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Loveland Twins Honored Nationally
Way to go Alex and Hannah Laman, now 13, who began (with their mom, Angela) their own Cincinnati area non-profit, Adopt A Book five years ago! They have collected and donated nearly 110,000 books for over 100 organizations that serve other kids in need throughout Ohio and Northern Kentucky. And the Loveland twins were just named a 2016 honoree by the Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes, a national award program that celebrates 25 young people who are inspiring others through their impact! You can read my first post about the Laman’s here.
Bobby, You Just Made My Day!
On the other end of the phone, I hear “Lisa! You just made my day!”
It is the kind of welcome that I have come to expect when I call my long time friend, Bobby Harrison; and pretty high up there on my list of reasons why I value our friendship. This is not only the way in which Bobby approaches our relationship, I have a pretty good indication it is how he sees all of his life, and the people who are part of it.
One could say he has a knack for being at the right place at the right time. But that would not give credit to where credit is due. People like to work with Bobby, and just be in his presence, because he has so many outstanding qualities. In his personal and professional relationships, he exudes genuine integrity and a sense of caring about the welfare of others. He has a rare ability for spontaneously coming up with jackpot ideas for creating impact. And his positive outlook is infectious.
Among those for whom he has created outreach programs include NBA player Tyrone Hill’s Celebrity Basketball Classic and Stedman Graham’s Athletes Against Drugs Program. He has created a statewide HIV/AIDS minority advertising campaign and created a video for Dial Corporation’s 75th anniversary of their flagship brand, Dial soap. His long list of clients (past and present) has included Procter & Gamble, Macy’s, Boy Scouts, YMCA, Honda, and Stedman Graham. And, for the past 23 years Bobby has served as creative director for the Macy’s Music Festival, working with industry greats such as Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin.
Really, this only scratches the surface of Bobby’s achievements. He is an accomplished musician who, many years back, was in a band that opened for the Jackson Five and the Commodores. He is an artist who draws and paints, and attended the Cincinnati Art Academy. Currently he is pumped about his idea and project that is quickly gaining momentum. It is about building interest in music among school children. Bobby and his team have been presenting it to organizations, businesses and educational institutions. Every time we talk, more organizations are stepping up to become involved. You will be hearing more about it soon.
I look up to Bobby, president of The Harrison Group, as a creative genius who has no fear of looking adversity in the face and saying, “You will not get in my way.” For my dear friend, that foe is non-hodgkins lymphoma. It is something that lives in his body permanently and nearly took Bobby’s life. It has changed his perspective and given him renewed incentive to appreciate everything with stamina and vigor.
Bobby told me his story one day over lunch. It came on suddenly. One day he began limping. Three days later his leg was becoming numb. He drove himself to the emergency room and had to crawl on the ground from the parking lot. The physicians told him he probably pulled his hamstring running, gave him food and crutches and sent him to his own doctor, who, after a five minute exam sent Bobby back to the emergency room. It ended up being the result of a massive blood clot that stopped six inches from his heart. During that ten day hospital stay they found out the underlying reason. Bobby experienced an intense ringing in his head like nothing he could even describe, and he was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer in his bones. It was the one time in his life that Bobby contemplated suicide.
“But I was lying there and couldn’t get up to go to the bathroom. And I looked out the window and saw birds landing on ledges and realized ‘that is life’. I realized I want to be that bird and be able to fly anywhere. It changed everything. I decided I don’t want to be around negative people any more. I don’t want to have any more arguments. I want to have a good time in life. I never want to live with regret,” he said.
These days Bobby is the one to lift others up. When he gets his chemo treatments, he is the one to make others smile and forget for a little while of the unpleasantness of the moment. When friends are going through difficulty, despite his crazy busy schedule with deadlines and meetings, he is a present spirit with encouragement.
He is an incredible human being who makes the world brighter by being in it. I, for one, am better for having him around.
An International Friendship Reunited
Written by Good Things intern, Isabella Noe, a Walnut Hills High School senior in Cincinnati.
“Typically on Good Things Going Around, I have the pleasure of telling other people’s incredible stories. Today, however, I get to tell my unbelievable story of how I met one of my dearest friends. When I was eleven years old, I traveled to Japan with a program called CISV, or Children’s International Summer Village. The program focuses on instilling ideas of world peace and wanderlust into children to create more empathetic and worldly adults.
While there, I met a plethora of people from 12 different countries. One girl who I met while in Japan was Carmo Gomes, from Portugal. We went on our second homestay together and although she couldn’t speak perfect english, we became friends.
Fast forward six years. We had not really kept in contact other than occasionally liking or commenting on each other’s Facebook posts. I never thought much about her until my senior year of high school. Sitting in my fourth period class, I saw a girl who I could not place, but who looked incredibly familiar to me. My teacher asked me to show her to the office, and I agreed. As we walked to the office, I turned to her. ‘This is going to sound incredibly specific,’ I said, ‘but did you by chance travel to Japan when you were 11?’
She looked at me quizzically and said ‘yes, I had (in perfect English).’
I reintroduced myself, and within a second we were jumping around the hallway, screaming in excitement, and hugging. Carmo explained that she was with a program called AFS, living for a year in Cincinnati, Ohio. As the day progressed, we discovered we are both involved in theatre and have many of the same interests. It has now been a month and a half since Carmo and I rediscovered each other. Now, we see each other every single day and spend almost every single weekend together. We go to football games together, we are in Julius Caesar together, and she enthusiastically joins me at Good Things Going Around events.
