Event
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 am
ong 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.
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!
United Way Of Greater Cincinnati Campaign Success Will Impact Thousands
Yesterday hundreds of executives, employees, organizers, fundraisers and volunteers all gathered on our downtown Foutain Square. This time last year I was among them. They are the voice of the United Way of Greater Cincinnati and together, over the next couple of months, they will all be working toward a common goal – raising $62,850,000 for our 
region’s future.
Talk about a lofty goal!
“Centering our lives on making a difference for others by creating healthy communities to live, work and raise families is a noble calling for all of us. In Greater Cincinnati, United Way is the catalyst that helped spark strategic thinking about how we develop and sustain our region as a healthy place for everyone to live and work,” said Campaign Co-Chair Michael Connelly, president and CEO, Catholic Health Partners, who is co-chairing the 2013 United Way of Greater Cincinnati annual fundraising campaign with his wife, Sally, a community volunteer leader.
“If the goal is reached, it will be the highest amount this United Way has ever raised,” says Michael Connelly. Last year the total was $61,050,000 – $50,000 over goal.
“This year’s goal strongly reinforces our message that Bold Goals need Bold Resources,” says Sally Connelly. “We need to raise as much as we can to achieve the Bold Goals and help children, individuals and families throughout the region.”
I know firsthand of this need for success. For twenty plus years I have worked in our regions, helping nonprofits doing very important work to tell their story, to forge relationships. I have seen the faces on parents who received financial and mental support to improve the lives of their families. I have seen people overcome obstacles they never thought they were capable of doing. I have seen the impact of a caring hand. On any given day, tens of thousands of lives are touched by work of a United Way funded agency or program.
This is a campaign that is about all of us. Beyond fundraising, United Way is asking the community to become advocates for change. People can join United Way of Greater Cincinnati’s advocacy network through its website. Community members can also find more volunteer opportunities through the United Way Volunteer Connection.
It all ends October 30, 2013. To learn more, please visit www.uwgc.org.
Celebrating The Legacy Of Martin Luther King Jr.
Today we celebrate a man whose passion, words and actions moved a nation and a world to greater heights – a place where dreams of greatness and equality are made and pursued.
Before a vast crowd of more than 250,000 people diverse by race, age, culture and age, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke with bold conviction and heart. He spoke with hope and courage.
His dreams and hopes resonated with hundreds of millions across the globe, and still do. They touch me to my inner core. When I think about my friends, neighbors, co-workers, and colleagues and how much we all have to offer each other, I am reminded that our diversity brings out each other’s strengths in meaningful ways. And yet, at our core, is the most basic foundation in all of us share and that is the need for belonging and love.
For prosperity to occur – and I am not talking of only monetary riches – we must work to look beyond the surface of others in search of their hidden gifts. We must practice forgiveness and forgo hatred. We must embrace differences while also realizing similarities. We must not only dream but pursue goals.
United Pet Fund Helps Those Who Help Animals – You Can Too!
All I have to do is look into those deep, beautiful eyes of our Sam – and so many other great dogs who I have worked with or gotten to know – and you can’t help but have a huge appreciation for the dedicated staff and volunteers who run our 
area dog and cat shelters. They have a very important job to do. Thousands of animals have their fate in these people’s hands and hearts to find them a forever home. And so many families have come to know that beautiful, unconditional love given off from an animal they adopted.
Introducing United Pet Fund
There is a somewhat new nonprofit, the United Pet Fund, whose sole purpose is to help those incredibly valuable animal care and service organizations to be sustainable. It is called United Pet Fund and it is founded by a Blue Ash veterinarian, Dr. Zeke Zekoff.
United Pet Fund has provided scholarship funds for volunteers of these organizations to attend continuing education conferences; handyman service for assistance with repair and maintenance of shelters; pet health days in under-served areas; emergency funds when needed for unexpected predicaments; and has provided nonprofit leadership management and trainings to shelters and rescue groups.
In an email from Dr. Zekoff, he shared: “We are working on becoming a national resource and support organization for the smaller ‘mom-and-pop’ ACSOs. Our goal will be to become a Nonprofit ACSO-member Services Organization that will provide basic business services needed by all nonprofits to become successful. Eventually, with the advantage that comes with large number of members, we hope to offer access to discounted business services for our members, including, but not limited to products and services that are needed by all nonprofit animal service and care organizations: Legal and Accounting, Insurance, Public Relations, IT services, Credit/Financing Services, Pet Products (including food and health supplies), Webinar-based training in Nonprofit leadership and management skills, as well as Animal Behavior and Health needs. The list can go on, but we have place to start. With all these in one location, with a central organization that understands the needs of the smaller ACSOs, the animals served by these organizations will be the ones in the end that benefit.”
Kyle’s New Hope Animal Rescue Saves Lives
Located in Sharonville, Kyle’s New Hope Animal Rescue is a non-profit organization dedicated to saving the lives of animals who have run out of options. Dogs and cats that are injured, abused, abandoned and neglected will be provided veterinary care and surgery to be rehabilitated and adopted into loving homes. All animals will receive up to date vaccinations, be spayed or neutered and microchipped… all in an effort to reduce the amount of unnecessary euthanasia in shelters and hospitals. I am very familiar with Kyle’s New Hope because I have volunteered for them. Their love for the animals who have come into their lives is truly heartfelt.
You Can Help
Tomorrow & Friday (August 22 & 23, 2013), United Pet Fund and Kyle’s New Hope Animal Rescue are partnering with two back-to-back fundraisers.
Wags to Riches Casino Royale is tomorrow night from 6 pm to 10:30 pm at the Manor House located at 7440 S Mason-Montgomery Rd. in Mason. It is a fun night of dinner, Casino Games hosted by Black Diamond Casino Events with prizes, an animal caricaturist-bring your pet’s photo and more.
On Friday from Noon until 6:30 pm at the Bel-Wood Country Club in Morrow will be the Golf Classic with lunch, a cookout and great prizes. For cost and registration information, please visit this link: http://www.unitedpetfund.org/upfc_home.php
You can also call Towne Square Animal Clinic / Kyle’s Veterinary Hospital at 513-520-7571 or 513-793-1875 for information.
