(upbeat music) - Coming up next on "NewsDepth," Ohio's native plants range from rare to tasty.

We learn the best way to fuel our bodies.

Ever dream of starting your own business?

Elogical Cosmetics shows us what it takes.

A public school program combines poetry and soccer.

"NewsDepth" is now.

(upbeat music continues) Let's take a gastronomic journey through Ohio's backyards.

Hello, everybody.

I'm Gabriel Kramer.

Thank you for joining us.

Next time you're out on a hike, try foraging for some of Ohio's tasty native plants.

Foraging means searching for wild food resources.

Some of these wild edible plants include the state wildflower, the white trillium, which only blooms in the wild.

In a tropical tasting fruit from the pawpaw tree, Mary has this week's "Know Ohio."

(upbeat bluegrass music) - When you take a walk outside, you probably see all kinds of plants, but the ones you see most often are likely not native plants.

Native plants are plants that grow naturally in Ohio.

The grass on your lawn, the roses in your neighbor's garden, and even some of the weeds your parents can't seem to get rid of were all brought here at one time by people.

The native plants and wildflowers that grew here before white settlers arrived are colorful, vibrant, and uniquely beautiful.

Ohio's official state wildflower, the white trillium, grows a gorgeous white flower with three petals, but this plant grows very slowly.

In fact, it takes seven to 10 years to even grow flowers, and it's virtually impossible to grow one of these guys in a nursery.

According to experts, it only grows in the wild, but Ohio's native plants aren't just eye candy.

They're also like candy candy like the pawpaw.

The pawpaw is a small tree native to southeastern Ohio, but the real prize is the fruit that grows on it.

I would describe the taste as a cross between a banana and a mango.

Although it was enjoyed by Native Americans and early white settlers, the pawpaw was a forgotten fruit for years but has recently seen a resurgence in popularity.

Parks are one place you're likely to see a lot of native plants, but it sometimes takes work.

At the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Chris Davis, the plant biologist, has been growing natives in a greenhouse and plants them all around the park.

He says native plants are important because native animals and insects rely on them, and the more native species there are, the healthier and more vibrant the park becomes.

One thing I like to do when I'm out for a hike is look for some of these native plants.

Maybe you can impress your friends by identifying them, but one thing you shouldn't do is pick them.

An old saying that many hikers live by is, "Take only pictures, leave only footprints," unless of course a delicious ripe pawpaw is just staring you in the face, and then I say pick away.

(graphics whoosh and crunch) (earth boings) - Thank you, Mary, and she's right, you know.

It's safer to not consume things you find in nature unless you're able to ask an expert, but eating greens is still good for you and it's part of a healthy diet.

Jeff St. Clair has a new "Spot On Science" for us all about nutrition.

The key takeaway here is moderation.

(upbeat electronic music) - What does a healthy diet look like?

It should be balanced with everything your body needs to grow and thrive.

Vegetables and fruits should fill half your plate with healthy proteins and whole grains making up the rest.

What makes certain foods healthy?

As a rule of thumb, if it comes from the ground, it's healthy.

If it comes from a factory, it's not, which means avoid foods that have a long list of chemicals on the label.

Stick with foods that look like someone grew it.

We need fruits and vegetables in our diet because they're rich in fiber, vitamins, and minerals, stuff your body needs to be healthy.

Oranges and kiwis are a good source of vitamin C, which helps our immune system stay strong.

Carrots and cantaloupe have vitamin A, and that's good for your eyes.

Another rule of thumb is to make your plate as colorful as you can.

Eat green, orange, or purple veggies and red, blue, and orange fruits.

Hold up.

How you cook the vegetables also matters.

Steaming or stir frying vegetables preserves their nutrients, but watch out for breaded and deep fried veggies.

Grease is not good for you, not to mention the salt.

Can we still eat treats as part of a healthy diet?

Yes, of course you can have treats now and then.

The key is not to eat a lot of foods loaded with sugar or salt like ice cream, soda, or chips.

They may taste good, but they don't have much nutritional value, and too much sugar is a bad thing.

Another rule of thumb, that's a lot of thumbs, is moderation in all things.

