Nonprofit fundraiser
Mercy Neighborhood Ministries Is Improving Cincinnati Lives
Congratulations to these determined, hard working students! After an intensive, three-week program, they are recent graduates of the Mercy Neighborhood Ministries (MNM) Home Care Aide Training Class.
Many of the participants join the class having experience in taking care of a loved one. Others may be transitioning from being unemployed or underemployed to starting a viable new career.
How empowering it is for them to learn new skills in a positive environment and gain renewed confidence. After graduation MNM has seen a high success rate of helping them find full or part time jobs in neighborhoods where they live.
Home Care Aide Training is just one of many programs and services of Cincinnati nonprofit Mercy Neighborhood Ministries. Its website says it promotes the empowerment of individuals and families through programs that address their immediate needs, foster self-reliance, promote holistic health, and advocate for social justice. Other services include a monthly food pantry, crisis assistance, a grandparent’s support group, senior services, ABLE/GED classes and more.
Taste of the Neighborhood
On October 27, MNM will hold ist annual Taste of the Neighborhood from Noon until 3 pm at Purcell Marian High School (2935 Hackberry St Cincinnati, OH 45206). The event is free and open to the public.
This year’s participating restaurants include Eli’s BBQ, Kitchen 452, Eat Well Café and Take Away, Skyline Chili, Giminetti Baking Company, The Brew House, Café deSales, and Parkside Café with caramel apple cake from Bon Bonerie and Frisch’s pumpkin pie.
Children can enjoy strolling performances by Circus Mojo and take part in a scavenger hunt, costume parade, making balloon animals, and face painting while adults enjoy music by bluegrass band, Northbound Motion, and bid on gift baskets stuffed with great goodies and gift certificates to area restaurants, museums, performances, and sporting events.
If you can’t attend the Taste of the Neighborhood, you can buy a gift basket or certificate online now! Just visit www.mercyneighborhoodministries.org and click on the “Buy an Auction Item Now” link on the home page.
CISE Fund Kicks-Off Fundraising Campaign For Cincinnati Kids
In Cincinnati’s urban core, there are 1,650 youth attending eight Catholic elementary schools supported by the Catholic Inner-City Schools Education Fund (CISE). Ninety five percent of those students live below the poverty level and seventy-five percent are not Catholic.
Generous donors and volunteers make that all possible.
As supporters gathered recently to kick-off CISE’s 2013 Fundraising Campaign, they joined together with a large goal in mind. CISE must raise $2.5 million annually to provide the needed support to eight Catholic urban elementary schools in Cincinnati.
University of Cincinnati Men’s Basketball Coach Mick Cronin had this to say to CISE’s Young Executives volunteers: “We are all busy, but you can’t make a difference if you walk by and look the other way. By helping raise funds to keep the CISE schools open, there is no question you are making a difference and changing the lives of the children in these schools.”
The CISE Young Executives are a dedicated team of young business leaders, led by Co-Chairs Eric Schuermann and Matt Champa, who call on local businesses, individuals and foundations to raise funds and awareness for CISE. Since their inception in 1999, they have raised over $8.5 million to benefit the CISE schools and their students.
University of Cincinnati President Santa Ono was the keynote speaker at the CISE main kick-off event where 
Jennifer Drennan was honored as with the CISE Distinguished Educator Award. Drennan, a pre-school teacher at Holy Family, shared why her job matters, “My students know that I love and care about each one of them and will treat them with respect. In turn, they learn to treat others with kindness and consideration.”
The schools supported by CISE are St. Boniface in Northside, Corryville Catholic, St. Francis Seraph in Over-the-Rhine, St. Francis de Sales in East Walnut Hills, Holy Family in Price Hill, St. Joseph in the West End, St. Lawrence in Price Hill and Resurrection in Price Hill.
To learn more about CISE and how you can help, please visit www.CISEfund.org.
PARACHUTE CASA Is Voice And Advocate For Abused Kids
They were born with pure innocence and a big world to explore. Without choice they are neglected and abused, sometimes brutally. Their trust shattered by those who should be their greatest protectors.
I’m talking about the hundreds, possibly even thousands of young children who – by no fault of their own – are placed into the juvenile court system in our region alone. The national statistics are staggering.
