Lisa Desatnik
TriState CART Is Raising Awareness For Emergency Preparedness
September is National Preparedness Month and TriState CART is helping to raise awareness with its Strut Your Mutt event September 14 in New Richmond. A dog parade and Canine Good Citizen Testing are among the activities. TriState CART is a nonprofit disaster response team that focuses on the care of animals during times of local disaster for 31 counties surrounding Greater Cincinnati.
It is from Noon until 6 pm on Front Street in New Richmond. For more details please visit www.tristatecart.org.
Happy Anniversary To Bobby Mackey!
This weekend, a legend in the Greater Cincinnati country music scene celebrated a milestone anniversary. I wanted to share this story I wrote about Bobby Mackey – an icon and a friend.
Without his stage, Bobby Mackey is the simple man next door. He is the devoted father who cherishes special, intimate family moments and who celebrates every milestone his daughters achieve. He is the husband talking lovingly about his long wedded wife who has been by his side through much of his adult journey. He is the soft spoken, tender man who knows no strangers. His passion and appreciation for life’s simple pleasures are what keeps him grounded.
If there was no music Bobby would more than likely be working along a railroad living a modest life for himself and his family in a quiet, walkable neighborhood not unlike the little town of Concord, Kentucky lining the beautiful Ohio River where he was raised.
But there was music
There, deep in the heart of Appalachia, in rural Lewis County where most men earned a living from the railroads or by harvesting a farm, Bobby’s parents no sooner taught him to talk than they taught him to sing.
Bobby remembers listening to country music on his mother’s Zenith radio and singing along to Hank Williams playing on a juke box in his father’s grocery store. By the age of four, he had already won the hearts of the judges and his first talent competition with his version of ‘Your Cheatin’ Heart’. Four years later his oldest brother bought Bobby a Roy Rogers guitar and soon the little boy with a melodic voice began voacalizing along with his favorite stars on The Grand Ole Opry. By the time he grew into a teen his idol was maverick Buck Owens, star of Hee-Haw who pioneered the shift of country music to a raw ‘Bakersfield’ sound.
Music was in Bobby’s blood
The year was 1966 when Bobby left home with $75 in his suitcase…and his guitar. Eventually he settled in Northern Kentucky where he earned a living in an industry that was part of his roots, the railroad. But while he worked, his mind was in another place – a place where stories were told in smooth, melodic harmonies.
Bobby began singing with bands in club jam sessions. By 1970 he had hooked up with Red Jenkins and The Country Ladds, becoming their lead singer,and before long he was singing five nights a week and able to pursue his passion full time.
One of his fondest career memories was the night he and his group opened for Country Music Hall of Fame legend Connie Smith in Georgia. “I’ll never forget the standing ovation I got after I sang ‘Guide Me Home My Georgia Moon’. It is still my favorite song,” he recalls.
Today, Bobby’s music is heard around the world from seven CDs. His most recent single is ‘That Jones Boy Is Gone’ from his new CD, “Country Music Lives On.’ All 12 songs are self-written and released on his own record label, Shaunita Records.
Bobby Mackey is a destination
It was in 1978 when the humble man with a big heart opened Bobby Mackey’s Music World in Wilder, Kentucky at the former site of the Latin Quarter gambling casino that operated during the Newport, Kentucky gangster-style gambling. Not surprisingly, it quickly became a popular regional attraction for traditional country music.
After the first year word got around about a movie being made at Mickey Gilley’s Club starring John Travolta, Debra Winger and Eltoro the mechanical bull. Bobby flew to Houston and visited Gilley’s and bought the first mechanical bull they sold as the movie was wrapping up a full eight months before the release of The Urban Cowboy Movie. By the time of the movie hit the theatres in the 1980s, cowboys and cowgirls lined up outside Bobby Mackey’s door waiting to get in on the cowboy craze, mechanical bull riding, and country music. Along with the nightclub success came national chart success with record releases such as “Hero Daddy” and “Pepsi Man.”
Rumors about the nightclub being haunted got around and Douglas Hensley, a Cincinnati area writer, wrote a book about the haunting tales entitled “Hellsgate.” The book and the stories brought national attention as many paranormal TV shows and paranormal groups from everywhere scrambled to Wilder, Kentucky to investigate and they still do today. Although Bobby himself has never believed the haunted stories he did write the song “Johanna” about the hauntings. The CD by the same name has enjoyed international success selling CD’s and downloads of Bobby Mackey music.
