The Monfort Heights woman, now 63, said she doesn't have the energy to continue the program after hand and back surgeries.

Lockstead has a home-based crafts business called Creations Unlimited. She and her husband make the majority of the items that are sold.

People can stop in and buy something, and she gives the proceeds to charity during the Christmas season.

Nancy Lockstead of Monfort Heights is having her last Christmas Walk. For the past 20 years she has sponsored this program through a non-profit business to sell Christmas decorations and crafts to raise money for charities. The Enquirer/STEVEN M. HERPPICH

She calls this a "Christmas Walk" craft show, but it's not really a walk.

"I feel strong mentally, but if your body doesn't respond, you can't go on,'' said Lockstead, a 30-year real estate agent. "I have more than a thousand gifts ... in the lower level of my home. The money from the sale of the gifts has gone to charitable organizations over the last 20 years.''

The last "walk" is 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Nov. 15-Jan. 2 at her Monfort Heights home.

Her collections include more than 1,000 silk florals and trees; all sizes of sleighs and reindeer; Christmas candy, gifts and arrangements; homemade redwood sleighs with food products and goodies, and gift baskets for all occasions.

Her list of recipients includes local schools, charities and ministries as far away as Russia and Haiti. "It is sad to see it close,'' said Tom Brane, a teacher at the Christ Centered School, Harrison. "We used the donations to buy books, supplies and educational programs.''

Info: (513) 574-2933

Dog training supported

K-9 officers in Greater Cincinnati will have one more place to train their dogs, thanks to Dann Grossman, manager at 84 Lumber in Loveland. The store contributed $1,119 in lumber toward construction of an agility course at Kiwanis Park in Loveland. Twenty or more police officers and their dogs will train on the course, which could be ready in January, saysLoveland K-9 Officer Jose Alejandro.

A hole-in-one

Edward Hilbert, 75, of Westwood, is an avid golfer who struggles to shoot his age.

Well, he missed his age again, playing in a foursome Oct. 23 at Lindale Golf Course, Monroe Township. But he shocked his partners with a hole-in-one.

It came on the par 3, 156-yard 15th hole.

Hilbert said he used his utility wood and a Pinnacle ball.

"It was exciting to me, but the bad part about it, I didn't see it go in the hole. I can't see that far,'' Hilbert said.

Hilbert was playing with Randy Tucker and Byron McCauley, both of the Enquirer, and Jim Fell, director of hearings and appeals in the Cincinnati office of Social Security.

"Byron and Randy were describing the shot to me. They said, 'Ed, it's on the green; it's rolling toward the cup.' Then Jim said it went in the cup," Hilbert said.

St. Andrew honored

The parish at St. Andrew Catholic Church in Milford was recently honored by an international organization.

The church received the Living Stones Solidarity Award from a group of religious organizations and leaders, including the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Jerusalem, the Greek Orthodox, Lutheran and Anglican bishops of Jerusalem and the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation.

The Rev. Robert Waller accepted the award on behalf of the congregation and those responsible for the visit of five Palestinian Christian students to St. Andrew church and school last year.

"We accept this award on behalf of the five children in Milford who wanted a Palestinian brother or sister, and their parents who agreed to give them what they wanted," Waller said at the international conference of the foundation.

"And on behalf of five very courageous children in Beit Jala who dreamed of seeing America and their very trusting parents who put their children in our care," he continued.

Nancy Hemminger, the chair of the Children's Peace Project; Kristin Woodard, a St. Andrew parishioner; Donna Beebe, the principal of St. Andrew-St. Elizabeth Ann Seton School; and Carol McNeal, president of the St. Andrew Parish Pastoral Council, accompanied Waller to Washington, D.C., to accept the award.

This year, a second Greater Cincinnati church participated in the hosting program, the Church of the Assumption in Mount Healthy, hosting six additional Palestinian Christian students.

To submit religion news, e-mail kbvance@adelphia.net or send a fax to (513) 755-4150.