People Working Cooperatively & 800 Volunteers Help Our Most Vulnerable

Such a great project. Repair Affair is People Working Cooperatively’s (PWC) annual spring volunteer event, providing home repairs and modifications that enable low-income, elderly and residents with disabilities to remain safely in their homes. For a day individuals, businesses and community groups help a PWC client (with supervision from a trained professional) with home repairs that would otherwise be unaffordable.

Our community is so giving that this year 800 people signed up to help 135 PWC clients. In fact an extra day had to be added to accommodate everybody’s generosity.

Repair Affair was developed by People Working Cooperatively in 1983 as a free outreach program to help homeowners who are often the most vulnerable to keep their homes safe and habitable. Presented by Home Depot and sponsored by the City of Cincinnati, the event was held across the Tri-State in greater Cincinnati, northern Kentucky and Indiana.

Would you like to help? PWC also has a fall event called Prepare Affair where volunteers will help people with services from raking leaves to cleaning gutters and other small winter preparation tasks.

Ladybug Hikes With A Purpose

I got a letter in the mail a few weeks back (I’ve gotten a little behind on my blog posts – sometimes work gets in the way) from a friend. Denise ‘Ladybug’ Hill was off on another trek, an 800+ journey.

“Second only to the love of my family, I am most content when I am alone in the wilderness,” the note began. “In 2004, at 48 years of age, I took my first hiking steps on the famed 2,174 Appalachian Trail to fulfill two promises I made to my sister, Cheryl Rose Walden. I promised Cheryl, during her final stage of a ten year battle with breast cancer that her memory would last forever. I fulfilled that promise by planting hundreds of packets of forget-me-not seeds in 25 states and 3 countries during my treks. I also promised my sister that I would renew my faith and become closer to understanding God.”

A Little History

I think I first met Denise when she was training for her first trek, walking the Appalachian Trail in 2004. She wore a heavy backpack as she walked distances in training. I knew back then she called her journey ‘Walking for Walden’ and she was raising money for Hospice of Cincinnati in memory of her sister, but that was the extent of my knowledge.

Since then I’ve heard her stories…like when she was working to complete the Pacific Crest Trail in 2009 and found herself surrounded by a swarm of rattlesnakes. Her cell phone didn’t work in many places…but it did there.

“I had spoken to Bruce (her husband) earlier that morning and a ladybug crawled into my lap. When I mentioned my ladybug friend, he said, ‘That means you’re going to have good luck today.’ Little did he know, I would be SO lucky,” she told me. (which by the way is, you guessed it, why her nickname is now ‘Ladybug.’)

There are not that many people I know who get rescued from a den of deadly snakes in an emergency helicopter. But I know one.

Denise and I and another friend spent a weekend last fall hiking through Ohio’s scenic Hocking Hills State Park. That Saturday, Denise and I spent the day together walking more than 8 miles. When you spend so many hours alone with someone you get to know her pretty well. At one point she stopped and wanted me to continue. She wanted me to experience the peaceful solitude of walking amidst natural wonders, of being in my own thoughts and just appreciating what I don’t always take the time to see. This, she told me, is what it is like for her every time she is on one of her treks – and she has done a lot of them.

This Time Was Different

So this time, when Denise took to the trails with hopes of raising money and awareness for Hospice, I had a deeper understanding of why she left. This time I felt the desire to read her story that she has posted online.

Cheryl Rose Counts Walden whose spirit is Denise’s rock was a loving mother, daughter and sister to four younger siblings. Her ferocious fight against a disease the ultimately won the battle was testament to the strength of her inner core. Denise described her sister as ‘living a simple, yet full life, graced with peaceful and loving energy.’

As Denise raced to the hospital one last time memories of their childhood together kept her going. ‘Mental images of me with my sister, Cheryl, playing, laughing , scheming, cooking, crying, singing, dancing, and praying  were reeling at fast forward speed in my head and as vividly as those actual moments in time.  Tepid tears flowed freely down my face as I tightly gripped the steering wheel with both hands replaying the images of my youth,” Denise wrote.

Five years after her sister’s death Denise kept her sister close by sharing memories, raising money for breast cancer awareness, burning a candle in prayer every Christmas, and visiting Cheryl’s gravesite in a beautiful Tennessee setting overlooking the Great Smoky Mountains. Hiking became Denise’s choice for honoring her sister.

After trekking close to 4,400 miles on the 2,650 mile Pacific Crest Trail on a hike dedicated to Hospice of Cincinnati in her sister’s memory, this is Ladybug’s emotional finish.

I just heard from my friend. Her 800 mile hike that was originally taking her from Mexico to the ends of Utah had to be diverted, and she is completing her remaining 675 miles in our region. I’ll more than likely be joining her along some of that journey.

If you’d like to read more about Ladybug’s former hiking adventures: please visit www.walkingforwalden.com

If you would like to support Ladybug and her Hikes for Hospice
please send your donation to:
Hospice of Cincinnati, Inc.
C/O Bethesda Foundation, Inc.
P.O. Box 633597
Cincinnati, OH 45263-3597

A Presidential Proclamation – National Volunteer Week

This week, our President Barack Obama, is proclaiming National Volunteer Week. It is a week to say thanks to those who have given of themselves generously to improve lives and communities. And a week to remind ourselves that we all have something to give. One small act of kindness can ripple beyond measure.

