed away, she wanted to open a place, you know, in his honor.

And we had talked about that through the years.

So it was just like recently that she and I and my partner Michael, who actually lives in California.

So I go out there a lot to see him.

Anyway, we were all talking about how we want to do this, and after we had breakfast, we went out and started looking.

And I found it, found a church that we made an offer on in Kenmore.

I said, well, maybe Kenmore is the place.

But what happened was by the time we had our second offer in, our counteroffer, someone broke in there and stole all the copper off.

And so we're like, well, maybe this is a sign, maybe we should.

And so, once again, people were like, “Why don't you go to Pure Intentions?” I’m like, “It's not for sale.

And I don't really want to use it.” And a friend of mine said, “Well I'll call.” Like what?

What?

“I'll call you back.” And so he called.

I guess he got in touch with the owner somehow.

Called me back an hour later and said, “It's for sale.” We like to say there’s like, four designated spaces.

You know, we have the music room where music happens, but there also can be, you know, someone can have a community meeting in there, too.

There's live music in there.

There's the other room we call the sanctuary and Mainstreet Yoga is doing their operations in there, and they're offering classes.

And then also we use the office, some things too in the sanctuary.

There's the play shop where we have a lot of the workshops and visual arts.

Amy Mothersbaugh has a watercolor class.

She's doing a series.

Just finishing up her first class and kind of starting a new one and things like that.

And there's a collage class that's going to start Monday.

Anyway, ongoing workshops.

There's a gallery here.

And right now there's a community show.

It's called finding Your Muse.

So whatever inspired that person, they just need more work and inspiration for them.

There's a second stage like this by the art gallery here.

So on Saturday and Sunday, we have something called Drop in and Play.

And you can come between 1 and 4, and you can just make art in the playroom, or you can get up on that stage and sing a song.

We have a little sound system there.

You can have tea with us, whatever you want to do, and just kind of hang out and see this show.

So that's Drop in and Play.

But on that little stage, too, there's going to be a poetry open mic happening once a month.

But yeah.

So we got two stages.

A lot of fun stuff happening.

This is kind of a gathering area and it's the yellow brick road.

You can— It’s kind of like a mandala, you can walk through it.

There's a little tiny mandala over there.

I mean, I should say a labyrinth.

It's kind of a labyrinth.

And you just hang out here and meet with your friends and talk community it’s, like, really special.

- Now to wrap this show up today is to one of my favorite places in Summit County.

It's off to Nimisila Reservoir Metro Park.

Let's go see what Nimisila is all about.

Nimisila Reservoir is a man made lake in Summit County, which was created in 1936 to 1937 by the Works Progress Administration.

And it has 16 miles of shoreline with four boat launches.

The name Nimisila comes from an Iroquoian word which means place of great water or place of large water.

The reservoir is created by a dam.

It's an electric motor only lake or powered by paddle.

It's a rather shallow lake, with its deepest spot being only 30ft.

It's known for channel catfish, largemouth bass, walleye, northern pike, bluegill, yellow perch, crappie, bullhead, and red ear sunfish.

The area is known as a purple marten stopover in August.

And you're almost guaranteed to see a bald eagle and other birds of prey.

Not only is it a beautiful reservoir of water, it also has a beautiful forest surrounding it, and you can camp at Nimisila Reservoir.

The Nimisila Reservoir Metropark is one of my favorite places in Summit County.

I love going there.

You can fish, you can kayak, you can paddle board, you can camp, and you can see excellent views of wildlife.

I highly recommend Nimisila Reservoir Metropark to everybody.

It's got beautiful clean water, an amazing set of woods, wildlife everywhere that you're guaranteed to see.

And you can use the water for fishing, paddleboarding, kayaking.

And it's only an electric lake, so you won't get wiped out by anybody in a motorboat.

It's a tranquil, peaceful place that I highly recommend you and your family go visit today.

Take the time to visit Nimisila Reservoir Metropark.

Thank you for watching this episode of Around Akron with Blue Green.

If you have any questions or comments, you can catch me online.

And if you want to see the full interview, please check out Blue Green's World on YouTube and Spotify.

Thank you and have an amazing day!