Nonprofit Organization
Joey Votto Foundation Volunteers Spruce Up Learning Center
When you stop and think about how vital our children are to the future of our community, and how important it is that they have the tools they need to succeed – from an early age, you come to really appreciate the dedicated work of those who devote not just their careers, but their hearts too, to ensure new generations a starting point from which to grow.
Cincinnati Early Learning Centers, Inc. (CELC) is a nationally accredited, non-profit, United Way agency managing six childcare centers throughout Greater Cincinnati, each providing quality child care for children ages three months through eleven years. CELC sites include: Harrison (location of original site – 1980), East Walnut Hills (1983), East End (1995), Downtown/YWCA (2006), Clifton/Future Environments (2010) and The Robert and Adele Schiff Early Learning Center located in Oyler School, Lower Price Hill (2012).
More than 80 kids, ages 18 months to 12 years, attend its Harrison CELC center. With full-day educational programs for the toddlers and pre-schoolers and an after-school program for the older students, it understandably was in need of a fresh face lift.
Enter the Votto Foundation
Cincinnati Reds first baseman Joey Votto created The Joey Votto Foundation to support the healing of service members, veterans and military families affected by Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Each month the Foundation invites families to participate in a community volunteer project, providing opportunities for veterans and military families to socialize, network, and connect with each other. Its February project was to help the staff and children at the Harrison CELC enjoy a refreshed-looking center.
The experience gave Votto Foundation volunteers an opportunity to get involved with a project that brought out their inner humanity and fostered camaraderie, and the staff and kids of CELC were given a beautified environment in which to learn.
I’d say that’s a home run effort!
Hospice Of Cincinnati Offers Pet Peace Of Mind
I have looked in the eyes of many gentle souls, and I have felt the love that so naturally passes through them to those within reach. Tina Bross, BS, LMT, supervisor of holistic services for nonprofit Hospice of Cincinnati, is among them.
Tina Bross of Hospice of Cincinnati with her dog
On the bitterly cold day that we sat across the table from each, two people who had never met brought together by our shared passion for animals and for our desire to help others. (And by Wayne ‘Box’ Miller, manager of diversity and communication for Hospice who I’ve known for years.)
But Tina has this magical way of transforming strangers into friends very quickly. It is a beautiful gift, and one that makes her so well suited for her role at Hospice.
The people who are assisted by the organization are there to live out their final days in peace. They know there is no longer hope for one more year, one more season. It is their time to say their last good-byes on earth to those who shared love, laughter and even tears with them on their journey called life.
I think Hospice of Cincinnati is such a very special organization. It allows families to spend last days and minutes together in an environment where they can simply focus on being together. And Hospice gives people serenity to know it is okay to leave.
The program Tina oversees is one that is charged with tending to patient’s animals, providing loving care for them and working to find forever homes for pets when family members are not available.
Pet Peace of Mind
Pet Peace of Mind was begun in 2007 by a hospice chaplain who also happened to be a vet, and by 2009, with financial support from the Banfield Charitable Trust, the program went national. Tina immediate sought approval from her board to bring it to our area.
In the beginning she sent out surveys to help determine the types of services they would provide, but what Tina hadn’t expected was some of the unforgettable responses that were returned with the questionnaires.
“Helping my patients with their pet related issues is the most heart-wrenching part of my job,” a nurse wrote on one. They are words that have been permanently etched in Tina’s mind.
I could see tears welling in the corners of her eyes as she spoke to me.
“People have such strong bonds with their pets. Many of the people in our care are older and their pets are their family and their comfort,” Tina said.
Meet Lucy
Lucy’s caregiver was a single man whose life revolved around her. It was a year after he brought her 
into his home that he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. “He told me he only cried two times and that was when he was thinking about her,” said Tina. “I told him, ‘I want you to know we will find Lucy a good home.’”
After his death, Tina kept her word. She and her team found a foster family for Lucy and ultimately a loving family with two little boys where she will spend the rest of her days.
“I wish I could tell him, ‘She’s good!’,” Tina told me, her words difficult to say.
I somehow have a feeling he knows.
More about Pet Peace of Mind
The Pet Peace of Mind® program assists Hospice of Cincinnati patients and families with care and feeding of their beloved pets. Pet Peace of Mind offers helping hands through volunteers and pet-related financial assistance.
Services include:
In home help with routine pet-related chores like feeding and walking
temporary boarding or foster
transporting pets for vet or grooming appointments
delivery of supplies like food and litter
permanent placement of the pet if necessary
emotional support
How can you help?
Volunteer
Donate
Cincinnati Rotary Club Opens Jefferson Award Nominations
It is such a wonderful gift when people gift selflessly to enhance lives and their community. So often those individuals do their work quietly, without need or want for recognition. Still, their efforts most certainly are worthy of being honored.
One special program aimed at doing just that is the Rotary Club of Cincinnati Jefferson Award (with leading sponsor, the American Institute of Public Service (AIPS). The Jefferson Awards pay homage to Greater Cincinnati volunteers who have gone above and beyond.