Thirty five years later, Bobby Mackey’s Music World still packs in crowds every Friday and Saturday evenings. It is the destination of country music greats whenever they pass through town.
For all that he has accomplished and all that he has given to the Greater Cincinnati music community, Bobby was honored last year as an inductee into the Northern Kentucky Music Legends Hall of Fame.
“The global recognition my music and my club have received have been so exciting,” he said. “I appreciate everyone who has supported me along the way.”
Among his greatest supporters are his wife, two daughters, and his 94 year old mother who still lives in the house where Bobby first learned to sing.
Find Bobby online
You can find Bobby Mackey music on I-Tunes, Amazon, bobbymackey.com and Youtube. Keep in touch on Twitter, Facebook and Myspace. The way it was is still the way it is and the country beat goes on in Wilder, Kentucky, Bobby Mackey’s Branson.
Sonya Sieveking Will Be Racing For The Cure
Next Saturday thousands will be taking to the downtown streets to Race for the Cure with the Susan G. Komen Greater Cincinnati affiliate. What an important cause. I think just about everyone is impacted in some way by breast cancer – either directly or indirectly. All around us people we love are fighting the battle I hope one day will not be around to fight.
Saturday, September 14
Great American Ball Park
Register: http://www.komencincinnati.org/
Sonya Sieveking, a former Mason resident, will be among the participants. This fall she is celebrating five years of being cancer-free; and in honor of her milestone, she has launched her Five for Five Campaign.
Sonya answered some questions for me about why she is involved:
Lisa: I’d love to hear more about you.
Sonya: I am Sonya Sieveking, currently a 42 year old Procter & Gamble expat living in Panamá, returning to Cincinnati to celebrate my 5 year cancer free milestone. I have a wonderfully supportive husband, Andy Sieveking and two wonderful children 8 and 6.
Lisa: Tell me about what that moment was like for you when you learned you had cancer.
Sonya: August of 2008 at age 37 – I can see that moment like a video in my mind and it makes my eyes water just to think about it. I was having dinner with my family and in-laws at my home when the doctor called and told me that I had cancer. I felt like the wind had been knocked out of me and I could hardly breathe. I felt like someone had said “Hey you know, maybe you are going to die young.” My diagnosis was DCIS and at that time I had no idea how lucky I was that it was not more advanced.
Lisa: How did your battle with cancer impact your relationships and your life?
Sonya: Although it didn’t feel like it along the way, cancer made life clearer for me. It became much easier not to sweat the small stuff and relationships grew stronger, deeper and more honest.
Lisa: Tell me about the moment you got the news that you were cancer-free.
Sonya: Enroute from recovery to a hospital room, I briefly woke and asked my husband if the lymph nodes were clear from the sentinel node biopsy. When he replied yes, I felt such relief and the tears came again but this time with hope and more fight.
Lisa: What is your Five for Five campaign?
Sonya: “5 for 5” is a campaign I came up with to make my 5 year milestone a positive “moment of magnitude” in my life. There are five different contribution areas to commemorate each of my 5 years cancer free. I hope to make a difference to other cancer patients.
1. 5 people to donate hair for wigs
2. 5 people in 5 different cities to host a pink party to raise breast cancer awareness
3. 5 people to donate blood
4. 5 people to participate in a breast cancer walk or run anywhere in the world
5. $5,000 in charitable contributions to cancer research of any kind
Lisa: Has it been difficult to rally support from your friends and supporters?
Sonya: No, actually I see that people want to do good things for others and the response has been overwhelming, much greater than I imagined. Sometimes we just need the opportunity and a personal link to invest ourselves. We already have commitments for 10 hair donations, 11 pink parties in 7 cities across 3 countries, 11 blood donations, 78 walkers in 9 cities across 4 countries, and have generated financial contributions of $4,797.00 to cancer associations in 6 cities of the US and Panamá….and it´s not over yet!
Lisa: Why is your success important to you?
Sonya: So many people supported me and my family through the diagnosis, surgeries, and treatments. I only want to pay it forward to others.
Lisa: Who will you be walking with in the Greater Cincinnati Race for the Cure?
Sonya: This past weekend was a cancer walk here in Panama City, Panamá. I had 48 people walking with my family. In Cincinnati, I will be walking with my girlfriends – strong, wonderful women.
Lisa: What is your message for other women?
Sonya: Know your body. Trust your gut if things don´t seem right. Fight like a girl; WIN LIKE A WOMAN!
