Allergy season is in full swing and more than 80 million Americans suffer with seasonal allergies.
How does this year compare to years in the past? Are people going to be sniffling more, or is this year going to finally be a downturn in pollen?
We'll get the answers from a local allergist.
Conservation can take on many forms. It can involve protecting animals, plants, forests or any of Earth’s natural resources.
We are going to meet a woman who has dedicated herself to protecting and preserving wildlife areas, including The Dawes Arboretum in Newark.
For many young people, a little guidance and mentorship can be life changing.
When someone dedicates themselves to being that change, their community grows and prospers.
We'll talking with an individual who has worked for decades to teach and help young people to reach their full potential through various initiatives and programs.
It's all coming up on this week's edition of Fascinating Ohio.
Guests:
- Dr. Summit Shah, allergist/founder, Premier Allergy & Asthma
- Holly Latteman, director of science and research, Dawes Arboretum
- David Bush, founder, Madd Poets Society/commissioner of youth civic engagement, City of Toledo
Transcript
This transcript is generated with AI. To ensure its accuracy, review the audio file.
Amy Juravich: Welcome to All Sides with Amy Juravich. This is Fascinating Ohio, a show from All Sides and WOSU where we introduce you to people from the Buckeye State with an interesting story to tell.
Allergy season is in full swing and over 80 million Americans suffer with seasonal allergies. How does this year compare to years of the past and are people going to be sniffling more or is this year gonna finally be the downturn in pollen?
And from over-the-counter medication to more in-depth therapies, what can you do to ease your allergies? Joining us now, we have Dr. Sumit Shah, allergist and founder of Premier Allergy and Asthma. Welcome to the show, Dr. Shah.
Sumit Shah: Thanks Amy, thanks for having me.
Juravich: How does this year's allergy season compare to those of the past? What are we in for?
Shah: Oh man, sometimes I feel like I sound like a broken record because every year it just tends to get worse and worse. We're in the Ohio Valley area, so especially that springtime can be tough for allergy and asthma sufferers with the tree pollen and grass pollen. So, and this year's no different. It's pretty bad this year as well.
Juravich: Do people still confuse common cold symptoms with what might be the start of seasonal allergies? Do you cut do you run into that?
Shah: Oh, absolutely, even when my kids get sick, I have two girls, and even when they get sick sometimes it's confusing to know, could it be cold, could it flu, could be allergies. But, you know, kind of some simple tips that we give patients is, usually with allergies you do not get a fever, so that's easy to know.
And then usually with allergies it becomes kind of a repetitive thing, like every March and April, if your child starts having symptoms, if you start having symptoms that can kind of point towards allergies as well. So there's some key differentiating factors. But it can be confusing. I agree
Juravich: Well, I guess if you take an over-the-counter allergy medicine and it helps, then maybe it's allergies and not a cold, right?
Shah: That's a good way to do it too. Yeah diagnostic therapeutic intervention is what we call it. So yeah, absolutely
Juravich: So if it is a cold and I take the allergy medicine it won't help.
Shah: Well, you know, that is a tricky question to answer because the allergy medicine also has other properties that can have like drying effects and stuff like that. But yeah, usually you're right. And usually if you have mild to moderate allergies, if you take the over-the-counter medicines like the nasal sprays or the allergy tablets, it's usually good enough to control the symptoms, yeah.
Juravich: So this spring was very weird. The temperature dropped upwards of 50 degrees in one or two days. That's right. How does that impact pollen? What does that do to us?
Shah: Yeah, great question. So usually we like to say, you know, you need about five days consistently of temperatures above freezing for the pollen to start producing and one or two days with a dip in temperature, unfortunately, doesn't actually give us a break.
Now rain showers do because you know the pollen kind of gets wiped out from the atmosphere and kind of brought down to the ground. So rain does actually help but one day or two days where it dips down doesn't really prevent the trees and the grasses from producing the pollen. That's kind of on autopilot once you have five days of warm temperatures.
Juravich: So it just kills my tulips, but doesn't have my allergies. All right, fine. At your practice, you have brought many new therapies to the Columbus area. And one is called the eyelet treatment. Am I saying that right? That's right, yeah. OK. That's right, yeah.
Shah: Okay. Premier ILIT.
Juravich: Can you tell me more about that starting with what does I lit I lit? What does that mean?
Shah: Yeah, great question. So ILIT stands for intralymphatic immunotherapy. So in general, immunotherapy is a way, and especially in allergies, where we can give patients the very things that they're allergic to.
So let's say it's grass pollen or tree pollen or dog dander or cat dander, and we give them small increments of it over time, and their body starts creating antibodies to it. And so after a while, you stop that treatment and the body takes over, and it's like you never had allergies to begin with.
Which is great. This treatment's been around for over 100 years. You may remember friends or yourself being on allergy shots as a child. But the problem with that therapy is, one of the hurdles is it takes a long time to complete. It takes about three to five years to complete
Juravich: Oh, and you have to probably stick with it. You have to stick with the weekly show.