In partnership with the Enquirer Media and Local 12, The Rotary Club is looking to recognize ordinary people who do extraordinary things without the expectation of recognition or reward. These are individuals that are changing and improving our community, while addressing an important issue facing our area.
The Jefferson Award, which is recognized as the Nobel Prize for public service, was created in 1972 by Cincinnati’s own U.S. Senator Robert Taft and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and is presented annually to recipients in more than 90 cities in the United States. The AIPS’s mission is to encourage and honor individuals for their achievements and contributions through public and community service.
On March 13, 2014, the Rotary Club of Cincinnati will host the annual Jefferson Award presentation luncheon during their weekly meeting and will announce this year’s winner. The winner will then go to Washington, D.C. in June to represent our region for the National Award. The nomination form is available in a printable and online application on the following two websites: The Rotary Club of Cincinnati: Rotary Club of Cincinnati Jefferson Award Printable Application and Enquirer Media: Enquirer Jefferson Award Online Application.
Deadline for nominations is 3:00 p.m. on Friday, February 21, 2014.
Please click here to download a nomination form: Jefferson Award NominationForm 2014
ABOUT CINCINNATI ROTARY CLUB: The Rotary Club of Cincinnati is the preeminent professional service organization for men and women, supporting children, particularly those with disabilities throughout the Tri-State area through its partnerships with Stepping Stones/Camp Allyn and the Roselawn Condon School. The Rotary Club of Cincinnati also supports the global effort to eradicate polio worldwide through its PolioPlus program. For more information about the Rotary Club of Cincinnati, go to www.cincinnatirotary.org. Questions? Call The Rotary Club of Cincinnati at (513) 421-1080.
Santa Maria Community Services Expands Help To Hispanic Families
Santa Maria Community Services, a Cincinnati nonprofit organization serving the west side, has been helping families with various challenges with educational tools and resources to help themselves for 116 years.
photo from Santa Maria Facebook page
Many of those who have benefitted have been of Hispanic heritage, and the need for Santa Maria services has never been greater.
According to the 2010 census, the Hispanic population grew by 4.2 percent in West Price Hill, 12.3 percent in Lower Price Hill and 6.9 percent in East Price Hill. In the 45205 ZIP code, only 24 percent of children under 5 are enrolled in preschool or childcare programs; instead, children of immigrants are more likely to be in the care of family, friends or neighbors.
Santa Maria’s programs help bridge the gap between recent immigrants and important educational and developmental resources. More than 95 percent of the Hispanic families served by the organization’s Promoting Our Preschoolers (POP) enroll their children in preschool and are committed to finding the best schools for their kids.
Now, with a $127,000 grant from The Greater Cincinnati Foundation, Santa Maria will be able to serve an additional 40 Hispanic children, many of whose families have immigrated from Guatemala and live below the poverty line.
The new bilingual home visitor will work with POP and another agency program, Family Child Care Providers Network (FCC), that connect parents and caregivers to preschool and kindergarten programs, early child development resources and ongoing peer support. The home visitor will work specifically with the increasing Spanish-speaking community in Price Hill, an initiative that represents the first organized effort in Cincinnati to reach the Hispanic child-care population.
In 2012, Santa Maria’s POP program served 196 children ages 3-5 and 218 parents and caregivers, comprising white/Caucasian (including Latino), African-American, multicultural and Asian clients. Hispanic children enrolled in the POP program increased their Developmental Indicators for the Assessment of Learning (DIAL) scores by 14 percentile points.
The FCC Providers Network has served 50 providers and 150 children in the past year; 45 of those children also have been involved in a kindergarten-readiness project.
Through home visits, Santa Maria staff members also connect parents and caregivers to resources such as English classes, financial literacy classes and health education.
On National Mentoring Day, A Reminder To Be An Inspiration
On National Mentoring Day, I want to share this beautiful story from the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Cincinnati.
Anthony Howard thanked his mentor-his Big Brother-in the perfect way. He became a Big Brother himself. Anthony says:
When my mother first signed me up for the program I didn’t think much of it. But today I truly believe that my mother putting me in the program has put me where I am today. My biological brother and I shared a Big Brother, David Spaccarelli, and he impacted both of our lives tremendously. My brother and I lacked a father figure or other male figure in our life to look up to and David became and still is that guy. I started with the program at age 13 and today I am 23, and I still speak to my Big Brother on a regular basis. Every Thanksgiving and Christmas we get together at his parents’ house for dinner. David has helped me during high school and college, and also helped get me the job I have today. 
About a month ago, I decided to start giving back to the program. I now have a Little Brother by the name of Brien. We both share an interest in sports and play basketball and football together. Brien also likes to play video games so our next adventure will be at an arcade center where you can play all the games you want for an hour straight! I am really enjoying being a Big Brother and can already see the impact I am making on this young man’s life.
I would like to say to people who are thinking about joining the program as a “Big” to do it. You don’t know how much you can impact someone’s life ,whether you’re just throwing a football in the backyard with your Little, being that friend to go to lunch with, or just being that someone to talk to. I would like to give a big thank you to David as well as the Big Brother Big Sister program as they have both changed my life in a way that is challenging to express through words.
