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Nelson shares his vision for city

SHARING HIS VISION — Mark Nelson, owner of Nelson Fine Arts, shared his vision for the future of Steubenville during the monthly Faith in the Future luncheon Wednesday afternoon at Franciscan University of Steubenville. - Dave Gossett

STEUBENVILLE — Mark Nelson has a vision of a city that can be rebuilt for the children of the future, and he found a receptive audience for his ideas Wednesday at the monthly Faith in the Future luncheon.

“I moved here with my parents and siblings when I was in the 10th grade. We came here because of the Franciscan University of Steubenville and the family around the university. I graduated from Catholic Central in 1989, when I had gotten very involved in the pro-life cause. I dropped out of college after a couple of weeks and became a Catholic missionary,” related Nelson.

Faith in the Future President Tracy McManamon called Nelson, “the real deal and a real friend.”

“He was one of the first persons I met when I came to Steubenville and he has a unique story to share with you,” McManamon said.

“I believe many of us are the new immigrants to Steubenville as were the immigrants who came here years ago,” commented Nelson.

“I met my wife Gretchen during our missionary work and after five years we came back to Steubenville with $200 and I started a craft business. I started out selling my wood crafts to the Franciscan University of Steubenville book store and now sell our items to 900 gift stores,” continued Nelson.

“We were living and working on our farm, which is just outside the city limits and kept life under wraps. In 2009 I went to look at the playground equipment that was for sale at the Lincoln Avenue school and the Lord told me to look at the school building. That is when I became an investor and a stakeholder in the city. So mom and dad decided to start fixing things up in Steubenville,” stated Nelson.

“The first step came when our daughter, Therese, asked if she could help clean up the old Grand Theater. I took several of my kids to the theater because they needed an adult with them. That is when I found the water bed frames my father and brother had built for Derek Ferguson and his water bed store in the second floor room and carried the frames out to a Dumpster,” laughed Nelson.

“I started attending City Council meetings and began to bring problems to the council members. I called Congressman Bill Johnson who met with me and he encouraged me to get involved politically and socially. That’s when I began to look at how we can clean up Steubenville,” related Nelson.

“There were two revitalizations in Steubenville. The first one was in 1925 when 12 ministers took on the underworld and the second one came in 1942,” said Nelson, who shared a story about attending a funeral in Tennessee.

“The procession from the church to the family farm was at least a mile long and we all parked where we could on the farm lane. And just about every car had a sticker from Franciscan University of Steubenville. Without Steubenville, there is no Franciscan University, and without the university, there is not much left of Steubenville. We can’t distance the two. We are building the city for our children and I wanted to know how to build a Christian community for our children,” declared Nelson.

“So I talked to professor Scott Hahn and he said a community that is alive makes it human. We will never be a steel town again, but it is OK to be a small community. We need a mix of holding ourselves accountable, our city officials accountable and our employees accountable,” noted Nelson.

“I realized there is no ‘they’ coming to rescue us. The ‘they’ is us. My family is all in at this point. My children have created the ‘Love Where You Live’ theme, the Nutcracker Village and are involved with the Harmonium Project. Go to Holy Family Catholic Church and see all the young kids there. They are the future of Steubenville. It is up to us to dig in and help out,” concluded Nelson.

McManamon also announced the Bishop Jeffrey M. Monforton will be the featured speaker at the 14th-annual Faith in the Future breakfast scheduled for 8 a.m. on Nov. 11 at Froehlich’s Classic Corner Restaurant.

(Gossett can be contacted at dgossett@heraldstaronline.com.)

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