Shah: You have to stick with it, weekly shots, monthly shots. With introlymphatic immunotherapy, we actually go directly to the source. So you can, through ultrasound guidance, we can give the allergen directly into the lymph nodes and produce the antibodies there.
And that treatment is only three therapies over three months, and it replaces the whole three to five years of allergy shots. So your patients are just way more likely to complete the treatment in three months. So it's great.
Juravich: Are you saying you can cure allergies in three months?
Shah: Well, yeah, I mean, we try to. I mean what happens is we can give the allergen and the antibodies start getting produced and then they start fighting against the allergens. So it's kind of like you're fighting fire with fire is one way to kind of think about it.
But yes, we see tremendous, actually one of the reasons I was drawn into the field is because it's one of few fields where you can actually reverse the disease process or reverse the allergic process. It's pretty fascinating.
Juravich: I'm going to go out on a limb and say, does insurance cover that?
Shah: Well, not yet. I mean, and you know, that's a great question. So the traditional allergy shots, even accelerated allergy shots, ILIT is relatively new. So it's been around for about 20 years.
Juravich: Oh, 20 years is new? No. Well, for.
Shah: No, well for us like in Columbus, so we're the only private practice offering it here in Columbus So, you know, we're trying we're working with the insurance companies to make it happen. But but you know Yeah, that is an uphill battle right now
Juravich: Okay, so I mean, is it expensive? Can people afford it? Do you have payment plans? Yes, absolutely. Oh.
Shah: Yes, absolutely. Oh, we have payment plans and actually if you look at the cost because with the traditional allergy shots You have to come in every week or every month. You have just wait in the office for 20 minutes afterwards.
So if you kind of think about it With that journey and having to do that a lot of patients elect to do this and they can use their like HSA Or FSA and things like that as well. So there's some options
Juravich: Can you lean on insurance companies to get them to accept it or how does that work? How does that work?
Shah: That's tough. It's like a David versus Goliath kind of situation, right? So we're trying, but there's other allergists like in the country that are offering ILIT. There's about 15 or 20 of us, so we're working on it.
Juravich: Okay. Well, if someone's not going to come see you, they just have more minor allergies, what is your favorite over-the-counter remedy that you give to people?
Shah: That's a great question. The nasal sprays, like the steroid nasal spray, you might see the commercials for them. Flo Nays, Nasinex, there's a laundry list of them. There's generic ones as well. They work really well.
They can be used, they have to be used every single day and they actually help with like the symptoms of itchy, like sneezing, nasal congestion, even eye symptoms too and they're very, very safe. You can use them for kids as young as two. You can them throughout the season.
And then you can always use the allergy tablets like the Rescue, like, you know, you've heard of like Zyrtec, Claritin, Allegra, those are safe to use as well once in a while, but the nasal sprays is what we always say is the go-to.
Juravich: You're listening to All Sides.
This is Fascinating Ohio From All Sides on 89.7 NPR News, and we're talking about seasonal allergies with Dr. Sumit Shah, allergist and founder of Premier Allergy and Asthma. So I wanted to talk about you for a few minutes. You're a hometown guy. You went to Bishop Watterson High School.
Shah: That's right, go Eagles.
Juravich: You went to Ohio State University right for undergrad and for your medical degree.
Shah: I did So what made you decide to establish these businesses here in Columbus? After I graduated from Ohio State Medical School, I had the opportunity to go to Boston for my residency. So I spent three years in Boston, and there I learned from some of the pioneers of the field of allergy.
And then I did my allergy fellowship in San Diego at UCSD and Scripps Clinic in San Diego. And again, just some really, really, I would say thought leaders in the field of allergy, so learned about things like oral immunotherapy, about rush immunotherapy.
New techniques, new therapies that we can bring. And then when I was done with my fellowship, um, you know, when we, me and my wife kind of looked at each other and we said, well, what do we know? What do we want to do? And, and really, it just made sense because
Juravich: Stay in San Diego, that wasn't on the table. Well, it's funny, Amy, that you... I wasn't on the table.
Shah: Well, it's funny, Amy, that you asked that because all our friends in San Diego, um, were to ask us, wait a second, you're moving from San Diego, California back to Columbus, Ohio. Yeah. But you know, we just, the community here is, we just felt so close to the community.
And I felt that, Hey, we've learned, I've learned so much from, you know these thought leaders and pioneers and allergy, I really want to bring some of these new therapies and new techniques back home and, and, and share with the community and, you know, be able to offer to families that are in Columbus because There hadn't been a lot of new allergy practices in Columbus in quite some time. So I was excited for the opportunity to be able to do that when we started about 15 years ago.
Juravich: Did you always plan to be an allergy doctor? Like, did you have bad allergies as a kid or something?
Shah: You know, I didn't have allergies. Um, when I was in medical school and even in residency, it's funny. I actually enjoyed all of my rotations, whether it was pediatrics, internal medicine, OB GYN, um, anesthesiology surgery, I actually enjoy them all.
And I actually really enjoyed taking care of some of the sickest patients as well, just cause, uh, you know, they need that care and, and, um it's, it's challenging. But what drew me to allergy, and we were talking about this earlier, is with allergy you can actually reverse the allergic process through immunotherapy.
