Kindness
Finneytown Middle School Students Raise Money For Homeless
Twelve Finneytown Middle School students are going to be hooping it up for the Homeless Project at Talbert House’s Parkway Center this coming weekend. Beginning Friday at 4 pm, they’ll play three-on-three basketball games for 24 hours straight. They’re raising money by getting sponsors.
Lucas Gould, an Indian Hill High School student, began the Hoops for the Homeless Project to raise money for an outdoor recreation area and basketball court. Together with help from legend Oscar Robertson they raised more than $45,000. While the basketball court is finished, more money is needed to pay for it.
“It’s great to see young people creating projects to help others,” Talbert House Development Director Tracy Wells told the Enquirer. “It’s truly inspiring to work with teenagers who are spending their time improving the lives of the homeless when they could be doing other activities. We hope this will lead them to more involvement in their communities.”
Cincinnati Area Philanthropists Honored For Generosity
Each summer for the past four years, in working on the post-publicity for the Voices of Giving Awards, I’ve had the great pleasure of getting to know stories from some of our area’s truly inspiring philanthropists. And I’ve learned about the Cincinnati area nonprofits whose invaluable work is sustainable only through generosity of people like the honorees. (The Voices of Giving Awards is an event of the Greater Cincinnati Planned Giving Council. It was sponsored by PNC and held at CET.)
While the honorees were honored for their planned gifts, they have done so much for their favorite causes often having been long time volunteers and/or supporters.
Emilie Dressler was one of the honorees. A weekly Guest Services Volunteer at the Ronald McDonald House in Cincinnati for 10 years, her genuine care is a vital part of what makes the House so special for families with critically ill
Tracy Monroe, dir. of planned giving for the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Greater Cincinnati; Emilie Dressler; Tanya Cornejo, dir. of development for the Ronald McDonald House
children. Emilie is the first person worried families meet with they come to the Ronald McDonald House, and her smiling face has a magical way of putting them at ease.
“I love helping out and making a difference. If there’s anything I can do to make a family’s stay less stressful, I try to do it,” she said.
Emilie actually helps out in so many ways. In fact, I’m told there is hardly a part of the Ronald McDonald House that she hasn’t been involved in. And so, it makes sense that she would also choose to support the cause financially too. Her bequest gift will help ensure future generations of families find relief there too.
“In a perfect world, there would be no need for Ronald McDonald House. But, since there is still such a great need for the House, my great concern is the wait list to get a room. What these families face is truly overwhelming. I just want to do as much as I can now. And, by making a planned gift, my hope is to help make sure that the House will continue to be there for all families, when they need it most, and that the House will continue to grow long after I am gone,” Emilie said.
Her passion for a cause that is dear to her heart is the common thread she shares with all of the Voices of Giving honorees. Together they have collectively given tens of thousands of dollars to help ensure the sustainability of Cincinnati area nonprofits working to strengthen lives and communities.
“It is truly our greatest honor to recognize such a special group of individuals for their purposeful gifts to ensure the long term welfare of many nonprofits whose work strengthens our families and neighborhoods,” said Lori Asmus, co-chair for the event.
Cincinnati Area Philanthropist Carole Blackschleger was honored for her planned gift to the American Cancer Society
All Voices of Giving honorees included: Patrick J. Cleary (posthumously) – on behalf of Xavier University; Anne Zaring on behalf of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation; Bob Friedman on behalf of CET, The Greater Cincinnati Television Educational Foundation; Emilie Dressler – on behalf of the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Greater Cincinnati; Louise Morrison – on behalf of Life Enriching Communities Foundation; Shirley Davies (posthumously) – on behalf of Life Enriching Communities Foundation; Marianne and Snowden Rowe – People Working Cooperatively; Ruth F. Rosevear – on behalf of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Pops Orchestra; Bill Prosser – on behalf of Cincinnati Public Radio, WGUC; Betsy K. Jameson – on behalf of the Cincinnati Bar Foundation; Vincent H. Beckman (posthumously) – on behalf of the College of Mt. St. Joseph; Thomas G. Cody – on behalf of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center; Carl Bergman – on behalf of Habitat for Humanity Greater Cincinnati; Trey and Chris Heekin, and Kip and Jenny Heekin – on behalf of the United Way of Greater Cincinnati; Wilbur Cohen – on behalf of the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati; James A. Miller – on behalf of the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park; Susan and Tom Young – on behalf of the Cancer Support Community Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky; Barbara and Ted High – on behalf of the Episcopal Retirement Homes; and Carole Blackschleger – on behalf of the American Cancer Society. NOTE: Other honorees requested not to be listed.
