Karen Sottosanti

In 2017, she began dancing at the Academy in Westerville, where she currently studies with instructors and World Irish Dance champions Byron Tuttle, a former Lord of the Dance and Feet of Flames dancer, and Edward Searle, a former Riverdance dancer. Since the studio moved to Westerville from Birmingham, England, in 2011, dancers who have trained at the Academy have won 25 World Irish Dancing championships in both the solo and team sections. “I’m very lucky to have a school so great so close,” Rogers says.

“We continually beat the drum among our members about what the co-op is,” says Phil Caskey, president and CEO of Consolidated Cooperative, which serves eight counties in north-central Ohio. Caskey says that many residents of suburban areas, as well as former suburbanites who move into rural areas, are unaware of the differences between electric co-ops and large, privately owned electric utilities. In addition, rural co-op members tend to have a better understanding of the co-op’s place in the community, he says.