A cupcake or a bag of chips every once in a while is not a problem as long as you have a healthy diet overall.

And what about beverages?

How do they fit into a healthy eating plan?

Sugary drinks like soda are among the worst things for you.

They're bad for your teeth, can lead to obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease, just to name a few of the problems they're associated with, so go easy on the pop.

Instead, opt for healthy alternatives like unsweetened herbal tea, 100% fruit juice, or milk.

When it comes down to it, plain old water is the best choice for staying hydrated and supporting bodily functions.

You should have a bottle handy whenever you exercise.

Drink water throughout the day.

Nutrition is like the fuel for your body.

Just like cars need the right kind of fuel to run smoothly, your body needs the right kinds of food to stay healthy and strong.

(graphics whoosh and crunch) (earth boings) - Thank you, Jeff.

In our next segment, we'll explore the challenges and rewards of being a business owner.

Bethany Pugh is not your regular high school student.

She's the founder of Elogical Cosmetics, an anime-inspired cosmetics line.

In this installment of "Making It," Bethany shares a story of how she started her makeup line and how she develops her products.

- Hi, my name is Bethany Pugh.

Get ready with me while I talk about my cosmetic line, Elogical Cosmetics.

(upbeat music) I started this business when I was in middle school during COVID.

Basically, it started as a clothing brand, and that only lasted a couple of months before I found out I was kind of bored with that.

So I changed my mind, and I started doing more makeup-related things.

My first eyeshadow palette I came out with was actually my Love the Hunt palette, and then I came out with my blush palette, which I think really made my brand really popular.

I really liked the process of making eyeshadow palettes.

Like it's something I really fell in love with.

Even though I was working on the blush palette at the same time, it was something about just testing out formulas, testing like pigments and stuff like that and getting to really decide what colors I wanted.

It was something about it that I just really fell in love with.

There's something about anime that's just so exciting.

It's hard to describe, honestly, just like magical almost, but connects with makeup too, like being able to just paint on your face literally.

Come to day one of Cleveland Fan Expo with me, a vendor.

My first convention with my business was the Cleveland Fan Expo.

We are finally here.

That was really like experiment for me.

I wasn't sure if something like that would be a good thing for my business or if I would get a lot of sales or engagement.

I ended up having tons of people telling me, "I've seen you, I've seen you before."

They were really into it and really, really listened to me talk about my brand and how much goes into it and stuff.

The only thing about Cleveland that just like, (laughs) love Cleveland.

Of course, I have my friends who always are interested in helping with my products, and, you know, everyone wants to make an eye shadow palette.

Who doesn't?

(laughs) Like, but on my team, like people who will help me carry all this into a convention center are really my mom.

Smile for TikTok.

She loves picking out colors with me.

Even though she doesn't really get like the vibe of some of the animes, she's always been really supportive though, even when I first started with my clothing brand.

Okay, so basically, I went to a camp, and it was called Ohio Business Week, and that was, ooh, that was so much fun for me.

I never really had a group of people like around me like that were my age that even considered entrepreneurship as something that they were interested in.

I still talk to those people to this day.

They're so sweet.

One of my best friends, Nevaeh, I met her there.

Love thinking about them.

(laughs) Being able to put like all types of colors and glitter (laughs) all over my face is just something that I really, really enjoy.

It's (sighs) therapeutic almost for me, and I hope that my makeup has that same effect on other people when they use it.

(upbeat music) (graphics whoosh and crunch) (earth boings) - Thank you, Bethany, and congratulations on all of your success.

Now this next boy from Virginia is celebrating a pretty unique skill.

Eli Sullivan won the National Horseshoe Throwing Championship in the under 12 age group.

What's even more impressive, it's the second year in a row that he's done it.

Marty Hudtloff talks to him about his methodology and inspiration.

- [Marty] He's got another trophy to show off.

Eli Sullivan now has back-to-back titles as the top horseshoe thrower in the world in his under 12 cadet age group.

- It was pretty cool and then have all like Joan Elmore and people come congratulate you about how you did.

- [Marty] At the World Horseshoe Tournament in Michigan earlier this month, Eli performed exactly how he executes in his own yard.

Over several days of the competition, Eli peaked in the championship round.