For more information on them, please click on this link: 2013 Voices of Giving honorees
The 2013 event was co-chaired by Lori Asmus and Telly McGaha. Committee members included Sally Alspaugh, Diana Collins, Jessi Konnagan, Bruce Favret, Jim Friedman, Misty Griesinger, Bill Hitch, Mary Alice Koch, Susan Kulick, Michelle Mancini, Chandra Mathews-Smith, Tracy Monroe, Carol Stevie, Sue Ellen Stuebing, and Molly Talbot.
The Greater Cincinnati Planned Giving Council is a professional association for people whose work includes developing, marketing, and administering charitable planned gifts for non-profit institutions and a variety of other legal and financial settings.
Cincinnati Student Collects Shoes For Those In Need
What a gift this blog has given me to get to meet truly beautiful people, people who give with their whole hearts realizing they have the capacity to affect lives.
Meredith Bailey is one such person. A senior at Walnut Hills High School, our paths crossed for the first time several weeks ago when her proud mother reached out to me. Karla wanted me to know about this special young 
philanthropist who has quietly been collecting shoes to share with those who otherwise would not be able to afford one of the great necessities that we so easily take for granted.
It began about four years ago. The Walnut Hills High School senior was looking for a Girl Scouts community service project. She donated a lot of shoes to Nike who recycled them for padded floors of playgrounds built in underserved neighborhoods. Then she gave shoes to pantries and Cincinnati nonprofits, and before long word got out. The requests kept coming in.
“I couldn’t turn my back,” Meredith told me. “Sure, sometimes I wish I had chosen something easier and there is nothing worse smelling than a carload of smelly gym shoes on a hot summer day but it’s a good feeling to know I am helping people.”
Meredith estimates she has collected, sorted, cleaned and distributed some 6,500 shoes since she began. Hundreds of pairs were given to Project Connect, to ensure Cincinnati Public Schools students who are homeless have something to wear on their feet when they come to class. She delivered 75 pairs of boots to Rockwern Academy last December. Six Cincinnati area nonprofits including the YWCA Battered Women and Children’s Shelter are also on Meredith’s list.
And about 300 shoes were given to SOTENI, who will give them to people in the villages of Kenya where native Cincinnatian Randi Marsh has established a program to fight AIDS.
I stopped by the Bailey’s house the other day to meet Meredith in person. A beautiful, tall and slender teenager greeted me with multi-colors of paint all over her hands. “I am a counselor at Girl Scout camp,” she explained. I had figured her summer job would have something to do with giving back.
She took me to her back porch where she had only a fraction of her shoe collection. (She had just given hundreds of pairs to Project Connect.) It was then, seeing her expression as she looked into the piles that I could really see deep within her soul. There, standing in front of me, was a young woman who hadn’t even decided upon her college yet but who had the foresight many don’t accumulate in their lifetime.
It is one thing to see in an email the words from someone telling you how happy it makes her to know she is helping people. It is a totally different experience to hear those words from a voice that crackles in raw emotion as she internalizes the impact of her good deeds.