So, like for example, I have high cholesterol. So I'm on a cholesterol medicine. I have to take that every single day. Probably have to that for the rest of my life every single today. With allergy, you can reverse the allergic process so patients don't have to take medicines on a daily basis.
And they can actually. You know, in some ways have a cure for their allergies, whether it's food allergies or seasonal allergies, asthma. So I was really drawn to the field because of that, instead of, you know just these lifelong band-aid solutions that we have sometimes in other fields of medicine.
Juravich: The dream for a doctor to cure something.
Shah: Right, exactly, yeah, right, right.
Juravich: Did you expect to grow this much you have 13 locations? Is that right for your clinics? I mean when you when you open the first one was your plan you were like, I'm gonna have a dozen of these
Shah: You know, I can say I remember it like it was yesterday. It was, my wife was seven months pregnant with our first child. I was, she was our, she's a pharmacist by training, but she was out first receptionist, and it was me standing right behind her, and one nurse standing right me, and just looking at the phone, waiting for the phone to ring, not knowing, you know, what does the market look like here in Columbus for allergy, like how bad are patients suffering?
And I remember that day, it was like yesterday, and the first patient we saw, and so many memorable families that we've been able to help. So no, I didn't think that we would be where we are today, but I think that Columbus really just accepted us, and there's a need for it, and there are families that were able to just really help and give amazing impact to.
Juravich: Is 13 locations your max or do you plan on more growth?
Shah: I think we'll grow where the patients need us. So a lot of these centers or clinics that we open are just when we get primary pediatricians who say we really need an allergist in Lancaster, Dr. Shah, or hey, we really needed Karen, whatever, Marysville or Dublin. Those are kind of like, we go to where the patient are and where we think that we can help support those families.
Juravich: What about other cities, not central Ohio? Have you thought about going outside of Columbus?
Shah: Yeah, I mean, you know, we've thought about it again. Like I said, Columbus is home, you know, going outside of Ohio has its own challenges as far as just the proximity. I have two girls who are in eighth and ninth grade.
I don't want to spend too much time away from them. And so you know that there's some limitations there. But yeah, you if there's a demand and there's a need that we're willing to consider it for sure.
Juravich: Maybe a 10-year plan instead of a five-year plans. Yeah, okay. Well, back to allergies for a minute. Besides the pollen and those type of seasonal irritants, do you work with, like, you know, there's been a lot of talk over like peanut allergies, schools having to have special tables so that people are separated. Yeah, nut-free tables. Yeah, tell me about worries about those type of allergies and what you've done in that area.
Shah: Sure, food allergies, people always ask me this, hey, Dr. Shah, when we were growing up, I never heard of anybody having food allergies. But yeah, it was there. I think the prevalence is definitely increasing. And there's a lot of different hypotheses about why that is. There's a hygiene hypothesis, there's are we, are the processed food, all those things, could those things be contributing?
But... In a very similar way where we can actually make patients unallergic to their outdoor allergens and their pets and things like that, there's actually, we were one of the first practices to bring oral immunotherapy to Columbus.
So oral immunotherapy for food allergies, right now our medical director, Dr. Andy Dang, he does a phenomenal job with these patients, we can make kids unallergic to foods that they're allergic to. I remember one of first patients that we desensitized to peanut allergy.
Mom and family came in full of anxiety, you know, we're nervous about school events, dances, sporting events, uh, cause their, their son had a severe food allergy, um, had to carry an EpiPen, had anaphylactic reactions where we, they'd have to get rushed to the ER.
Um, and just the anxiety that they came with and the stress that, that accompanies that we were able to, over time, slowly build up his immune system by giving small incremental doses of peanuts, uh. And over time. The anxiety that went away for the family and the stress and that turned to relief and the freedom.
So yes, there's the scientific side and the clinical side of treating the patient, but we're really allowing families to have their lives back and to have control and to give them that stress free life. And so we continue to offer oral immunotherapy, not only for peanuts, but other nuts, for milk, for different types of foods. That's really really just been really rewarding to see
Juravich: Can you say you can cure a peanut allergy or you can just reduce it? Would you use the word cure?
Shah: I would use the word tolerance so
Juravich: Like, maybe don't shove a handful of peanuts in your mouth, but if you accidentally, you'll Right, right. So there's...
Shah: Right, right, so there's a term called bite-proof where we can actually, there's two different levels where we could actually desensitize to a certain level where they can tolerate like if they have an accidental exposure and then there's another level where we can tolerate them to where they could actually eat a peanut butter jelly sandwich or peanut M&Ms but the reason I don't love the word cure for that, it's more tolerance is because those patients do have to have that food in their diet on a somewhat regular basis, so like two, three times a week. At least, or on a daily basis.
Juravich: To keep up the immunity.
Shah: To keep up the immunity, you got it.
Juravich: What about, you mentioned, you mention milk. Like, when I think of lactose intolerance, I don't think of it as severe as a peanut allergy. I don't see people with lactose intolerance don't walk around with EpiPens. You're absolutely right. Can you cure lactose-intolerance?
