We Won!

Top of Mind

OHIO STATE JUST SWEPT MICHIGAN AGAIN, AND THIS TIME IT SAVES LIVES.

The Buckeyes didn’t just beat Michigan this weekend.
They out-gave, out-bled, and out-donated them.

For the fourth straight year, Ohio State won the annual Blood Battle, the 44-year-old rivalry where OSU and Michigan compete to see who can collect the most blood donations for local patients. Think The Game, but with needles instead of linebackers.

The Final Score (the one they won’t put on ESPN):

• Ohio State: 1,725 pints
  

• Michigan: 1,622 pints
  

• Margin of victory: 103 pints
  

• Lives potentially saved: up to 10,000

Michigan might have the “leaders and best,” but Ohio State clearly has the donors and veins.

What the Win Means

All blood collected through the competition stays local, going directly to patients at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, people battling cancer, recovering from trauma, undergoing transplants, or facing medical emergencies where blood donation is the difference between crisis and survival.

OSU hosted 52 blood drives in 34 days, proving once again that Buckeyes treat community service the same way they treat rivalry week: as a mandatory part of the curriculum.

A Word From President Carter

Ohio State President Walter “Ted” Carter Jr. celebrated the four-peat with the kind of calm satisfaction only someone who has never lost this competition can feel:

Buckeyes rolled up their sleeves to be part of an effort that’s so much bigger than a game.

Correct. It’s bigger. It’s life-saving. And unlike the football rivalry, nobody can claim we inflated these numbers.

The Streak So Far

Ohio State is now on a run that probably keeps Michigan administrators up at night:

• 2025: 1,725 – 1,622 (OSU win)
  

• 2024: 1,707 – 1,407 (OSU win)
  

• 2023: 1,732 – 1,469 (OSU win)
  

• 2022: 1,630 – 1,533 (OSU win)

You could say dominance. You could say tradition. You could also say Michigan should consider recruiting better.

The Bottom Line

This is the best kind of rivalry win.
No referees. No replay reviews. No arguments about the strength of the schedule.
Just thousands of people in Columbus showing up, donating blood, and helping strangers they’ll never meet.

Beating Michigan is always satisfying.
Beating Michigan and saving lives?
That’s pretty awesome.

The Blood Battle might be over, but
The need for blood doesn’t end.

Hospitals in Columbus use blood every single day for trauma patients, cancer treatments, surgeries, and emergencies that don’t care about rivalry week.

So if you didn’t donate this round, or if you did and you’re already plotting your next appearance, consider rolling up your sleeve again.
Find a drive. Schedule an appointment. Bring a friend who swears they “hate needles.”

Schedule here: 

Scarlet Letter Trivia

Question: Ohio is the 8th largest turkey producer in the nation. In 2024, how many turkeys were produced in Ohio?

A) 7.8 million
B) 4.2 million
C) 6.4 million
D) 3.7 million

WHO IS AMY ACTON, AND WHY IS SHE RUNNING OHIO’S NEXT BIG RACE?

Before she became one of the most recognizable figures in Ohio during the spring of 2020, before the daily press conferences, before the protests on her front lawn, before national outlets called her “the leader we wish we all had,” Dr. Amy Acton was just a kid growing up on the north side of Youngstown, navigating neglect, abuse, instability, and stretches of homelessness.

Her story is not the usual launchpad for someone running for governor. But Amy Acton has never really followed the usual script.

From Youngstown to Medicine to Public Health

Acton earned her bachelor’s degree at Youngstown State, then paid her way through medical school at Northeast Ohio Medical University, finishing in 1990. She completed residencies in pediatrics and preventive medicine, earned her MPH from Ohio State, and trained at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

In other words: not a political résumé. A public health résumé.

She taught at OSU, managed grants at The Columbus Foundation, ran Project LOVE, and volunteered for Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign, not as a power broker, but as someone organizing neighborhood email lists in Bexley.

Then, Governor Mike DeWine tapped her in 2019 as Ohio’s director of health. She was his final cabinet pick, the one he said he needed to “get right” because “someday there will be a crisis.”

He was right, and the crisis wasted no time.

Ohio’s Pandemic Voice

When COVID-19 hit, Amy Acton became the face of Ohio’s response. Calm, direct, and often emotional, she delivered the science while DeWine delivered the policy. She told Ohioans the situation would define a generation. She estimated community spread before national models caught up. And she closed polling locations when no one else would touch the decision.

Ohio’s House Minority Leader called her “the real MVP.”
CNN compared her to Fauci.
The Dayton Daily News called her “Ohio’s trusted face during the pandemic.”

Not everyone agreed.

