2021 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
First Place: Chris Day
First Place - 2021 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
A church at the center of New Marshfield can be seen through a gap in the trees where train tracks used to pass through town on Saturday, April 3, 2021. New Marshfield, Ohio, is a small town of around 300 residents nestled among the foothills of the Appalachians. In decades past, New Marshfield was a bustling town as trains brought coal from the mines in the surrounding area to Cincinatti and beyond. However, first the trains stopped, then the coal mines shut down and finally the tracks were pulled up. Now, like the tracks, a hotel, gas stations, stores and restaurants are all gone. In a town where the primary asset is quiet, a variety of small communities find ways to spend their time when not commuting to Columbus or other nearby cities for work.
Chris Day
First Place - 2021 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Paul Jones plays catch with his dogs Max and Winnie in his front yard on Friday, January 29, 2021. Jones often sits outside to play with his dogs in his front yard but said some residents walk the streets of New Marshfield with bats or sticks to fight off aggressive dogs. "This town is full of drug addicts, drug peddlers and pit bulls," he said.
Chris Day
First Place - 2021 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Pastor Adelbert Winegardner Senior prays with Joey Henry, 13, at the front of Faith Baptist Church during a service before Henry walks around to collect money on Sunday, February 21, 2021. Winegardner and his wife turned portions of the closed down school in New Marshfield into a church after their former church was torn down. The school halls now hold memories of the many years of Sunday schools and services. On one wall, a canvas is filled with painted hands of children who now, as adults, bring their own sons and daughters to services.
Chris Day
First Place - 2021 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Bruce Chaney tries to get reception on his phone after he finishes digging a grave to check the weather and see if he will need to cover the hole from rain on Monday, March 15, 2021. Chaney has worked for the Waterloo Township since 2004 and has looked after the New Marshfield cemetery ever since. He said he helped bury his mother and father during his first year on the job.
Chris Day
First Place - 2021 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Boyd Montle closes the barn door before going into his house outside New Marshfield on Monday, March 1, 2021. The farm has been in Montle's family for over 100 years. He and his wife Jill own a wood bundling business and also raise cattle to be butchered and sold. "Some days all you're doing is keeping your head above water... just the tip of the nose," Jill Montle said about life on the farm. "Other days you realize you have abundant blessings."
Chris Day
First Place - 2021 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Ryan Peters jokes with his friends as they ride in their off-road vehicles through the trails at an Athens County Crawlers event on Saturday, March 13, 2021. The ACC is an off-road park outside of New Marshfield where Athens County residents and people from throughout southern Ohio can bring their rigs to ride through the mud and scale hills of different difficulty.
Chris Day
First Place - 2021 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Andrew Wheeler, 15, throws a pitch while Addam Eblin, 15, sits ready to catch it as DJ Gonzalez begins to swing at it on Saturday, April 4, 2021. Kids and teenagers often bike throughout the town and play in the field and park at the center of town as parents and friends watch from the surrounding houses.
Chris Day
First Place - 2021 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
An Athens County Sheriff's deputy speaks to attendees of a birthday party in New Marshfield after Kody Cummings, left, and three others were pepper sprayed by a neighbor on Saturday, February 6, 2021. Tina Osborne and her daughter Danielle Osborne confronted this neighbor after the neighbor's son threatened Tina's grandson Miah and the other children with pepper spray. While yelling at the neighbor for filming the kids at the party from her car with her phone, the neighbor pepper sprayed Kody, Tina and Danielle before driving to her house down the street.
Chris Day
First Place - 2021 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Gary Van Meter and Bill Elekes watch as Evelyn Elekes, 5, peers over a post on Bill Elekes porch in New Marshfield on Easter Sunday, April 4, 2021. After having Easter dinner together, Elekes and his wife Jane sat out on the porch with other members of his family as Evelyn and his 21-month-old grandson Cooper ran around the yard. Elekes has lived in New Marshfield since 1974 and worked in the Meigs coal mines before they closed in 2003. "After the railroads pulled out it really died fast," Elekes said about the town. "There were a lot of boys who worked on the railroads here and they went to work at the mines for ten years till it shut down."
Chris Day
First Place - 2021 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Jeremiah "Miah" McDowell, 9, and Trace Eblin, 11, peer through a fence in the backyard of Miah's grandfather's home in New Marshfield on Sunday, April 4, 2021.