Shah: So that's, so lactose intolerance is different than a true milk protein allergy. So that lactose, intolerance, is an inability to break down the sugar that's in milk. You know,
Juravich: Okay, so that's not an allergy.
Shah: It's not an allergy, but obviously it can be very impactful as well. But that's a little bit different. And we see patients with lactose intolerance, but that is more like an enzyme that's missing in your body that degrades that sugar that's found in milk, where a true milk allergy, patient would ingest the milk and have severe allergic symptoms like hives and vomiting and things like that. So a little bit different.
Juravich: Okay. And what you mentioned before related to the seasonal allergies, does that also work for pets as well? Because I feel like there's this huge rise of hypoallergenic dogs. But what about the pet allergies? What are you doing there?
Shah: Absolutely. Well, so first thing I have to tell you is let's have to debunk the hypoallergenic pet myth I think there's a little bit of marketing that goes on there but the part of the dog that people are allergic to are The skin cells the proteins found in skin cells in saliva and in urine So all dogs have skin cells and saliva and urine.
So there's actually unfortunately not anything such as a hypo allergenic dog Um, but, um, to- Further, to answer your question, the allergy shots, whether it's traditional allergy shots or even Premier ILIT, they work very well for pet allergies. I just had a patient last month who just got engaged and his fiance said that she's more likely to get rid of him before she gets rid of the cats.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the cat deal breaker. I got it. Yeah, exactly.
Shah: So he came in and underwent ILIT and now he's able to, you know, be at the power, the house together with the cats. He said he was even snuggling with them the other day. Um, so yeah, we have a lot, you know, it's, it' really remarkable the impact that we're going to make.
Juravich: Will you use the word cure there or tolerance?
Shah: There I would, because once he's done with the therapy, there's no follow-up therapy. So he did the three treatments, and then now his immune system's kind of taken over, and so those antibodies are continuing to get produced, and so, yeah, I would use the word cure there.
Juravich: Well, thank you for joining us today for Fascinating Ohio. We've been talking with Dr. Sumit Shah, allergist and founder of Premier Allergy and Asthma. Thanks so much for your time.
Shah: Thanks, Amy.
Juravich: And coming up, we're going to have a conversation about conservation at the Dawes Arboretum in Newark. That is when Fascinating Ohio from All Sides continues on 89 7 NPR news.
You're listening to All Sides. I'm your host, Amy Juravich. This is Fascinating Ohio, a show from All Sides in WOSU where we introduce you to people from the Buckeye state with an interesting story to tell.
Conservation can take on many forms. It can involve protecting animals, plants, forests, or any of Earth's natural resources. Today, we're gonna meet a woman who has dedicated herself to protecting and preserving wildlife areas, including the Dawes Arboretum in Newark.
Holly Latteman is an environmental scientist conservation leader. And she's the Director of Science and Research at Dawes Arboretum in Newark. Welcome to All Sides, Holly. Thank you so much, Amy. So conservation is a concept that came about at a young age for you.
You credit your grandmother with instilling a love of nature in you, a love that became a passion and then became your profession. Tell me about that bond that you two forged in the outdoors, you and your grandma.
Holly Latteman: My grandma and I have a really close bond and I'm lucky to still have her today. At 94 years old, she still has a garden and does so much bird watching. Watching nature flourish with her is one of my greatest joys.
Juravich: So how did she instill that love of nature in you to make you want to make it your career? Because everyone can love nature, so how did it turn into your career.
Latteman: Sure. So she introduced me to my love of birds. And that started my career at Ohio Westland, where I was mentored by Dr. Jed Burt. I was able to be mentored by him and Dr. Dustin Reichert and really understand what birds, habitats, ecosystems, how they all are connected.
And then I was able to do my graduate degree at Ohio University studying in the black vulture and able to use that. Really those communication skills to understand the black vulture, a misunderstood species, and brought that to the Dawes Arboretum in 2019.
Juravich: Yeah, of all the birds in all the world, what attracted you to the black vulture?
Latteman: Black vulture is really a wonderful bird. It has so many un-researched, un-studied aspects to its life, as well as working with the turkey vulture. They actually work together in order to find food. And black vultures are a new species to Ohio.
It's a difference that we are seeing between the turkey Vulture as well. Trying to understand how farmers can utilize tips and tricks from our friends in Florida and southern states in order to manage the black vulture.
Juravich: Can we find black vultures at Dawes Arboretum in Newark? Or, like, where do they... And we can.
Latteman: And we can. We have a great population at Denison University in Granville, and that population, that pocket population has expanded into the Newark area and east and west, if you will.
Juravich: Tell me a little about your work at Dawes Arboretum. I read that there are 16,000 labeled plant species there. What do you do at Daw's Arboretum?
Latteman: Yes, so I oversee our science and research department, which focuses on our nursery, our herbarium. We're one of 11 herbariums in the state, and one of three seed banks in the Great.
Juravich: What, you're gonna have to tell me what a herbarium is. That's a word I've never heard. Yeah, what's that?
