Mason High School Students Need Your Donation
hese Mason High School students get an A+ in my book for their creativity, effort, leadership and caring. They just released this video to raise awareness for their annual Pasta for Pennies Campaign benefiting the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s mission is to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and myeloma and to improve the quality of life of patients and their families.
Their goal is to reach $40,000, and so far, in less than one week (the video debuted at 1:00 pm on January 29, 2016), they have reached more than 91,000 views and collected over $14,000 in online donations.
Let’s help them reach that goal!
#GoodThingsCincy
Have you registered for my upcoming A Night of CINspiration? Please click here for more information.
CINspirational People: Vickie Mertz
I have known Vickie Mertz virtually for years. Her day job is with a nonprofit organization called Cincinnati Works, a nonprofit organization that helps people in our community who are unemployed or underemployed to raise above poverty and gain economic self-sufficiency. It has always been so obvious that Vickie’s career means so much more to her than simply a paycheck. Her passion for wanting to empower and energize people comes through loud and clear.
I learned recently of yet one more reason to admire the woman behind those inspirational posts. Quietly, without any need or want of recognition, Vickie has been using her own money to buy ingredients for brown bag meals of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with pretzels or chips, and distributing them to people on the streets who haven’t the means to purchase meals for themselves. Tucked into each bag is a little note from Vickie that reads, “God loves you and so do I. Sign my name.” John 316 In the cold months of January and February, she also collects winter outerwear.
Vickie is known to always have a stock with her in her car, as she never knows when she may see someone from her window in need of generosity. She also spends some of her lunch hours downtown, walking the sidewalks in search of hungry and/or cold people.
“I have been blessed over and over by them wanting to hug me or thank me because I got there at just the right time,” she told me as her voice broke in emotion. “One man said, ‘thank God I (Vickie) was there’ because he was about to get something off the street.”
I was so touched that I needed to feature her. Vickie is absolutely a CINspirational Person.
Lisa: Where does your inspiration come from for doing this?
Vickie: Personally in my own life, I went three years without a furnace and just used space heaters when my husband wasn’t working. Doing this for others is just something my heart tells me to do. I know that I need to share now because I can.
Lisa: How do you find the people to help?
Vickie: I work on Walnut Street. They are not difficult to find. When I head out, I pray about whether to turn right or left; and either direction, I always find people in need.
Lisa: Are there any people whose stories stand out to you?
Vickie: I don’t ask people why they are on the street so I don’t know many of their stories, but I remember how the impact of my helping them.
I remember seeing one woman right across the street from me. She slept there day and night. One morning I walked over to her with coffee. She had a blanket over head. I asked her if would like the coffee, and the woman said ‘no’. The next day I took her coffee and a protein bar. On the third day, I said my name and asked for her name. ‘Jeanelle’, she said. She said she had a laptop in her backpack and she went to school. When she pulled her hands out to accept the gloves I had brought, I noticed the gold ring on her grimy hands. It occurred to me that she was able to keep the ring and backpack somehow. I knew there was more to her story. I reached out to organizations asking they come and talk to her about going to a shelter. Then, one day she was gone. My prayer is that she is in a better place.
#GoodThingsCincy #randomactsofkindness
You Can Overcome Difficulties
CINspirational People: Nick St. Pierre
Nick St. Pierre has an absolutely incredible, rare gift to make people smile and laugh. I have admired him for many years, probably even given him a hug or two. That is…to his former alter ego – Cincinnati Reds mascot, Gapper.
Little did he know when he was first hired by the Reds as a rally pack cheerleader shooting T-shirts to the fans, that his career would go on to create one of Major League Baseball’s most beloved mascots. The idea began over a conversation Nick had with then Reds Chief 
Operating Officer John Allen in 2001. Gapper made his first appearance in the new stadium in 2003.
These days, while Nick has passed on the torch of being Gapper a couple seasons ago, he continues his full time job as mascot coordinator with the Reds.
After reading my interview below, I think you will see why Nick was the perfect person to originate our Cincinnati legend. And, if you see Nick on the street, you will probably want to run up and give him a hug.
Lisa: What is an accomplishment you achieved that you are proud of?
Nick: I am very proud of being employed with the Cincinnati Reds for the past 19 yrs and all the, not only fun, but good things I have been able to do for people. Knowing how much people enjoy this team and being able to share it with those who love it is a blessing.
Lisa: Tell us about someone who has been a positive influence in your life.