Chris Day
First Place - 2021 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
John Moore leans against his porch as he stares into a fire outside of his home in New Marshfield on Sunday, April 4, 2021. Moore said he and his family often sit by the fire to talk and eat dinner. "Get some pizza go out by the fire and tell lies," he said.
Chris Day
First Place - 2021 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Denzil Roberts II stands near his tractor after competing in a tractor derby in Nelsonville, Ohio, on Saturday, March 20, 2021. Denzil's son, grandson, and a family friend all competed in one of the derby matches during the event. "Whole of New Marshfield running against each other... it's the battle of New Marshfield," Dom Severt, Roberts's grandson, said about the event.
Chris Day
First Place - 2021 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Danita McLaughlin leaves her home in New Marshfield, Ohio, before dawn to head to her daughter, Melanie Shaulis's, house before her daughter leaves for work and her grandchildren wake up on Monday, September 22. Danita normally watches the children from six in the morning until five in the afternoon when either Melanie or her husband Josh Shaulis return home. After 30 years of teaching, the last thing Danita McLaughlin thought was that she would spend the next few years surrounded by even more children. However, after her two daughters, Miranda and Melanie, began to have families of their own, she immediately stepped into her new role of the always-available grandmother. I wasnt planning on babysitting, Danita McLaughlin said. That wasnt ever in my mind after retiring. Now based on the day of the week, she and her husband are part of a musical chairs game of grandchildren as they go to various homes and are dropped off and picked up by a rotation of parents. During the pandemic, Danita said she was relieved that she could watch the grandchildren and keep them within the family pod. Her main difficulty was entertaining the younger kids with drawing and games while trying to to run a grandma school for the older kids who were missing in-person learning. I just felt fortunate because so many of my friends couldnt be together with their kids, she said. Although some days she comes home dead tired, Danita wouldnt trade all the extra time she gets to have with her grandchildren as they grow up. She knows they wont always need her to change their clothes, cook them breakfast, or be able to fall asleep on her lap while she reads to them, so she cherishes every moment she has now.
Chris Day
First Place - 2021 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Mangus Shaulis and Danita McLaughlin look at Melanie Shaulis as she kisses Silas Shaulis goodbye before heading to work in the morning. Danita said her favorite time of day is when they lay on her in the mornings as they're waking up. "I know they'll be too big for that one day," she said. "It's a grandma thing."
Chris Day
First Place - 2021 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Danita McLaughlin changes her grandson Mangus Shaulis, 2, out of his pajamas while Silas Shaulis, 3, colors behind her on the counter on September 22, 2021.
Chris Day
First Place - 2021 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Danita McLaughlin watches as Silas and Mangus Shaulis look for hickory seeds with their dog Chief outside of her daughter Melanie's home in Albany, Ohio, on Sept. 23, 2021. The boys love to play outside and it's often a challenge for Danita to keep any clothes they wear clean for more than a few minutes. "Noise, wheels and mud are their favorite things," she said.
Chris Day
First Place - 2021 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Chris McLaughlin takes Mangus and Silas Shaulis down to visit his cows on Sept. 21, 2021. On Thursdays and Fridays, Chris and Danitas two older grandchildren get off the school bus at their home before their dad comes to pick them up.
Chris Day
First Place - 2021 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Silas Shaulis pouts after Danita McLaughlin told him he needed to put his shirt back on and that it was too cold for him to go swimming in their inflatable pool on Sept. 22, 2021.
Chris Day
First Place - 2021 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Danita McLaughlin talks to Silas Shaulis as Mangus Shaulis plays with his bike and their dog Chief looks on. The boys will race around the yard on their bikes and small four wheelers with Danita attempting to keep them from the mud and being there with a kind word and a hug if one should fall down.
Chris Day
First Place - 2021 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Danita McLaughlin watches as Mangus Shaulis plays in the toy room downstairs while his brother, Silas, watches videos on his tablet on Sept. 24, 2021. "I'm sometimes dead after I leave here," she said
Chris Day
First Place - 2021 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Danita McLaughlin helps Mangus Shaulis, called "Gus" by the family, out of his crib on Sept. 23, 2021. Silas Shaulis ran down the hall and joined them once he heard Mangus start to wake up. Danita normally has a few minutes in the morning to watch the morning news and make bracelets out of beads before the boys are awake and it's time for breakfast.