80% of his throws were ringers.

- I got used to the environment and my surroundings and just start humming to myself and keep doing the same thing.

- What were you humming?

- Songs.

- (laughs) Songs?

What songs are you humming when you're throwing horseshoes?

- Allen Jackson, George Jones, stuff like that.

(laughs) I don't know.

- It helps you relax.

- Yeah.

- It was really neat to see, you know, the fruits of his labor pay off.

He puts a lot of time into it.

It was cool to see the excitement on his face when he actually pulled it off.

- Eli goes for a three-peat next year at the World Horseshoe Tournament in Washington State, but he'll be moving up in class.

It should be an easy transition throwing with the under-18-year-old juniors.

Eli already throws at 30 feet, 10 feet further than he's required to competing with the under 12s.

- Probably be like the youngest there and one of the best, so it's gonna be pretty cool trying to get another title.

- [Marty] Eli's dad introduced him to the game.

The two are now teaming up in some father-son horseshoe throwing events.

- When we began, I mean, that was my plan 'cause I could never have a solid partner, and so he started throwing, and now I gotta pick up my game.

(Marty and Eli's Dad laugh) - It's pretty fun to have your dad on the other side cheering you on and you cheering back.

- Great job, Eli.

Now let's check out another cool kid.

In Reno, Nevada, a young painting prodigy is using her talents to raise money for nonprofits, but that's not the only art that she's mastered.

Taylor Burke has more on this six year old's many talents.

(classical violin music) - [Taylor] If you were to just listen in, you would never know this violinist has a fraction of the experience of a musician playing in a symphony, but music isn't the only skill Juliette has under her belt.

- When I go somewhere, I just take a picture with my mind, and then I can remember it, and then I can come home, and then I can just paint it.

- [Taylor] At just eight months old, Juliette began to paint.

Of all her hobbies, she tells me why this one is her favorite.

- No one tells me what to do, and I can just paint whatever I want.

(laughs) - [Taylor] An aspiring doctor, Leong wants to help people with cancer find a donor match.

Until she gets her PhD, she's selling her paintings and gives the proceeds to nonprofits.

- So Juliette is very self driven in her own goals.

- [Taylor] Willa and Jonathan Leong are Juliette's mom and dad.

They parent the same way any normal parent would.

- You still have to be a parent.

You still have to teach manners.

You have to teach, I mean, all the things necessary to be a person in this world.

- [Taylor] At the end of the day, they want what all parents want, for their child to have a life of happiness and satisfaction.

- It's not family.

It's beyond family.

The family is here.

That happens every day.

But why are you?

Who are you?

You know, can you help the community?

Can you help the world?

So we want her to be, you know, a child of the world.

- [Taylor] But don't expect this six year old to retire anytime soon.

Juliette has big plans for her future.

- I wanna be a doctor, violinist, artist, pianist, and zookeeper and, there's too many things!

- In the last year, Juliette has performed at games for the Oakland A's, Texas Rangers, Reno Aces, and the Sacramento River Cats.

She even took the honor as the youngest violin soloist at Carnegie Hall.

Now from that musical note, we're switching to poetry.

In 1994, a public school teacher from Washington DC wanted to create meaningful afterschool activities for her students, so Julie Kennedy turned to her two passions, soccer and poetry.

This led to the founding of America SCORES, a program that has branched out to 11 cities across the United States, including a chapter here in northeast Ohio.

Let's meet them in this week's "Sketchbook."

(graphics whoosh) (pen scribbles) (bright soft piano music) (people shout indistinctly) - [Angela] The title of my poem is "We Are Sisters."

"We are sisters, never break apart.

You're not just my friend, but you're my sister in my heart."

- I feel that this allows the kids to talk about things maybe that they wouldn't normally talk about.

They can write about it, realize that not only can that be okay but it can actually be celebrated, and they are connected and other people do care, and they are, you know, they are being heard.

- We stand up for each other.

Here's the thing with poetry.

You have to express yourself with words, and, although you do that already, it's in a much deeper level.

Like you have to go, and you have to really think about what you're saying.

You have to find that love inside you.

