There are more than 90,000 homes in Summit County, and a group of 80 juniors and seniors from Akron Public Schools are responsible for one more.

Career education students studying carpentry, masonry, plumbing, electrical construction, and heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) took their skills to 682 Florida Ave. this September and built a new home from start to finish.

While the city focuses on job growth and creation, a recent study asserts that attention should be given to passion and love of place instead.

Social offerings, aesthetics and openness are more critical to residents than basic services and economy, according to a three-year Gallup study of Akron in coordination with the Knight Foundation.

In 2006, Pfeiffer Elementary School teacher Marie McDonald started a new after-school program. On the day she announced the club, she kept her fingers crossed that even 12 students would sign up. She got 50. In fact, the response was so overwhelming that, on the first day, students were stuffing permission slips under her door, pinning them beneath her car’s windshield wipers and overflowing her mailbox – all to make sure they could get a spot in the club.

All this excitement wasn’t over a new sports program or even a music class. It was over knitting.