Latteman: Sure a herbarium is a dried plant museum and so basically it's how researchers can study places in time with plants but not necessarily have the plant still alive so we preserve those for hundreds of years they can last and so we study those we have a her barium here with about 12 000 labeled specimen we have 16 000 labeled specimens on our ground and so actively studying those collections. As well as understanding and conserving the genetics behind those collections.
Juravich: And I've known about the Dawes Arboretum for years, but people might not know, where does the name come from? Who's Dawes? Who is Dawes, yeah.
Latteman: The Dawes Arboretum was started by Bertie and Beeman Dawes, and this was their country state and they called it Daweswood. And so we here at the Arboredum became an Arboretum in 1929 as a way to preserve this beautiful country estate for generations and for the public.
Juravich: Oh, so one family basically started it.
Latteman: Yes, one family, yes, and we still have family involved and on our board and it's lovely to be able to see the Arboretum through their eyes.
Juravich: And I also understand that the Arboretum has one of three seed banks in the state. What-
Latteman: We have one of three seed banks in the state, and that's where we save seeds and can withhold seeds for up to 10 years. And then we do germination testing on them and hold them much longer based on their viability in that seed bank.
Why is that important? Why do we need to save seeds? Sure, absolutely. We have so many native species that are so important to our world around us. So much of our flora and fauna depend on each other.
And without that, we will lose lots of different species. For example, there's specialty bees that only harvest nectar on certain flowers. We lose those flowers, we lose those bees. So it's really important to save species from extinction. And that's exactly what we're doing with our seed bank.
Juravich: I think when people think of endangered species, a lot of people will just think animals immediately, right? But it applies to plants and flowers too. Can you tell us about one that you mentioned was the Western Wallflower. Is that endangered or is it extinct?
Latteman: Absolutely, it's a threatened species in Ohio and we're lucky to work with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources in order to safeguard that population. We have that in our seed bank as well as growing that for restoration use in the state and it's really important to think about our rare and threatened plants as part of our ecosystem and how we can help them thrive is critical.
Juravich: So basically, in the seed bank, so you have the seeds, you're growing them there, and are you growing them with the intention of planting them in the wild, kind of the way people raise a species of animal and they hope to reintroduce it? Are you doing the same thing? You hope to introduce it to places in Ohio where it belongs?
Latteman: Absolutely, we're working with the state botanist Rick Gardner on that project and he is guiding us to where we can reinstate that.
Juravich: Can you give us a sense of Ohio's different classifications for plants? I read that it's rare and threatened and endangered are all different classifications. Do we have a lot of plants and flowers that are rare, threatened or endangered?
Latteman: We do. We do have a lot of plants that fall under that classification. Of course, that is a continuum, right? Whether it's threatened, rare, endangered, it really is all about understanding where those populations are, protecting those populations from any sort of development or Any sort of upheaval of those locations are very important that we do.
Juravich: Well, how do we get a plant off of a list like that? Because everyone's heard of the work being done with bald eagles, and there's now more and more of them. So how do you get a plan off of an endangered list?
Latteman: Very similar way it's a long road but also looking at populations good healthy populations with good genetics are very important and being able to have that would require several populations population health and the research behind that to ensure that things are things are looking up right before something would come off the list.
Juravich: How many years would it have to like establish itself without without you planting it, right? Yeah
Latteman: Yeah, it's hard to say. Everything would be different, right? Every species is different with how we can conserve those genetics and how we can protect different populations. It's really important that we don't develop plant blindness, a condition where we just exist without understanding or looking down up around what is in our area, is in in our ecosystem, if you will.
Juravich: Plant blindness. I've never heard of that, but I like that. Well, I don't like it, but you know what I mean. I like the phrase. This is Fascinating Ohio from All Sides, and we're talking about nature and conservation with Holly Latteman, an environmental scientist and director of science and research at Dawes Operetum in Newark.
I learned not too long ago that Ohio has an estuary. Not every state does. It's called Old Woman's Creek. And you were a citizen scientist there for a couple of years. It was bridging your year of undergrad into your master's program. So I guess first we have to start with what's an estuary?
Latteman: An estuary is a really unique system where two bodies of water meet and mix. So Old Owen Creek is one of the only fresh water estuaries that we have left. And it is that meeting and mixing forms a chemically distinct type of water.
And so it's fascinating the ecosystems that can be uphold by that just meeting and missing as well as the different populations, both in the lake and in the estuary.
Juravich: Well, I guess we should say, where is Old Woman's Creek? Sure, sure. You're talking what you said in the lake, you mean Lake Erie?
Latteman: Yes, I do mean Lake Erie, sorry. Growing up next to the lake, the only lake is Lake Eries in Ohio, right? Yeah, I see. And so it is here in Ohio about mid-central northern Ohio.
Juravich: What kind of work did you do there as a citizen scientist?
Latteman: I worked with a lot of volunteers to gather data on different populations. Salamanders, bald eagles, birds, really trying to understand our populations that we had at Old Woman Creek.