So quickly I have realized how lucky I am to have her back in my life. We never connected on this level as 11-year-olds, so without this incredible miracle of fate, I never would have known one of my best friends. She has already invited me back to Portugal with her, and I look forward to what the rest of this year brings us.
“Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.” -Marcus Aurelius
New Life Furniture Is Her Calling
Holly Young walks to a map of Greater Cincinnati hanging on the wall behind a front desk where there are many hundreds of blue and red dots, so densely populated as to obliterate entire blocks, even neighborhoods. The blue dots represent homes were lasting memories were created on or around furnishings that are no longer needed. These are the places where New Life Furniture Bank begins the process of ending the cycle of 
homelessness one individual, one parent, one family at a time. The red dots on that map represent all of the dwellings where that donated furniture has found a ‘new life,’ amidst a family who has moved into a place to call home with often nothing but the clothes on their backs.
Since that day ten years ago when a Teresa, mother of three children, stayed overnight at Holly’s church through the Interfaith Hospitality Network, Holly’s passion and mission in life has exploded from seeking out three mattresses so that Teresa’s children would not have to sleep on mattresses their mother pulled from a dumpster into a nonprofit the more than 1000 volunteers, two delivery trucks, five employees, and such a huge stock of donated furnishings that they have outgrown their 5000 sq ft space and are searching for 20,000 sq ft of storage. New Life Furniture has relationships with 18 homeless shelters and agencies, as well as over 60 places of worship. In 2015 alone, it has provided furniture and housewares to 1424 people including 752 children. The organization is faith based, having originated from the generous outpouring of support from Holly’s church; however, it helps people of all religions and backgrounds.
In addition to furniture, every family receives a package of dishes and household items, a welcome home bag with personal care items, cleaning supplies and hangers. Whenever beds are delivered, they go with blankets, sheets and pillow cases. And, volunteers build dining room tables for families so they have a place to congregate around and share experiences of their day.
Holly is quick to point out that 85% of those who move into a dwelling without furnishings find themselves back on the streets. That number isn’t acceptable to this mother who has always, from a child, been sensitive to those less fortunate. “I am that child who kept asking my parents, why aren’t we picking that person up. I knew it was my calling,” she told me. “I worked the corporate world but I just knew my heart was in serving the homeless. I am the one who goes to a ball game and packs four lunches to feed people. I was the person who would stop and make sure people knew where to find shelters.”
In Holly’s words:
“So many of the people we have helped have touched me in deep, very personal ways. I have lots of stories in my mind from when I did the deliveries myself. I remember Moses well. We walked into his very small apartment and all we saw was one chair. Moses was smiling ear to ear. He was 78 yrs old and walking with a walker. With each piece we carried in he just giggled, and said. ‘Is that for me?’ And I said, ‘of course it is.’ I peeked into his empty bedroom and noticed a Veterans ball cap that had Vietnam on it. ‘OMgosh,’ I said. ‘Moses are you a veteran? My dad also served in Vietnam and retired as a colonel.’ He proceeded to share a bit of his story. He served the same time my father did…….and how in the 
world did this happen to Moses? How did he become homeless and in such need?
We proceeded to fill his empty apartment and make it a home…..His home. We were so grateful we get to serve a man who served us, a man who fought for our freedom. He teared up many times and I just hugged him tightly and cried with him. I thanked him for serving his country. He said he didn’t know he deserved all this stuff, and I assured him he did deserve it. We left his place with such a full heart.
Our goal is to always do this from a place of dignity. Our delivery people are trained to be compassionate and we send follow up cards to everyone letting them know we are thinking about them.
This work has been such a blessing for me. Never did I dream this would grow so big. Now funders and donors are coming to us. We have way outgrown this space. We are at a place now where I can step back. God has told me it is time to go on to other things. Actually he told me that two years ago but I kept going. Dana Saxton is our new executive director but I will always still be involved.”
If you would like to help, please reach out to New Life. They are especially in need of mattresses.
Two Cincinnati Heroes Celebrated
Last week, I got to meet someone who in my book is a true hero. You may have heard about a horrific explosion this past June in an Oakley apartment building that killed a mother and her son. The reason the rest of the residents lived to talk about it is because of a brave young couple, who, after making it to safety, risked their lives to go back into that inferno to makes sure everyone else made it out alive too. Mastafa ran through the 12-unit building banging on doors, yelling, ‘FIRE!’. His wife helped a 79 year old woman out of her basement patio by pulling her over the 
metal railing. He carried down an older woman in a second floor apartment, and pulled two men who were also living in lower level apartments out to safety. Those two men are roommates Mike and Vince, who are living on their own with support from LADD – Living Arrangements for the Developmentally Disabled. (LADD has since helped Mike and Vince find and move into a new apartment.) I was fighting a lump in my throat after meeting Mostafa. He is such a kind, gentle and upbeat man who refuses to see himself as a hero. “This was just humanity,” he told me.
Mastafa got to see Vince again at the LADD Taking Flight Awards and it so touched me to see their arms around each other. That embrace said it all.
I am thrilled that he and his wife will be joining us for A Night of CINspiration on Wednesday night so that we can celebrate that sense of humanity, for which Mostafa and his wife are beautiful examples, that breaks down those barriers of differences and brings us together human beings.