NATIONAL VOLUNTEER WEEK, 2011
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION

America’s story has been marked by the service of volunteers.  Generations of selfless individuals from all walks of life have served each other and our Nation, each person dedicated to making tomorrow better than today.  They exemplify the quintessential American idea that we can change things, make things better, and solve problems when we work together.

Volunteers are the lifeblood of our schools and shelters, hospitals and hotlines, and faith-based and community groups.  From mentoring at-risk youth and caring for older Americans to supporting our veterans and military families and rebuilding after disasters, these everyday heroes make a real and lasting impact on the lives of millions of women and men across the globe.

Last year, nearly 63 million Americans gave of themselves through service.  Their compassion is a testament to the generosity of the American spirit.  In difficult times, Americans are coming together — tackling our challenges instead of ignoring them — and renewing the principle that we are our brother’s keeper and our sister’s keeper.

Today, as many Americans face hardship, we need volunteers more than ever.  Service opportunities tap the energy and ingenuity of our greatest resource — the American people — to improve our neighborhoods and our world.  My Administration is committed to investing in community solutions and increasing opportunities for Americans to serve.  The bipartisan Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act strengthened the programs of the Corporation for National and Community Service, which engage millions of citizens each year in service through Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, and Learn and Serve America.  We are building the capacity of organizations and communities to tackle their own problems by investing in social innovation and volunteer cultivation.  And through United We Serve, a national call to service, we are making it easier for women and men of all ages to find volunteer opportunities or create their own projects where they see a need.

During National Volunteer Week, we celebrate the profound impact of volunteers and encourage all Americans to discover their own power to make a difference.  Every one of us has a role to play in making our communities and our country stronger.  I encourage all Americans to help us renew progress and prosperity and build a brighter future for our Nation by visiting www.Serve.gov to find a local project.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 10 through April 16, 2011, as National Volunteer Week.  I call upon all Americans to observe this week by volunteering in service projects across our country and pledging to make service a part of their daily lives.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this seventh day of April, in the year of our Lord two thousand eleven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-fifth.

BARACK OBAMA



Innovative Ideas For Giving By Cincinnati Entrepreneurs

Two Cincinnati social entrepreneurs are using the power of the internet to make a positive difference in our community.

One for America

Doug Newberry, founder of the popular Cincinnati Soapbox Derby, has created a new site to raise money for good causes – one dollar at a time. One for America is based on the premise that if we all give just a little, collectively that little amounts to A LOT.

One for America asks individuals to make a monthly one dollar donation, and nominate and vote for a cause of the month who will receive that month’s donations.

To learn more, please visit his site here.

Wamboo

Wamboo is a social network site that connects individual donors with nonprofits with people in need to make giving easier. It is the brain child of Dori Gehling who invested her own resources and countless hours of her own personal time (when she already had a full plate as a branch manager of Coldwell Banker) to get it off the ground.

How does Wamboo work? Qualified non-profit organizations sign up on Wamboo to ‘champion’ an individual or family in need (called a ‘rally’) by setting up an online profile, committing to giving 100% of Wamboo donations toward the purchase or a product, service or item, and submitting a Wamboo Rally affidavit. Individuals who join Wamboo as ‘members’ can become part of a ‘team’, or they can participate by themselves to support a cause. Members can search for and support as many rallies as they’d like. There is NO membership fee, and NO part of the donation goes to Wamboo or the champion organization.

SOTENI And Cincinnati Students FIGHT AIDS In Africa

There is a local organization here in Cincinnati that is taking on a global issue. You don’t hear a whole lot about HIV/AIDS any longer but it hasn’t gone away..particularly in areas like the rural communities of Africa, where communicable diseases have the power to run rampant.

When volunteers first founded SOTENI in 2002 their mission was simple – to empower the orphans of AIDS to lead the fight against the disease and prevent another generation of succumbing.

Led by physician-epidemiologist Victoria Wells Wulsin, SOTENI Kenya began in 2003. Their model was and still is called ‘Villages of Hope’ with a goal was to establish a sustainable, grassroots community led by an elected management committee.  They work to prevent HIV/AIDS and reduce its effects with love, guidance and resources. Since beginning its first Village of Hope in Mituntu, the organization has expanded to include three additional villages in Mbakalo, Ugenya and Kuria.

Cincinnati Students Get Involved

Four area high schools (Walnut Hills, Indian Hills, Oak Hills and St. Ursula Academy)  have gotten involved educating their peers, raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic, and raising important money toward SOTENI’s mission.

In December local students participated in SOTENI’s 2^nd annual Students help Students: Cincinnati to Kenya. They wrote letters to the 39 SOTENI sponsored students in Kenya; and assembled gift bags with toiletries, pens, pencils, & t-shirts.  But the highlight of that afternoon project was the Skype call to two secondary students in Kenya.

Last year Cincinnati students organized a concert of high school bands and raised over $1000 for the health center in Kenya.  Mark your calendars – this year’s concert will be March 4, only  instead of bands they are looking for more acoustical groups or solo performers.  It will be at the Leapin’ Lizard in Covington.  The event name is ‘Paint the Town Red”.

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