Meredith spoke of a child who was able to attend camp because now there were shoes to cover her delicate 1.5 sized feet. And of the girls she came to know at a Girl Scout forum who put a face to the poverty in Kenya Meredith had until then only heard about through the news. One of them who had little or no material possessions had aspirations of becoming a doctor one day.
“It really gives you a different perspective on how much we have and they don’t have,” Meredith told me. “Those girls don’t have much but they still have dreams. They are so strong despite their circumstance.”
For me, I think strength can be measured in so many different ways. Caring and putting those feelings into action builds many of those muscles.
“I think happiness is the most important thing in life. The fact that I can make people happy is all that matters,” Meredith said.
If you have shoes to donate to Meredith’s cause, you can email her at: WeBeBailey@aol.com.
Five Year Old Raises Money For Oklahoma Tornado Victims
Five year old Aiden Thacker has been attending The Kinder Garden School in West Chester
since he was a toddler, and director Trudi Simpson told me he has always been an empathetic little boy. Still, what a special surprise when he walked into her office out of the blue one day recently and told her he wanted to raise money for the families who lost everything in the Oklahoma tornado.
“What could I say? Of course I wanted to support him,” Trudi said. “I suggested that he make a sign and write a letter to the KGS families and he responded immediately. He got his whole class involved.”
This is what his note read: “My name is Aiden. I want to help all the people of the tornado. They need food, clothes, toys and money for their homes. So, please help.”
Aiden’s goal is to raise $500 to donate to Matthew 25 Ministries which will go directly to aid the victims of the May 20 tornado. And he has already exceeded that goal with the help of family, neighbors and classmates.
Aiden’s sign he made to display at his school
The Kinder Garden School will hold a ceremony so Aiden can present the money to a representative of Matthew 25 Ministries on June 7.
“We are all so proud of Aiden and his philanthropic spirit,” Trudi said. “He is such a loving boy and for him to be so enthusiastic about helping others shows just what a future leader looks like.”
Students Donated Nearly $50,000 Through Magnified Giving
Last fall it was so wonderful to have been given the opportunity to learn about one of our region’s truly great philanthropists – Roger Grein when I helped raise awareness of his contributions. Roger has given to local nonprofits with his resources and his heart. However, his greatest legacy is in the hearts of thousands of young people in whom he and his Magnified Giving team of staff and volunteers have instilled long lasting generosity.
Magnified Giving is a nonprofit organization whose mission it is to educate, inspire, and engage students in philanthropy. Its vision of Magnified Giving is for every high school student in America, starting with the Greater 
Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky area, to someday have the opportunity to learn first-hand how to be generous and wise philanthropists.
Each year, participating school groups are challenged to determine how they want to invest up to $2000 in a nonprofit. They research, evaluate nonprofit grant applications, fundraise to earn matching dollars – gaining leadership, communication, and teamwork skills as part of the process. This spring in a packed auditorium of over 600 students, teachers, nonprofits, donors, parents, and community leaders, nearly $50,000 was presented to causes doing great work.
“The most rewarding aspect of Magnified Giving is when what we do in the classroom reaches beyond the walls of the school in a tangible way. I see students ‘get it’ when they come back from a site visit,” said Julie Vehorn, director of curriculum and instruction at Roger Bacon High School overseeing her school’s Magnified Giving program.
Participating Schools
Aiken College & Career
Arlington Heights
Bethel-Tate
Bishop Brossart
Chaminade Julienne
Cincinnati Country Day
Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy
Covington Catholic
Dater
Elder
Holmes
Indian Hill
Kings
Loveland
McAuley
McNicholas
Miami Valley Christian Academy
Mother of Mercy
Mt. Notre Dame
Notre Dame Academy
Perry High School
Reading
Roger Bacon
St. Henry
St. Xavier
School for the Creative and Performing Arts
Seton
Shroder
Starfire University
Summit Country Day
Taylor
Ursuline Academy
Wyoming
Pilot Programs
Madeira Middle School
Northern KY Youth Advisory Board
