Students
Happen, Inc. Art Flash Mobs At Cincinnati Pools This Summer
Children at area Cincinnati Recreation Centers will get an added level of fun this summer, when Happen Inc’s Community Canvases pop at area pools. The canvases will have an image from Cincinnati Art Museum’s Eternal Summer: Edward Henry Potthast exhibition, and children will be asked to join in on some ART FLASH MOB fun and help assemble the canvas right there on the spot on the fence at the pool. Parents you can join in too. Ten canvases will go up during the ten weeks that the Cincinnati Art Museum celebrates the Tenth Anniversary of the Cincinnati Wing . Those ten weeks are called Cincinnati Summer. Ten Cincinnati Recreation Centers are participating.
The first five are:
Millvale: Tuesday June 18th 11 am-1pm. 3303 Beekman Street
Pleasant Ridge: Saturday June 22nd 1pm-3pm. 5915 Ridge.
Winton Hills: Tuesday June 25tth 11am-1pm. 5170 Winneste Ave.
Hanna: Saturday June 29th 1pm- 3pm 226 Stark Street.
Bush: Tuesday July 2nd 11am- 1pm. 2460 Kemper Lane.
Community Canvas is a free Happen, Inc. program that turns an average chain-link fence into a famous work of art, literally bringing art into the community. The canvas begins as a collection of long paper strips, each displaying one section of a famous work of art. Community Canvas is a great way for a school, museum, library, community center, or other organization to bring art into the community. At the opening event, participating children and adults take turns weaving the strips into an empty chain-link fence. When the canvas its up it remains on display for 30 days.
Founded in 1999 Happen, Inc., a nonprofit organization, create a positive environment for parents and children through art-related activities and experiences designed to strengthen both the family structure and the community as a whole. An estimated 7,000 children in Greater Cincinnati each year experience the arts through Happen programs. Happen, Inc recently won the prestigious Cincinnati Post-Corbett Award for Arts Education and Outreach.
Community Spotlight: The Mayerson Student Philanthropy Project
The Mayerson Student Philanthropy Project of Northern Kentucky University provides an opportunity for students to participate in experiential philanthropy through a wide variety of courses each year.
Residents of the Cincinnati Ronald McDonald House, a nonprofit organization that provides shelter in Cincinnati for families such as Leah and her mother who are living hundreds of miles away from their home for Leah’s treatment. The Cincinnati Ronald McDonald House was recently selected as one nonprofit organization to benefit from a $2,000 grant by Northern Kentucky University students as a part of the NKU Mayerson Student Philanthropy Project.
The Mayerson project is designed to use a “learn by giving” approach in the college classroom. Every semester select university courses are named Mayerson courses, are given a sum of money, and are asked to evaluate nonprofits and then invest in those they think will make the most effective use of the funds (typically, $1,000 per nonprofit).
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.”
Northern Kentucky University Students Learn About Philanthropy
Learning about philanthropy is such a powerful lesson for college students, and, when taught young, tends to permeate their adult lives. At Northern Kentucky University, that lesson has amounted to $18,550 invested by college students in 12 Greater Cincinnati area nonprofit organizations during the spring 2013 semester. It is all part of the nationally recognized Mayerson Student Philanthropy Project.
Student philanthropy classes at NKU combine grant-making with classroom learning, so that students become more engaged in their reading and research. Nearly 90 percent of the students who take a student philanthropy class at NKU report increased understanding of the ideas being taught in the course. They also reported heightened awareness of community needs and how nonprofit organizations are meeting those needs.
“Mayerson classes are some of the most effective classes we offer at NKU,” said Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Gail Wells.
This was the 13th year for student philanthropy courses at NKU. In that time, students have had a hand in the distribution of $757,000 to 300 nonprofit organizations, the majority of that in the form of direct grants of $1,000 to $2,000. The funding generally comes from community donors. The Manuel D. & Rhoda Mayerson Foundation of Cincinnati, Citi of Florence and the Scripps Howard Foundation of Cincinnati were the key supports for the spring semester.
In addition, students raised some of the money to support the classes with letter-writing campaigns, T-shirt sales and other fundraising efforts. Students raised over $2,500 of the $18,550 being distributed. Some classes also collected needed items for nonprofits and signed up after class to volunteer for the organizations.
“One of the great aspects of this program is the community support,” said Mark Neikirk, executive director of the NKU Scripps Howard Center for Civic Engagement, which oversees the program. “Donors to the ‘giving pool’ have made it possible for NKU to offer these classes year in and year out.
“But in recent years, students have stepped up, too, raising some of the funds directly,” he said. “What we’re trying to teach is the class material. What we’re trying to instill is community stewardship – what the late Manuel Mayerson, who helped conceive of this program, called ‘the habit of giving.’ And research shows that this works. NKU students who took a Mayerson Student Philanthropy Project class are more likely, after graduation, to give money to nonprofits, to serve on nonprofit boards and to volunteer their time.”
NKU is a national leader in developing student philanthropy pedagogy. A faculty handbook, published in 2010 by NKU, has been distributed nationally to universities in nearly every state. NKU faculties have published research on the topic and frequently discuss this pedagogy at academic conferences.
This year’s recipient organizations were: the Dragonfly Foundation ($1,275); the Children’s Law Center ($1,275); Teen Challenge Cincinnati ($1,000); DCCH Center for Families and Children ($1,000); Reset Ministries ($1,000); Hosea House ($4,000); Buseesa Community Development Centre in Uganda and the Sisters of Notre Dame in Park Hills ($2,000); Santa Maria Community Services International Welcome Center ($1,000); Stop AIDS ($1,000); Ronald McDonald House Charities of Greater Cincinnati ($2,000); Brighton Recovery Center for Women ($1,000); and Historic New Richmond Inc. ($2,000).
Classes participating this year included Strategies of Persuasion, College Writing, Grant Proposal Writing, Leadership Around the World, Studies in Spanish Language Cinema, Community Social Work, Social Work Practice, and Exhibits and Museums and Historic Sites.
A full list of nonprofits that have received funding from 2000 through Spring 2012 is available at http://civicengagement.nku.edu/involved/mayerson.php, along with the classes involved.
Donations to the Mayerson Student Philanthropy Project can be made online at http://development.nku.edu/give.html (specify Mayerson Student Philanthropy Project) or by contacting Dan Emsicke in the NKU Office of University Development at (859) 572-5628 or emsicked1@nku.edu.
One 7 Year Old Has A Great Idea For Making Our Country Safer
If you ever want a creative idea for solving world problems…just ask a child.
Myles, a 7 year old, second grader at Downtown Montessori Academy in Milwaukee, wrote a letter to Vice President Joe Biden with a suggestion for making our country safer. “If guns shot chocolate bullets, no would get hurt,” it said. (Teacher Jenny Aicher told AP)
Below is a photo of the letter Myles received from our Vice President.
