Nonprofit Organization
You Can Help 4C For Children Win A Toyota
Today’s the day! Cincinnati nonprofit 4C for Children needs our vote to win a brand new Toyota Prius.
Serving 33 counties, 4C’s mission is to improve the quality, effectiveness and accessibility of early childhood education and care in the region so every child has a positive experience and a foundation for success in school and life. Some 170,000 children benefit each year from its services to their families and child care providers. That is a lot of kids who are growing to be capable, caring and contributing adults.
As you can imagine, with such a large service region and such vitally important work, dedicated staff log thousands of miles every year visiting child care centers and family child care homes. 4C staff also provide on-site training as an alternative to the more than 1,400 face-to-face workshops and classes offered. Additionally, staff participate in outreach events.
We all want to see children thrive. With so many pressures and challenges on families these days, the work of organizations like 4C is that much more important.
Your one vote can make a huge impact. It is simple to do.
To vote
Simply click on this link for the Toyota 100 Cars for Good on Facebook and place your vote. BUT YOU MUST DO IT TODAY!
Cincinnati Kids Can Apply For Grants To Nonprofits
I love the whole concept of Bake Me Home – two sisters who share a love for helping others and a mom who believes in encouraging their dreams reaching out to brighten the days of families struggling day-by-day. (To read my blog story about them, please click here.)
Bake Me Home is also encouraging other kids to get involved and give back.
Through the Bake Me Home’s Bake It Forward Program, kids entering 2nd through 9th grade who have made a difference in the lives of children can apply for a $100 grant to the nonprofit of their choice from Bake Me Home. Along with the grant money to benefit their chosen charity, winners will receive a Bake It Forward t-shirt, jar of Bake Me Home cookie mix, and will be invited to a celebration at the Duke Energy Children’s Museum on October 14th, 2012.
Deadline for submissions is September 6, 2012.
Elementz Uses Hip Hop To Spark Teens’ Talents
Living in Cincinnati, we’ve all experienced over the past few weeks how music can uplift and transform us. It can bring out talents and inspire dreams.
Those magical abilities of young people, many of whom never even knew they had it within themselves to create, are the mortar for an Over-the-Rhine nonprofit whose sole purpose is to nurture strengths through hip hop arts.
Elementz sparks the flame
The origins for Elementz trace back to 2005 when community leaders began an outreach effort to give Cincinnati’s urban teens a safe place to hang out after school. It didn’t take long for them to realize the huge untapped potential in young minds with imagination and passion.
Today, in its new building at 1100 Race Street, over 320 aspiring artists ages 14 to 24, are building their confidence, becoming leaders and collaborators, learning about pushing their comfort zone as they perform new hip hop dance moves before live audiences, honing communication skills through writing and performing rap; and using their creativity to paint graffiti, and shoot videos and photos.
One of the great things about nurturing a young person’s strengths is that that energy tends to ebb into so many other aspects of that person’s life. Since coming to the nonprofit Elementz studio, a number of youth have attained their GED’s and are either enrolled in or are preparing for college.
Executive Director Tom Kent told me, “The bottom line is – every youth has gifts. Sometimes they don’t realize that those gifts are and so we are on a mission to help them figure that out.”
Elementz Spring 2012 Video Newsletter
Cincinnati Nonprofits Vying For A Toyota
It is easy to take for granted our ability to hop in our car to travel where ever we want to go. For nonprofits who are working day in and day out to make meaningful impact, that transportation isn’t always easy. Having an organization vehicle can be costly.
Cincinnati is fortunate that we have so many outstanding nonprofits who have stood out above the crowd in vying to win a 
FREE Toyota in the national Toyota 100 Cars for Good project. Already our Cincinnati Zoo and Recycled Doggies have won.
Some others who are finalists still need your votes. Each day only 5 finalists are featured and the one that gets the most Facebook votes wins a vehicle of their choice. Peggy Kreimer of Stepping Stones had this to say about what their win would mean to them…
If we win a wheelchair accessible van, it will transform our adult services program for people who use wheelchairs. Our last accessible van was 17 years old and is no lon
ger road-worthy. When the adult participants go out to restaurants, to the Butterfly show, to sports events and picnics, the people who use wheelchairs just wave good-by. And when the group returns, they listen to the excited tales of adventures and fun that they, once again, missed. Your vote can get them into the community again.
Here is a list of Cincinnati area organizations who are finalists, and dates that you can vote for them.
Easter Seals WRC, July 12
Stepping Stones, July 14
Creek Road Baptist Church in Sharonville, Aug. 7
4C for Children, Aug. 9
Cincysmiles Foundation, Aug. 21
To vote, go to www.100carsforgood.com. You must have a Facebook account to vote and can only vote once per day.
Let’s support our local charities and spread the word!
Liberty Mutual Volunteers Lend A Hand At Cancer Support Community
I just wrapped a contest for World Choir Games tickets where people wrote to me about what in Cincinnati makes their hearts ‘sing’. There are so many good things in our region and it was really fun hearing what people had to say. I may have to ask that question more often.
I wanted to share what Amanda Baker of the Cancer Support Community of Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky shared in her submission…
Liberty Mutual celebrated their 100 Year Anniversary with “Serve With Liberty” – a 2-day global service project that took place on June 21 and 22. Cancer Support Community was grateful to be one of the local sites selected by the Fairfield Liberty Mutual office for volunteer projects at CSC’s Lynn Stern Center in Blue Ash. Congratulations on 100 years and thank you, Liberty Mutual!
Despite the heat, a group of 20 Liberty Mutual associates worked outside for nearly 5 hours on June 21 and made an AMAZING impact on the landscaping and grounds at The Lynn Stern Center. Flowers were planted, shrubs trimmed, beds weeded and cleaned out, windows washed, the hillside by the dumpster cleared and seeded, and more.
Then on June 22 another 15 member Liberty Mutual volunteer group came to clean the inside of our facility. They cleaned the office spaces as well as the participant areas, dusted every surface, organized our books and kitchen, washed all of the inside windows and cleaned the blinds.
We couldn’t be happier with all the help we received from the Liberty Mutual volunteers over the 2-day service project. The Lynn Stern Center looks wonderful and we hope their volunteers will come back next year to celebrate 101 years!
Now that’s a great reason to sing!