Juravich: So you, I mean, you now work in Newark, you're at Dawes Arboretum, but you maintain a connection to Old Woman's Creek today. You're a member of its friends program. What do you do as a friend of Old Woman Creek now?
Latteman: Friend of Old Woman Creek now is just supporting the rich research that is going on in that area and keeping connected, understanding what the creek is doing and their new priorities. I'm very lucky to be good friends with Rosemary Kovacs, the vice president of the Friends Board and she keeps me up to date on all of the happenings of Old Women Creek.
Juravich: Do you know why it's called that, Old Woman Crew?
Latteman: There's an old story about basically a older woman that lived in that area and that was called Old Woman Creek.
Juravich: Just as simple as that.
Latteman: It's really as simple as that, yes. Okay.
Juravich: You've talked about your work as a science communicator and do you think that role takes on greater importance today when science is being questioned, there's funding, there are questions about data and information coming from leaders. What do you what do you think about when you think of your role as a science communicator?
Latteman: Sure. I think of my role as a science communicator is really taking what we have studied and what we know and communicating that to the public. Research for the sake of research is great, but it doesn't have the ability to expand the boundaries of that.
And so if we are communicating science effectively, we can bring everyone in on the story of whether it's a rare plant or a cute and fuzzy rare animal, right? So we can bring everyone in to care and understand why nature is so important.
Juravich: So you work at Dawes Arboretum, you are involved with Old Woman's Creek. Are you also a part of an organization called "Wild Ones"? Did I read that? Yeah, what's that? Yes, I'm a national director on their board. What's "Wild Ones"?
Latteman: "Wild Ones" is an organization that fosters native plants and education about native plants in home landscapes. And so really we teach, we're a group of individuals that teach each other and those that are interested really all about native plants and how to put them in your landscape, how to use them, really for a conservation focus.
Juravich: Do you have a favorite native plant that when people talk to you about wanting to fix up one of their beds in their yard and make it native, get rid of the marigolds, what do you tell them to plant?
Latteman: My favorite is rhododendron calendulaceum flame azalea. It's a beautiful orange and red flowered azaleas. And that'll be blooming here in just a few weeks in Ohio with this beautiful 80 degree day we've had today. And that's one of my favorite go-tos.
Juravich: What do you wish people knew about nature? What do wish people thought more about when it comes to nature? Do you wish that they, you know, would visit a place like the Arboretum more to learn more? Or do you that they would take more care into their piece of nature in their yard? What do your wish?
Latteman: I wish folks would open up their eyes to see the nature around them and how everything is connected. Really, it's important to see what is in your habitat, right? What is right outside your front door, that robin, that, like you said, that marigold, right. All of it is connected and it's really important to see that and ask questions. That curiosity will guide you and open up a whole new world for you when you look at native plants, birds, bees.
Juravich: If someone has never visited Dawes Arboretum before, what do you want them to know? What's your pitch to get them to drive to Newark and come see?
Latteman: Sure. We are a beautiful 2000 acres just outside of Columbus, Ohio. We're a retreat area from the hustle and bustle of Columbus as well as an area to learn and educate. We can help you with what's growing in your garden and we can also help you what plant you should put in your yard and seeing plants from all over the world here in Ohio.
It's really a unique opportunity to see these diverse collections. We have four plant collections network collections. So four basically the best in the U.S. Collections of Dawn Redwoods, Buckeyes horse chestnuts, maples and witch hazels. I would love to show you that and explore that with you.
Juravich: Well, I wanna thank you so much for joining us today. We've been talking about nature and conservation with Holly Latteman, an environmental scientist and conservation leader, and she's the director of science and research at Dawes Arboretum in Newark. Thanks so much joining us here today, Holly. Thank you, Amy. And coming up, we are going to talk about helping young people in Toledo.
You're listening to All Sides. I'm your host, Amy Juravich. This is Fascinating Ohio, a show from All Sides in WOSU where we introduce you to people from the Buckeye state with an interesting story to tell.
For many young people, a little guidance and mentorship can be life changing. When someone dedicates themselves to bring that change, their community grows and prospers. David Burns is one such individual who has worked for decades to teach and help young people reach their full potential through various programs and initiatives.
And joining us now is David Bush, Commissioner of Youth Civic Engagement for the City of Toledo. Welcome to the show, David.
David Bush: Amy, thank you so much for having me today.
Juravich: What inspired you to dedicate your life's work to working with and empowering young people? How'd you find yourself here?
Bush: I find myself here due to the fact I had a mentor at the age of 16. He was a guy with a college degree and he had his own car and I thought that was the coolest thing growing up in the underserved community and how he cared so much about the young guys that were just walking around the block or hanging out or maybe who didn't have a father figure in their lives.
Juravich: You're the commissioner of youth civic engagement for the city of Toledo. You oversee more than 80 youth programs and they actually run the gamut, like athletic programs, social programs, workshops on mental health. What would you say is the unifying mission of all these programs that Toledo provides?
Bush: The unifying mission is to create safe spaces for young people and also to provide hope. We know since COVID so much has been going on with our young kids who had to, of course, join online to go to school, and things weren't quite the same. And unfortunately, some people lost loved ones. So unifying them is to create a safe space and to provide help.
