Can you believe Winter Beerfest has been kicking it in Columbus for a decade? Well, you better because this January 17 and 18, #10YearsOfBeers Columbus Winter Beerfest Presented by Taft's Brewing Co. is back!

The two-night celebration of craft beer features more than 350 local, regional, and hard-to-find craft beers from more than 130 breweries including North High Brewing, Columbus Brewing Company, Taft’s, and many more.

The festival also offers concessions from local food trucks as well as live music both Friday and Saturday night—all inside the Greater Columbus Convention Center.

“For a decade Columbus has allowed us to throw the biggest party of winter. Every year we work to top ourselves but turning 10 is special,” says event co-Founder Matt King. “We’re thankful to the thousands of people that support Winter Beerfest. To say thank you, we’re pulling out all the stops."

The event offers an inexpensive way to sample sometimes very expensive beers while learning about the beers from Brewers and Distributors. Some of the beers that will be on hand cost as much $18 a small bottle or $500 a keg. In total, over 10,000 Gallons of Beer will be dispensed at Columbus Winter Beerfest!

Proceeds from the 10th Annual Columbus Winter Beerfest benefit Animal Rescue Partners and I Have a Dream Rescue Organization in their shared mission to find “forever homes” for animals in need.

Early admission tickets are available now at columbusbeerfest.com.

Have you seen the white lab-coated people hanging out at the intersection of Main Street and Drexel Avenue in Bexley? They’re there the second Saturday in December with buckets for drivers to drop in their extra change and dollar bills. Even if you haven’t noticed them in Bexley, they can be found all around Columbus on that Saturday. They call themselves Newsies and they have been around a long time—112 years— helping raise money so no child will be kept out of school for lack of adequate clothing.

A Columbus original, Charity Newsies is doing work. They provide approximately 12,000 children with brand new clothing every year. A package an applicant will receive includes: six pairs of underwear, six pairs of socks, three shirts, three pairs of pants, a winter coat, winter hat and gloves. There’s an annual kick-off auction, the sale of Hearts and other fundraising activities, along with the drive total, that brought in a jaw-dropping total of $1,438,391 last year.

How did the organization get started and what’s with the “Newsies” angle? It all started on a chilly day on Broad and High more than 100 years ago.

“Three businessmen were hanging out at Billy’s Chop House at Broad and High and noticed a boy selling papers,” says Mike Miller, the organization’s Headquarters Manager. “The businessmen took the papers from the young man and started selling and yelling out that it was for charity. From that night [in 1907], the idea of creating a charitable organization by selling papers was born, and in around 1960 is when the focus turned to clothing for school kids.”

Today, the Columbus Dispatch creates a special edition to be given out during the Drive Day.

The dollars raised are impressive, but it’s the emotional impact that is so rewarding to the over 500 volunteer members. Take Betsy Eckel, a volunteer for Charity Newsies, for example. When she first got involved, it didn’t take long for her to feel the benefits of helping out, and she fell in love instantly.

“I vividly remember the first time I volunteered in the clothing room and one kid came in and looked at the winter coats,” Eckel recalled. “He tried on the coat and looked at me and asked if he could keep the coat. The joy in his face when I told him he could keep the coat blew me away. He told me he had never had a coat with new tags on it.”

Eckel and her best friend, and fellow volunteer, Shelby Nathans, grew up together in Bexley and were introduced to Charity Newsies at an early age. For Nathan, her father has been a member for 20 years, keeping her close to the organization as she grew up.

“I would see him on Drive Day with his buddies having so much fun and doing great things,” Nathans said. “Plus, Bexley schools are closely tied to Charity Newsies, so I was involved back then.”

Both women cite the rise in self-esteem when a child has the right clothes to wear to school. And then there’s the practical side: when kids don’t have the proper clothes, they just don’t get themselves to school.

Eckel said she knows this from first-hand experience. “When I was a teacher I saw kids not having coats and socks in the winter,” says Eckel. “Some kids would be put on the bus without proper clothes. They would have to wait at the bus stop freezing. Some parents would choose to keep the kids home. Attendance really suffered.”

The Newsies tend to trend older—a point both Nathans and Eckel make and would like to see change. For Eckel, it’s simple: she wants young volunteers to experience what she has experienced.

“When people stop to donate during that second Saturday in December one of the most rewarding things to hear is, ‘You helped me when I was a kid. I will never forget it. I have the ability to do something and I want to give back.’ ”

To get involved with the Charity Newsies, visit charitynewsies.org.

Today, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation, the educational arm of the nation’s largest LGBTQ civil rights organization, in partnership with the Equality Federation Institute, released its eighth annual Municipal Equality Index (MEI), assessing LGBTQ equality in 506 cities across the nation, including eight in Ohio.

The Municipal Equality Index, the only nationwide assessment of LGBTQ inclusion in municipal law and policy, shows that cities across the country, including in Ohio, continue to take the lead in supporting LGBTQ people and workers.

The average score for cities in Ohio is 90 out of 100 points, which falls above the national average of 60.

“This year’s Municipal Equality Index shows that across the country, city leaders are working tirelessly to ensure that their constituents can secure housing, make a living and participate in community life without being discriminated against because of who they are," HRC President Alphonso David said in a statement.

The MEI rated 506 cities including the 50 state capitals, the 200 largest cities in the U.S., the five largest cities or municipalities in each state, the cities home to the state’s two largest public universities, 75 municipalities that have high proportions of same-sex couples and 98 cities selected by HRC and Equality Federation state group members and supporters. It assesses each city on 49 criteria covering citywide non-discrimination protections, policies for municipal employees, city services, law enforcement and the city’s leadership on LGBTQ equality.

The full report, including detailed scorecards for every city, as well as a searchable database, is available online at www.hrc.org/mei.