- America SCORES Cleveland started in 2004, and it started out in four schools serving about 120 kids and then grew into what we are today, which is 16 schools serving about 2,000 kids each year.

So Inspired Art is a collaboration between our poet athletes and local artists here in Cleveland.

- "We are sisters.

We laugh and cry together.

Mo matter how we look, we're always by each other.

Like a knot, we are always tethered.

We are sisters.

We stand up for each other.

Our love is like a chain.

It always sticks together.

We are sisters forever and ever."

(soft music) - I chose the poem "We Are Sisters," and I chose that one because I felt a connection with it.

I think it's really well written, and it is sincere.

So I wanted to do something that kind of conveyed that sisterhood could be among any group of women.

- Since I go to an all-girls school, we are always told that like, 'You may not be sisters by blood and you may not be related, but you're still sisters.

You go to the same school.

You're in the same class, you're friends."

- It really called to me because I kind of grew up in that area, in the inner city area of Cleveland, and I always wanted to be a part of something that helped inner city kids with art.

Well, I don't have any sisters, but I do have close friends, and one of my close friends is kind of like my sister, so I feel that connection, that bond.

- I'm a professor at Ursuline College in the graduate art therapy and counseling program, and we take our graduate students on service learning trips, and I happen to snap a picture of a group of them, and it just really spoke to me, this picture, and I thought, "Well, that's sisterhood right there."

- If I had never joined soccer, I think I would be writing poetry only for assignments, but now, I think about poetry all day, (laughs) every day seriously 'cause just thinking about it helps me express myself more through creativity, and I feel like my purpose is to inspire people and to help them be more creative themselves.

(upbeat music) (whistle blows) - Everything we do, soccer, creative writing, service learning is all about them learning about who they are, who their community is, being a team, being part of their school, and wanting to do better in the community while also giving them these tools and skills to advocate for themselves.

- It's that team spirit.

It's that comradery.

It's learning that accountability to showing up for practice because somebody else is reliant on you, and they do make that transference to other things in their life where they realize, "If I don't practice, if I don't know what I'm not good at, I'm not gonna get better at something."

(people shout indistinctly) (graphics whoosh and crunch) (earth boings) - Special thank thanks to arts producer Jean-Marie Papoi for sharing that story with us.

A teenager from Minnesota loves to fish, and this 14 year old recently made a very big catch except what he caught wasn't a fish.

He reeled in a treasure.

Kevin Wallevand explains.

(hockey stick thwacks) - [Kevin] 14-year-old Connor Halsa is just days away from his freshman year at Moorhead High and more hockey, but Connor has the best summer vacation story that will be hard to top.

- Like we were doing a walleye drift, so we stopped the boat and we like put like spinners on, and like we just let like the waves take us.

- [Kevin] Connor was fishing with his family on Lake of the Woods, a huge lake, when suddenly.

- I thought I had a big fish and I set the hook really hard.

- It was no walleye.

- Cousin Brandon Klipping, he netted it.

- [Kevin] It was a billfold full of money.

- My cousin Brandon, he opened the wallet up, and he was like, he said some words that you probably shouldn't say, and then he said that there's some money in it, and he like showed everyone, and then we like took the money out and placed it all on the dashboard to like let it dry off.

- [Kevin] $2,000 inside the billfold.

- My dad said we should give it to the person, so I told him we should, too.

- The money and other items inside the billfold, full of moss and water, but they found a business card inside.

and so the family called the number and tracked down the owner of the billfold.

- I'll tell you what, Kevin, I mean, I've got the billfold in my hands.

It's still for me hard to believe.

- [Kevin] That's Iowa farmer Jim Denney.

He was at Lake of the Woods fishing one year ago.

- The water was awful rough.

I was sitting on that back of the boat there, and the boat was rocking back and forth pretty good, and it must've just worked it up out of there and slipped off in the water.

- [Kevin] The billfold fell out of his back pocket.

He didn't realize it until he reached into his bib overalls to pay the final bill at the resort.

- (laughs) They had to kind of float me the money for the whole deal 'cause I had didn't have, that was the sunkenest feeling I'd ever been.

Didn't have a penny on me.

- It's hard to calculate.

The odds are out of this world.