Juravich: Your title, Youth Civic Engagement, when I think civic engagement, I think getting getting kids involved, I don't know, in the city or in government, but I guess you mean more than that. Like tell me when you think civic, engagement, what do you think?
Bush: I think that covers a gamut of different things. We try to reach the whole child. We know every kid can't run fast or jump high. So it's not just about sports. It's not about the mentoring, but it's about really so the entire child. So that's the mental health and wellness to ensure that they have the proper resources that they need down to anything to food insecurity.
Juravich: I mentioned that you have mental health workshops. They have a, I mean, it's a great name. I don't know if you came up with it, but it's called "It's Mental Health, Don't Make It Weird." Can you tell me more about these workshops?
Bush: It's a balance and belonging workshop. And the way I explain it to people is, if you go in a restaurant and you see a table and you four chairs, but you see one chair and the leg is broken, would you sit on it? No, because it's unbalanced and you're gonna fall.
And that's pretty much like our mental health. We have to have checks and balances. I think it's okay to share with a loved one or someone you truly care about that things aren't all right with you. And young people can get that help that they need, but. That's the way I start off is saying, hey, it's mental health, you know, let's not make it weird, right?
Juravich: Yeah, well, I bet that appeals to kids, you know. Did you come up with that phrase, don't make it weird?
Bush: I did, you know, I think all of us have a little kid in ourselves. So I thought about, you now, what I would say and I translated that to me being a father of two girls and two boys and it just made sense. One thing that we do, Amy, that really stood out.
After having these conversations with the kids, I start off by saying, do you trust me? Many of them say, yes, without really knowing me. And I say, well, if you truly trust me, I'm gonna ask you to do something for me. And when the time comes, everyone in this room, including the adults, have to do it.
Well, Amy, no one knows what that prompt is, right? And at the end of the workshop, I ask everyone to stand up, and then the song cuts on and everyone dances because I truly think music is the heartbeat of the soul.
Juravich: Oh, that's nice. Yeah. I was reading about you have after school programs and summer programs. What ages are you focused on here in your work?
Bush: With my work, it's more so 14 through 24, but these programs serve kids as young as five years old. Currently, we have 33 after school programs. Over the summer, I believe we had in the area of 54 summer programs.
Those programs include, of course, the run of the mill. We have our sports programs, the tennis, basketball, baseball, football, however. We have a program, we have a bowling program, and I think that's kind of old school, but allows kids to put that smartphone down and to do something simple as knocking those pins down.
A couple other programs I think that will stand out to you and our listeners is we have fishing program. So it teaches kids how to fish, and then at the end of the program, they do a fishing rodeo to see how many fish you can catch. Of course, they throw those fishes back in. Another program, is a underwater photography program, where kids learn how to swim, and they take cameras, and they takes photos underwater.
Juravich: All right, yeah, that's cool. Yeah.
Bush: And then a program that really sticks out is called "Confidence in Coils." It is a natural hair program for young girls teaching them the importance of their crown.
Juravich: Oh, all right. Well, you have a lot of programs that you work with. Do you have like a do you have a favorite one that you're particularly proud of? Maybe one of the ones you mentioned or one we haven't said yet.
Bush: It's probably some of the ones that I mentioned. I try not to do that, but of course some of them speak more to you than others, but I do like the mentoring programs because I know what mentoring has done for me in my life and some of those mentors I'm so blessed to still have in my live. And I think it means to something to have a safe adult in your life.
Juravich: We're having a little bit of glitchiness with you, so I'm going to turn off my video, and you can turn off your video. That'll save us a little bandwidth. This is Fascinating Ohio from All Sides on 89.7 NPR News, and we're talking with David Bush, Commissioner of Youth Civic Engagement for the City of Toledo.
I read that last year, your department created a program called "Shoot This, Not That," another great name. I don't know if you came up with that, but. It has a genesis in children impacted by gun violence. So tell us about the "Shoot This, Not That" initiative
Bush: Sure, "Shoot This, Not That" Toledo, we are in our third year, this will be our third cohort. And I actually heard about this program, it came out of Cincinnati, Ohio. And I looked at it and I was like, hmm, how can we make that work here in the city?
Just a little backdrop, back in 2022, the city of Toledo was one of eight cities to break a record for murders, unfortunately. And this was during COVID, where things were so bad. And we wanted to provide hope to young people who have unfortunately lost a loved one to gun violence.
So "Shoot This, Not That" Toledo is a storytelling initiative in which we give kids Things like throw away cameras. We give them digital cameras. We use drone technology with our Toledo Police Department and we allow them to tell their stories through the power of the lens.
Juravich: Okay, so yeah, so "Shoot This, Not That," is shooting like photography shots, I was thinking basketball shots, I guess that's just where my mind went. So tell me more about what kind of photography are you trying to get them to do? Like anything from people to landscapes? Tell me more that.