Sweet Lorraine Tribute Song Soars To Top Of Charts
Fred sent a handwritten copy of the song he wrote for his wife, “Oh Sweet Lorraine.”
“Oh sweet Lorraine, I wish we could do the good times all over again.
“Oh sweet Lorraine, life only goes around once but never again.”
While Fred didn’t win the contest, the studio owners created a beautiful professionally recorded song from Fred’s lyrics with a mini-documentary that they posted on YouTube. And not surprisingly, it spread like a wildfire worldwide.
“Oh Sweet Lorraine” is now No. 10 on iTunes, right there with Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga and Robin Thicke.
My Labor Day Reflections
On this Labor Day, I give reflection to the twenty plus years since my college graduation. It has been a long journey, although the years seem to pass by at record speed.
Sometimes it is an unexpected moment, a news story, a photo or scenery out my car window that triggers my memories of projects or clients that have made our Greater Cincinnati community a better, stronger place to be. I am reminded of passionate people I have had the fortune of working beside and supporting, whose life work is about making a meaningful difference in the lives of others. And reminded of outcomes that give me cause for a smile to think about my role as part of the team.
My very first project as a freelance communications contractor in Cincinnati was developing a public relations plan to transform the image of what was at the time seen as a dilapidated, uninhabitable area so that the first city-owned townhouse development would sell. That neighborhood was the Betts-Longworth Historic District and that development was Longworth Square. Its success became the driving impetus for continuous expanding growth in our region’s Over-the-Rhine.
Over the years, I have worked to raise awareness and build relationships on behalf of so many wonderful causes and events. Among the highlights – inspiring a community to believe in the power of inclusion through my messaging for the Inclusion Network, creating a school supply campaign that in just two years was generating enough to assist over 700 children, conceptualizing and implementing a recognition event to not just honor young volunteers but also to encourage lifelong stewardship for them, creating a Downtown Hoedown competition in the hub of Cincinnati to spread the word of the Appalachian Festival, and developing a public relations campaign for the Hidden Treasures CD tribute to legendary King Records and its belief in the power of inclusion.
And, on the side, I have used my studies on positive psychology and behavior science to not only enhance my own relationships with people and my pets – but also to educate others to do the same. That passion has evolved into this Good Things Going Around blog project – and a side pet training business I call So Much PETential.
It most certainly has not been a smooth journey the whole way through. As is the nature of doing contract work, there are lulls and those lulls can be downright scary. I won’t lie. Last year was one of those times. But, then, it is so magical when an even better opportunity comes along that allows me to use my strengths and I am reminded it all has a purpose. These are the lessons in the big classroom we call life. If it were not for my hardship, I would never have attended the Association for Professional Dog Trainers Conference, met encouraging friends and my mentor, and ultimately pursuing pet training on the side. Something that has been a huge impact.
And I would never have found my most recent better opportunity.
What is that opportunity?
Ironically it is returning to work with someone for whom I did some of my most fulfilling work in the past. About 10 years ago, I worked side-by-side of Breta Cooper with the Mayerson Foundation in creating and implementing a PR plan to promote the Hidden Treasures CD, a tribute project to Cincinnati’s King Records with a very important message. From internationally renowned, to national touring, to local favorites, some of the most respected musicians and/or groups with roots in Cincinnati were part of that unique CD featuring new, never-before-heard versions of songs, originally recorded on King Records. However, that project wasn’t just about promoting King Records. It was about raising awareness of the fact that by bringing diverse people together for a common goal, that the result is even greater strength.
I also worked with Breta during my eight year relationship with the Inclusion Network. For seven years, I was one of the producers in charge of the messaging for what was one of our region’s most inspiring events drawing over 900 people – the Inclusion Leadership Awards Event. In just 2 ½ hours, our goal was to teach attendees a lesson that would somehow change the world as they know it. They heard stories of organizations that instinctively know how to uncover talent, and of people, whose abilities are no longer obscurities. Acceptance was no longer an abstract. Inclusion, they learned, was not about “them”, but about “me”.
So now, for the past three months, I have been working with Breta (and Kelly Aluise) to help convey the message of the nonprofit VIA Institute on Character doing social media messaging including building and managing a brand new blog – www.VIAcharacterblog.com. VIA has a global scope of empowering people through the advancement of the science and practice of character strengths. Their aim is to fill the world with greater virtue.
And that is my aim too.
Please read my post on VIA to learn more about the organization. And I encourage you to take the VIA survey to learn more about your strengths.