Lillian Conover, 76, of Loveland, can see beauty where most people can't; a robin, goldenrod on a straw-thatched cottage, a track and her favorite colors of red, white and blue.

        She spends most days putting together trinkets in those colors; then she donates them to senior centers to sell to make money.

        “I am a very patriotic person,” she said. “I have been that way all my life.”

        She traces that patriotism to a family of military people.

        “My grandfather was in World War I. My husband was in World War II. I had a son in the Vietnam war and now have two grandsons in the military,” she said.

        To just about everything she makes, she attaches a little American flag. She puts together a little bouquet of flowers made of cloth. Red, white and blue, of course.

        She can move quickly from manufacturing her patriotic gadgets to watching a robin in a tree where she captures its beauty in a poem.

        “I look out my window and what do I see. A little red Robin in the holly tree. ...” she writes.

        “I see so much beauty around me and I have to express it in words,” she said.

        Then her thoughts turn to her birthplace in North Wales, England.

        She writes: “I'm going home, to my home in England where the heather and the goldenrod grows to a straw thatched cottage on a hillside that looks out to the sea. ...”

        Mrs. Conover came to Cincinnati in 1946. She worked as a quality control inspector at Cincinnati Milling Machine Co., now Cincinnati Milacron. She retired in 1969. She is the mother of seven childre.

        Athletes and athletic staff members spent “A Night of Pride” this month at Northwest High School. They locked themselves in the gym and spent the night reviewing good sportsmanship, team-building and discussions about the life-long value of athletics.

        Dr. Stephen Dailey of Wellington Orthopaedic & Sports Medicine, a Northwest High graduate, was the keynote speaker.

        The group ate pizza at midnight and watched Remember the Titans.
        The Munich Sister City Association is accepting applications for the high school student exchange.

        The program has operated for six years, bringing Munich and Cincinnati students together. German students visit Cincinnati for two weeks in May and stay with the Cincinnati student's families.

        Cincinnati students visit German partners in June.

        The American students do not have to speak German. Most German students speak English.

        For application and more information, call: Nancy Erbeck, 513-554-1063; Lee Parker, 513-761-0468 or Bob Beckman, 513-922-5094.

        Allen Howard's “Some Good News” column runs Monday-Friday and Sundays. If you have suggestions about outstanding achievements, or people who are committing random acts of kindness that are uplifting to the Tristate, let him know at (513) 768-8362; at ahoward@enquirer.com; or by fax at (513) 768-8340.

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