POST Wednesday, August 6, 2025 • Vol. 18 No. 6 • FREE
Maple Splash Truck Winners Hit the Road
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By Ann Wishart ann@karlovecmedia.com When he bought three raffle tickets online mid-July, Mark A. Ward had no idea he would be driving his 2025 Ford 150, 4WD, crewcab pickup back to Florida before August. “I’m not a winning guy,” Ward said the morning of July 28, standing in the Preston Ford parking lot in Burton Village. However, he did not doubt his luck when Kathy Batty called with the news, he said. Batty is a member of the Burton Middlefield Rotary Club and was so excited when his name was announced, she insisted Mark and his wife, Donna, watch the ticket drawing for the truck Preston Superstore donated to the club on Facebook, he said. In short order, the Wards bought one-way tickets to Cleveland in anticipation of collecting their prize from BMR Club President Jeff Pascoe, Secretary Bob Johnson and Treasurer Larry Fox. Mark said he grew up near the Geauga County Safety Center and, after living in Michigan for years, returned to build a house on Kile Road in Hambden Township in
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Mark A. and Donna Ward claim the 2025 Ford 150, 4WD, crew-cab pickup they won July 28 when one of Mark’s three raffle tickets was drawn July 12 during the Maple Splash Festival. Pictured are, from left, Burton Middlefield Rotary Club President Jeff Pascoe, Jackie Preston Franck, Mark Ward, Donna Ward, BMR Club Secretary Bob Johnson and BMR Treasurer Larry Fox. It was the sixth year the Prestons donated a vehicle to raise funds for the club.
2009, where they lived for 10 years before retiring to Florida. Although the truck, donated by Preston Auto Store, appeared white in the pictures, Mark said he was glad when the color, called avalanche, was a light gray with a “sprinkle of green.”
“We won’t put a ton of miles on it,” he said. “It’ll outlast me.” It was the sixth year the Prestons donated a vehicle to the BMR Club for a lottery and it drew a lot of attention, Pascoe said. Tickets sold well for the truck, valued at $62,000, boost-
ing the total the club has raised from $210,000 in 2024 to about $230,000, he said. “The truck give-away pretty much finances the philanthropic work we do. The gist is, we raise it so we can give back,” Pascoe said. See Raffle • Page 6
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Former Cardinal Treasurer Writes Rom-Com By Ann Wishart ann@karlovecmedia.com
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Terry Armstrong holds a copy of his recently published book, ‘Holiday Headlock,’ at D.S. Cakes and Sweet Cafe in Newbury Township. The former Cardinal Schools treasurer’s romantic comedy hero is a professional wrestler.
Terry Armstrong started writing his 249-page book “Holiday Headlock” less than two years ago, mixing his love of professional wrestling, his history with Hallmark Channel movies and his devotion to his grandmother into a “cozy Christmas” romantic comedy. “It reads a little like a Hallmark movie. That was the goal,” Armstrong said in a recent interview. The writing of the rom-com coincided with his two-year tenure as treasurer of Cardinal Schools. Armstrong, 54, left the treasurer’s position last month to work at Lakeview Schools in Trumbull County, where he and his wife, Kimberly, live. During the interview, he said he
likes the short drive to work now, but noted he valued bouncing romcom ideas off the Cardinal staff and called his writing “my side hustle.” “I always got good feedback from everyone,” Armstrong said. The plot revolves around a professional wrestler who takes a hiatus from the glamour of the ring for a holiday visit with his memory-challenged grandmother, who lives in fictional Deer Creek Falls, Ohio. Anyone who has watched a Hallmark Channel movie knows where the story will lead, he said. “They’re all the same formula,” Armstrong said, adding having a wrestler as his main character “gives it a little different perspective.” The Armstrongs are fans of Hallmark Channel movies, having See Book • Page 2
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