A million-acre lake, 70 miles long, 70 miles wide, and Connor hooks a billfold the size of a deck of cards.

- The odds of ever, ever finding a billfold in there, hooking a billfold in 20-foot water, I don't think there would be a number.

- [Kevin] And so Jim recently made the trip from Iowa to Moorhead, Minnesota where he met Connor and his family and offered to even give Connor money, but no deal.

- To meet people like that that's that honest, he says, "There's a lot of money in this billfold," and I say, "I know," and I tried to get 'em to take the money.

They wouldn't do it.

- [Connor] He like customized it and put my last name on it.

- [Kevin] Jim gave Connor a fancy personalized cooler, but, more than that, he gave Connor a compliment worth much more than the cash found at the bottom of Lake of the Woods.

- I would take Connor for a grandson any day, and I'd fight for him any day.

- Connor, well, he learned some great lessons about himself and doing what's right.

- Yeah, to be nice to everyone and like give back to people.

We didn't really work hard for the money.

He did, so it was his money.

- Thank you, Kevin.

It always amazes me when I learn about some of the things students across Ohio are learning.

Believe it or not, it really makes me wish I was still in middle school, I mean it.

This week's A+ Award winners are a great example of something that I wish I had the opportunity to learn about and take part in when I was in school.

Mr. Ranford's STEM class at Springfield Middle School in Holland is learning about 3D printing.

"3D Printing is a process for making a physical object from a three-dimensional digital model, typically by laying down many successive thin layers of a material.

The students get to use CAD software to design objects and then they print them.

CAD is an acronym for computer-aided drafting.

The students have used the projects to make things like key chains, name tags, and custom bookmarks.

Pretty cool.

Well, it gets even cooler.

Some of the students realize that they could put this technology to work by helping making the world a better place.

The students started doing research on some of the things they could make using the school's 10 printers, and they realized that they could make, get this, prosthetic hands for children for just about 20 bucks.

To do this, the students had to use the engineering and design process to develop prototype hands.

A prototype is a model of something that can be used to test if something works.

The hands that the students are making use a heavy-duty fishing line to make the fingers work.

Dionte' said, 'I liked learning more about how my hands work.

I hadn't really thought about tendons and what they do.

I am learning a lot.'

Each hand takes about 43 hours to print.

Mr. Ranford told us that the students are learning a lot about trial and error, and he encourages them to fail forward, which means to learn from their mistakes in a way that helps their project move toward the goal.

The mechanical hands aren't yet ready for people.

They still need to go through more testing from an organization called Enabling the Future to make sure they can stand up to the rigors of normal use.

We think KaLaysia said it best when she said, "I feel good knowing that I'm doing things that will help people."

This week's A+ Award goes to the STEM students at Springfield Middle School for using 3D printing technology to help others.

You know, we're always looking for new A+ submissions, so for the Write to Us this week, we want you to tell us about some cool kids at your school.

Send your submissions through our A+ page or by sending us an email to newsdepth@ideastream.org, and remember to include your teacher's email address so we can reach out to learn more about all the cool kids out there.

Speaking of cool kids, what do you say we check in with the coolest boy in the office, News Hound?

(soft tribal music) (News Hound barks) Hi, News Hound.

News Hound?

Oh, here he comes.

Okay, News Hound.

You're running so fast.

Are you excited to tell us what you found?

Oh, you got a story about a purr-fect partnership between students and cats?

To learn more about this shelter program, click the Petting Zoo icon on our website.

(graphics whoosh and crunch) (earth boings) And that's all the time we have for today, but you can keep the conversation going, and there are plenty of ways to stay in touch with us.

You can write to us.

We're at 1375 Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio.

Our zip code here is 44115.

You can email us at newsdepth@ideastream.org, or you can tweet us.

Our handle is @NewsDepthOhio.

Plus you can catch all of our special segments on YouTube.

Hit Subscribe if you're old enough so you don't miss out on any of our new videos.

Thank you for joining us.

I'm Gabriel Kramer.

We'll see you right back here next week.

(graphics whoosh) (upbeat music) (earth boings) - [Child] "NewsDepth" is made possible by a grant from the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation.

(soft atmospheric music)