Bush: So what we do, basically, Amy, we take this van and we ride around in the community and we tell them, take us where you want to go. Usually they'll say, where should we go? It's like, it's not our story, it yours. So they take us to different spaces within their community and they find things that speak to their hearts and their spirits, and they take photos of them.
Many of these photos, what shocked us, it's about their situation, it about their destination. So it's now about going back to a crime scene or possibly where something happened at, many of them are taking pictures of things as simple as nature. Flowing water, trees, which is a beautiful thing, but I do recall during our first cohort, a young lady said, could you please stop here?
And when we stopped, we saw a fence, and the fence had a name in it, but it was with white cups. When you stick the cups in the fence, it spells out a name, and she said, This is where my cousin-in-law... Her life and I've never visited here before.
So I can recall as we approached this space, how everyone got quiet and we allowed her to to go up alone on her own and step in that space and it was just really a moment where everyone realized what this program is truly about and how we could help with that trauma that is going on in the life of a child.
Juravich: Wow. Yeah. That sounds like a really powerful moment for not just her, but everyone else who was witnessing that too. Um, yeah. And did I read this initiative is run in partnership with the police department in Toledo? Is that right?
Bush: Those are one of our collaborators. I thought like, hey, it would be real cool if we use drone technology. So we know that some of the kids, unfortunately, in certain communities you can't go in. Maybe you have a loved one or you know of someone and you just can't in that community.
It's not a safe space. We can use drone to say, hey maybe we can't go to that park, but we could stand here and the drone can take a photo. Of the area you're referencing to. So some kids just wanted to go back and say, hey, going over my grandma's in the summer, this is usually where I was, you know, up into the age of 10. So that allows them to tell that story.
But the biggest thing, Amy, is for them to have a real... Way of communicating with police. Some of these young kids have never ever had a relationship with a police officer unless it's been showing up for something you don't want to hear about.
And it was great to see and hear that many of these guys and gals, they have kids too. Right? They want to feel safe too. So it was great to that collaboration and partnership and how kids brought down some of the noise of, you know, what it looks like when a cop shows up. A cop can actually be your friend too.
Juravich: I wanted to circle back to that civic engagement piece because you also have like a, what's called a kid mayor or a kid council initiative. So are you trying to get some of these students you work with kind of involved with city council or the mayor's office?
Bush: So yes, and yes, first and foremost, let's go with Kid Mayor Kid Council. We recently named, we released it to the community yesterday who our Kid Mayor is. Her name is Jamie Howard. She's in the fourth grade and she attends Ella P. Stewart right here in the great city of Toledo.
But there's also 12 other individuals that make up Kid Council, so that's for fourth graders. But I'm also have a program called YAB. And it's the Youth Advisory Board. And that's youth civic engagement where kids between the age of 14 and 18 learn about city government. They learn how to volunteer and give back. And then they take on a focus for the entire year to create change within their community.
Juravich: Just circling back to you for a minute, I mean, you sound like a very busy guy. You have a lot of programs to keep running. It sounds like you definitely have a lot of work that you're involved in and passionate about. What keeps you going? What keeps getting up in the morning and wanting to run all these programs? Probably, you know, whether or not there's a lot money there or not.
Bush: It's when you look in the face of kids who you know, you see yourself in them sometimes. You see how maybe they lack different things in their lives. It's a beautiful thing to work with a diverse range of kids also, because going back to balance and belonging, some of these kids may attend good schools and live in what we call a safe neighborhood, but they too have their own issues also.
Bringing all these young people together in different groups allows them to Take away some of the things that you hear, and then you learn truly what life is all about. And you learn that it's okay to embrace one another.
Juravich: Nearly three decades ago, you founded what's called the "MAD Poet Society." I know it's on pause right now, but it ran for 27 consecutive years, and MAD stands for Making a Direct Difference. What made you want to lean into poetry for all those years?
Bush: I wrote my first poem, Amy, as a junior in high school. And I remember my English teacher, Mrs. Stone, saying, you have 24 hours to create the most epic poem ever created on this earth. I shall see you tomorrow. And I remembered going home and writing a poem.
And the poem is called "The Dream." And the poem is about the most beautiful woman in the world. But she does not exist. And the next day when I went to school and I read it in front of everybody, I got an A on it. And I figure like, hmm, there's power in words, right?
And me growing up has a very shy person who didn't say much. That was pretty much an eye-opening experience for me and me wanting to say, hey, there was nothing like "MAD Poet Society" back when I was a kid, but kids truly wanna be heard.
And their voice is important. So creating a space such as "MAD Poet Society" integrated poetry, the arts and mentoring and helped to serve over 3000 kids within that span.
Juravich: We have been talking with David Bush, Commissioner of Youth Civic Engagement for the City of Toledo, and we've been talking about all of David's work in youth services in Toledo. David, thank you so much for your time today.
Bush: Thank you so much for having me.
Juravich: You're listening to All Sides. And thanks for joining us. If you missed any part of today's show, you can listen back at our website, www.wosu.org/allsides. Subscribe to our podcast. Every episode is available in our mobile app. This is All Sides on 89.7 NPR news. I'm Amy Juravich.