Protesters showed up at her home.
Republican legislators tried to strip her authority.
She needed a security detail.
She worried she’d be forced to sign an order that violated her medical ethics.

So she resigned.

Not from public life, just from the system that had turned her into a political lightning rod.

A Pivot Back to Community Work

Acton returned to The Columbus Foundation.
She earned a national Profile in Courage Award.
She later led RAPID 5, the largest parks and greenway project in the region.
And then, slowly, then all at once, she began reentering the political orbit.

By the 2024 Democratic National Convention, she was signaling interest.
On January 7, 2025, she made it official:

Amy Acton is running for governor of Ohio in 2026.
She announced it the way she handled those early COVID briefings, plainly, without theatrics:

“I’m a doctor, not a politician. I’m running to help the people of Ohio.”

What Makes Her Different

Acton is not a career politician. She’s not an ideologue. She’s not someone who built a war chest over the last decade. Her background is public health, crisis management, philanthropy, trauma, resilience, and, whether people love her for it or resent her for it, a belief that science should guide policy.

Her supporters see someone who steadied the state during chaos.
Her critics see someone who shut down public life too aggressively.
Both groups remember her.

What happens next will depend on whether Ohio wants a physician-governor who built her career outside the Statehouse, and whether the story that defined her in 2020 becomes the reason Ohio elects her, or the reason it doesn’t.

Either way: get ready to hear her name. A lot.

Some Different Stuff To Do This Holiday Season

A Guide to Two Columbus Traditions Worth Your Time

Columbus has no shortage of December events, but two long-running local traditions stand out for their focus on culture, history, and community, not just shopping or seasonal crowds. If you’re looking for something meaningful (and uniquely Ohio) to add to your holiday calendar, here are two options with real substance behind them.

1. Holiday Histories at the Ohio History Center

December 13 • Ohio History Center, 800 E. 17th Ave.

The Ohio History Center’s annual Holiday Histories event offers a hands-on look at winter traditions from around the world and across Ohio’s past. Visitors can move through the museum at their own pace, participating in activities and learning how different cultures have marked the season.

Featured stations and activities include:

• Moon Festival Celebration: Learn about the Mid-Autumn Festival and make a Play-Doh mooncake.
  

• Twelfth Night & Winter Tidings: Explore how early Ohioans prepared for winter and decorated with evergreens and early Christmas trees.
  

• Home Away from the Homefront: View letters and artifacts documenting how American soldiers spent holidays overseas during World War I and other conflicts.
  

• 1950s Holidays: Step inside the museum’s Lustron Home to see mid-century holiday traditions.
  

• Ice Age Mammals: Examine fossils and learn about the Ice Age megafauna that once lived in Ohio.
  

• Ohio Toy History: See historic toys from Kenner, Little Tikes, and the Ohio Art Company.
  

• Holiday Vendor Market: Shop from local makers, including Igloo Letterpress and Robin Schuricht Art.

Admission:
Premium members attend for free; all other members receive $5 off each ticket.

2. Holiday Season at the Ohio Statehouse

Events throughout December • Capitol Square

The Ohio Statehouse offers a month of free, public holiday programming designed to highlight Ohio history, Victorian-era traditions, and local performing arts.

Tree Lighting & Holiday Festival

December 3, 5:30–7:30 p.m.
A long-standing public event featuring the arrival of Santa, live choirs, children’s activities, historical displays, and refreshments provided by Tim Hortons, the Girl Scouts, Cabot Creamery, and Statehouse caterers.

Victorian Holiday Tours

Free guided tours highlight how the Statehouse would have been decorated in the 1860s.
Tours depart hourly:

• Weekdays: 10 a.m., 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 2 p.m., 3 p.m.
  

• Weekends: Noon, 1 p.m., 2 p.m., 3 p.m.
  

Free Noon Holiday Performances

From December 4–18, high school choirs and music groups from around Ohio perform seasonal music at noon in the Museum Gallery. Schools include Eastmoor Academy, Johnstown-Monroe, Centennial, Northside Christian, and more.

Statehouse Museum Shop & Candy Cane Sale

The Museum Shop offers Ohio-made gifts, with discounts of 10–40% available during the annual Candy Cane Sale (Dec. 3–8). Many items are produced by Ohio artists and small businesses.

Why You Should Stop By!

Both the Ohio History Center and the Ohio Statehouse offer a holiday experience rooted in education, preservation, and local culture. They’re opportunities to learn something new about Ohio, support community organizations, and connect with traditions that extend far beyond a typical seasonal outing.

If you want a break from holiday commercialism and something that reminds you why this season has mattered to Ohioans for centuries, these two events offer exactly that.

Trivia Answer:

C: 6.4 million