Nick: It is difficult to limit it to just one. I am surrounded by positive influences from players, coaches, celebrities and some of the richest people in the city but if I had to narrow it down, I would have to say a small boy that I met while making an appearance at the Cincinnati Airport.
A guest of a Christmas Celebration being hosted by CVG and Delta, he, as well as the rest of the group were of low income families. The kind you never hear about because they are working very hard and are very proud of not accepting assistance. In costume I gravitated to him because he was shy and stayed away from everyone else. In a short amount of time we bonded.
I, pretending to be one of my loving dogs, without speaking was able to communicate that I was there for him and we were pals. There came a time in the event when the kids were given large gift bags full of toys and other stuff. Each one had a name on it for each child. As the distribution went on, my guy kept getting passed up. Other children around us were opening their bags and revealing in the gifts they had received while my buddy and me sat and watched. After what felt like a very long time and watching everyone else now adding batteries to said gifts, still nothing came. Finally, the volunteers found his gift bag and we had a great time together, opening and sharing in his new stuff.
I talk about him because he still inspires me. While we sat waiting, he did not waiver from his smile. He appeared to be genuinely happy for everyone else and satisfied with just watching. This still amazes me, to remember his sense of calm and comfort and for him not to have, at any point, stated “well what about me?” was truly an inspiration.
He taught me to see the joy and delight in any situation. During all this taking place, I am running through my mind of how I am mad that this is happening, and I will personally take him to Toys R Us and buy him one of everything. But as I say, watching him not get the least bit upset calmed me and everything worked out. So, to make a short answer long, my person who was a positive influence in a nameless little boy that I spent an hour with at a Christmas Party.
Lisa: What is a motto you live by and why or how has it impacted you?
Nick: I have one chance to make a fan for life
and
It’s always someone’s first game.
These have served me well in the world of sports, but both apply to me in my daily life. I have one chance to make a fan for life is the same as only one first impression. I approach everyone, even strangers as though we are friends. At this point neither one of us have done anything to upset the other so why wouldn’t we be friends?
It’s always someone’s first game refers to approaching everyone with a sense of “how can I help you”. I don’t avoid folks that may appear in need even if I cannot help. Sometimes a kind word, or acknowledgement of existence, goes a long way. By adapting these motto’s to daily life, it really helps to avoid becoming selfish and cold and closed minded.
Lisa: What is your biggest motivator?
Nick: The fans of the Cincinnati Reds and my son.
The fans give me motivation to come to work every day. Having the chance to grant wishes for folks makes me feel like a real life genie. Then there is my son, He is 23 and has assumed my responsibilities as Gapper, one of my mascots. I am motivated to make things better and easier for him than I had it. I am motivated by his growing love for a job that I was so very proud of personally. I have had the conversation with others that as a parent, I can think of nothing more satisfying than knowing you have taught your child a skill that he can feed and support himself on. I am comfortable that my son could get him a job in any pro sports venue as the mascot performer coordinator person.
Lisa: Tell us about an act of kindness you have done, witnessed or been the recipient of and how that made you feel.
Nick: There are more examples than I can name. One comes to mind.
I was in Marietta doing an appearance at a baseball camp. While in costume I had a young man that would not leave me alone. At one point I was tripping over him because he would not stop. At that point to get a little distance, I grabbed his hat and threw it knowing he would go after it, this would give me a minute to get to the next location before he returned to stand on top of me again. He did not return as quickly as I would have thought. When he returned, he stated that he couldn’t find his hat, that it had disappeared. There were many older kids standing in the area of where I threw it. I assumed all being in the same camp that they wouldn’t steal from each other. But, that I feared, is what happened. He hung out with me the rest of the event and at the end, his mother approached me and explained that the hat was brand new and how difficult it would be to replace since they had to save for so long to afford the camp itself.
This crushed me. As soon as I got back to the office a couple days later, I immediately went to our team shop, purchased a professional style hat, had is named stitched onto the outside and sent that to him. I heard back a few weeks later from an uncle stating that he had gotten the hat and was very proud of it.
I have since and still do send him things that I collect from around here. I have never gotten a thank you but am not in it for that. I figure if this kid realizes there is someone other than his family who cares about him, and perhaps he will have a better shot in life than those who fell they have no one.
Please join me for my newest event,
A Night of CINspiration on February 25, 2016
and you will hear Nick share more stories…
and meet Gapper!
#GoodThingsCincy
Something To Give You Thought