No child should ever have to endure such unthinkable experiences. National Court Appointed Special Advocate Association (CASA) volunteers are their voice and their advocates. They are adults who care, giving young people hope in a world that has failed them.
In Butler County, nonprofit Parachute CASA has helped more than 1,600 abused, neglected or abandoned children find safe and permanent homes by recruiting, training and supervising 434 community members to serve Butler County Juvenile Court as Court Appointed Special Advocate Volunteers. CASA volunteers have attended 5,223 court hearings to speak up for the best interest of local abused and neglected children.
PARACHUTE volunteers are trained to investigate a child’s circumstances by interviewing any and all parties relating to the child, i.e. parents, relatives, school personnel, case workers, attorneys, medical people, the child; and thereby provide information to the court to expedite safe, stable and permanent placement. The PARACHUTE volunteer assigned to the child plays a very critical and unique role: the volunteer becomes the child’s voice in court, speaking exclusively for the best interests of the child. The volunteer’s goal is a safe, permanent, loving home for that child in the shortest possible time.
Chris Schultz, executive director of PARACHUTE CASA, told me they have about 80 volunteers currently working with about 200 children. However there are about 500 kids in need of a volunteer so the need for volunteers and funding is great!
You can help by giving of your time. You can also help to support their work by participating in their upcoming 5K Walk/Run at the Voice of America Park in West Chester. Pre-registration cost is $25 (if registered by October 5) and $28 if registering after that including day of. It all begins at 9:00 am on October 12.
For more information and to register, please visit the PARACHUTE CASA website or call them at Telephone: (513) 867-5010.
Cincinnati Youth Collaborative To Honor Diplomas & Dreams
On October 10, the Cincinnati Youth Collaborative (CYC) will pay homage to young examples of perseverance and achievements, and the important role of caring adults in their lives, at its 10th annual Dream Makers Celebration: “Diplomas & Dreams” fundraiser.
Chloe Nared
Chloe Nared, a senior at Finneytown High School, and Shannon Chambers, a senior at Aiken College and Career, will each be receiving a $1,000 scholarship from the Cincinnati Bar Association Young Lawyers section. Against huge obstacles they have pushed their boundaries and found their own success.
Unlike so many of her classmates, Chloe didn’t know about stability growing up. With a mother who was unable to provide for her and a father who could not raise her, the little girl acted out – but only as a cry for help. She skipped school, got suspended, had poor grades and was influenced by negative peer pressure.
It was when her aunt saw Chloe’s potential, gained full guardianship and moved the young girl to Finneytown that Chloe’s life turned around. In a short time, the troubled teen has already learned what it is like to be on the A-Honor Roll.
In CCA, she has been the key source of motivating and connecting her peers. In her classroom, she has worked closely with speakers and helped organize career development meetings. On her school’s campus, she has played a key role in organizing social awareness projects and events. When one of her classmates lost her mother, Chloe took it upon herself to hold a collection.
And as for school, that suspended trouble maker is now a top student and has interned in an occupational therapy office, a career path she is now determined to see in her future.
Shannon Chambers
Shannon took it upon himself to ask if he could live with a friend’s family so that he could make it to school on time; and now this young man of wisdom and integrity is third in his class with a 4.017 GPA. He is a member of the National Honor Society, the National Society for Black Engineers, and the leadership team of the Science Club; an officer of Men, Organized, Respectful and Educated; and captain of the wrestling, football and track teams. And, whenever he can, he gives back through community service.
Without any other mode of transportation, he walked from Finneytown to Western Hills so that he could turn in his essay to become a GE Scholars Program finalist (and he was accepted!). Shannon also won a $5,000 Straight A Scholarship from the Anthony Munoz Foundation.
His classmates look up to him as an inspiration and role model. It is easy to see why.
The CYC Dream Makers Celebration: “Diplomas & Dreams” will be held at The Phoenix, 812 Race Street. The keynote speaker will be Jimmy Wayne – a musician and entertainer who is a passionate advocate for vulnerable youth.
It will benefit CYC mentoring, college readiness and success, dropout prevention and career preparation services for students in Cincinnati Public Schools and four other public school districts.
For more information, please contact Jackie Estes at jestes@cycyouth.or or call 513.363.5253. Visit www.cycyouth.org to purchase your Celebration tickets.
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!