Chris Day
First Place - 2021 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Danita McLaughlin, Kennedy Smith, 7, and Mangus Shaulis look out the garage door to see if Kennedy's father has arrived to pick up her and her brother Kain on Sept. 23, 2021. When they were little, Danita used to watch Kennedy and Kain during the day while her older daughter Miranda Smith and her son-in-law Josh Smith worked. Now, Kennedy and her brother get off the bus at their Aunt Melanie's house three days a week and join Mangus and Silas in being watched by Danita before one of their parents picks them up.
Chris Day
First Place - 2021 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Silas and Mangus Shaulis watch as Danita McLaughlin heads back to her house after a day of looking after them on Sept. 23, 2021. Chris had said, while he knows they'd figure something out, he's not sure what his two daughters would have done if Danita wasn't there every day to watch the children while they worked.
Chris Day
First Place - 2021 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Danita and Chris McLaughlin watch TV in the evening after Danita got home from a day of watching Mangus and Silas Shaulis. For Danita, even though she never imagined spending the years since she retired as a babysitter, she can't imagine doing anything differently. When her daughter Miranda had said she would look for a sitter for Kennedy when she was little, Danita said it was like "a stab in the heart." "Why are you going to have someone else watch my baby?" she said. "So I've been doing it ever since then."
Chris Day
First Place - 2021 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
An audience member is comforted by Miami Police Chief Art Acevedo during a mini-concert from local Cuban-American artists on Wednesday, July 14, 2021. The event was put on by the City of Miami to show support to the people in Cuba who are protesting for freedom.
Chris Day
First Place - 2021 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Louis Thompson prays for his friends who he lost in the collapse on Wednesday, June 30, 2021. Thompson said he lives in Bay Harbor and had spoken to his friends the day before the collapse and talked to them about future plans. They wanted to go to vacation in New York, he said. Now theyre going on vacation with the lord. The makeshift memorial is across the street from the site of the 12-story oceanfront Champlain Towers South Condo, at 8777 Collins Ave., that partially collapsed around 2 a.m. on Thursday, June 24, 2021 in Surfside, Fl.
Chris Day
First Place - 2021 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Shawn Freas, 7, leads in a race for the last net in North Ocean Park at Pompano Beach as part of the Living Water Surf School on Thursday, June 10, 2021. Thursday was the first day of summer for Broward County students. Freas defeated the other girls and then went on to win against the quickest boys to be crowned the fastest person in the group.
Chris Day
First Place - 2021 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
A model wearing Bfyne walks the runway during the Bfyne fashion show in the Paraiso Runway Tent at Collins Park during Miami Swim Week on Friday, July 9, 2021, in Miami, Florida.
Chris Day
First Place - 2021 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Bam Adebayo, a Miami Heat basketball player, has tears stream down his face as he answers questions after visiting the makeshift memorial for those missing on Friday, July 2, 2021. The memorial is across the street from the 12-story oceanfront Champlain Towers South Condo, at 8777 Collins Ave., that partially collapsed around 2 a.m. on Thursday, June 24, 2021 in Surfside, Fl.
Chris Day
First Place - 2021 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Jayce Anderson, 1, looks out the back of his familys condominium as pieces of the roof of the condo above theirs are cover the backyard on Thursday, July 22, 2021, at Villa Bianca Condominium in Coral Springs, Florida. Andersons father, Jacob Henning, and his family were told that the structure has been deemed unsafe by the City of Coral Springs and they have until August 5 to move out.
Chris Day
First Place - 2021 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Ryan Gartley competes in a pawpaw eating contest as attendees watch and cheer during the 23rd Annual Ohio Pawpaw Festival in Albany, Ohio, on Saturday, September 18, 2021. Gartley, who ultimately won the competition, said this is his second pawpaw contest he's taken part in. His main strategy is to get the seeds off to the sides as much as possible while he's eating the remainder of the fruit.
Chris Day
First Place - 2021 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio
Anna Elizabeth Hunt is crowned as the 2021 Queen Genevieve as Little Miss Sternwheel Leighton Geese looks out over the crowd and Little Mr. Sternwheel Forrest Lee Abbott covers his ears while the captains of the assembled boats blow their horns during the Sternwheel Festival in Marietta, Ohio, on Saturday, September 11, 2021.
Chris Day