Young people and students
Life Lessons
From the words of a dying man, Kyle Nienaber learned about never giving up. From the undaunting spirit of a people crowded into one room shanties – makeshift homes without running water, sanitation or electricity – the 18 year old learned about hope and appreciation.
These are the lessons that can’t be taught in any textbook or school classroom. They are the life affirming consequences that occur when people reach out to one another with their hearts, their hands and their souls.
It’s a beautiful thing to see such education at an early age. Kids and teenagers are not just performing acts of kindness, but really understanding the bigger meaning. They’re learning about caring and respect and responsibility. They’re becoming a generation of people with compassion and deep rooted interest in making their world a better place.
Hospice of Cincinnati strikes me as a difficult place for a young person to choose to volunteer. But it’s become a sort of family tradition for the Nienaber’s, first with Kyle’s mom and sister and then Kyle filling his sister’s role after she graduated.
“It’s something that you can look back on and say you helped someone in their last moments on earth and it puts perspective on life,” he told me.
Especially when that perspective comes from someone with a finite time to experience life’s pleasures.
A huge sports fan, John was given six month to live when he moved into Hospice. It was Kyle’s job to bring him breakfast on weekends, which usually meant having to save the food and bring it back later – when John would finally wake up. The reason? Well, if the game happened to go long John would stay up until the last out was made or the last second ticked from the clock.
“He was always very happy and thankful to have had another night to enjoy his life and the sports he loved to watch,” Kyle said. “He very much enjoyed talking with someone about the games and I was lucky enough to be that someone on many mornings.”
But John shared so much more. His thoughts taught Kyle not just about sports but about living.
From his friend, Kyle wrote in an essay, “I learned that a person’s attitude about life can help extend it. John believed that staying with something until the very end was the best way to appreciate it. Sometimes things don’t end the way you expect. ‘That’s why they play the game,’ he used to say. Most important he used to tell me to never give up.”
Another lesson
In 2008, through Hospice Kyle traveled to South Africa where he helped its sister organization, built shanties and delivered supplies to AIDS patients. “I was one of those unappreciative Americans until I stood in that shanty town village and realized how lucky I am,” Kyle wrote about that journey.
And there, in the impoverished town in Mamelodi where hundreds of children and adults live on each acre, Kyle observed an incredible kindness and thankfulness. “The unbelievable spirit of these people makes me believe that hope is in their future and they can make progress on the very difficult issues they face as a nation.
“They taught me that compassion and caring for others knows no bounds in terms of nations, cultures and socioeconomic status.”
At home Kyle takes what he’s learned to heart, volunteering around Cincinnati. He was secretary of Beechwood High School’s Honor Society where he maintained a 4.27 GPA. And he was honored three times – with the Hospice of Cincinnati Terrific Teen Service Award, as a finalist for the Simon Lazarus Jr. Human Relations Award by American Jewish Committee, and as a YMCA Character Award recipient. He will be attending Notre Dame University this coming school year and chose it because of its focus on service.
And, as for those lessons?
“I’ve used John’s advice on many occasions since he died last year. I always try to keep a positive attitude about everything. Most recently I was inspired during a tennis match. After losing the first set, I remembered John’s words and stayed focused until the end and was able to win the match in three sets…I wish I could have told John all about it.”
Deer Park High School Students Celebrate Haiti
There is something so beautiful to me about seeing a room of young people exuding positive energy, students who are doing so much more than working toward a goal. They’re working because they want to make a positive difference. They really get it.
Teens with a higher purpose. That’s what I saw a week ago when I walked into Tim Hubbard’s sophomore English classroom at Deer Park High School. It was going on several hours since the last bell rang but no one was even thinking about leaving. They were sprawled out on the floor and sitting at desks grouped together, each student with a specific project.
They really didn’t have a whole lot of time to waste. In less than a week they will be opening their gym up to the public, hoping everyone they know will invite nine people – or at least one, to raise awareness and funds for a culture that has won hearts worldwide after a devastating earthquake rocked what was already a country in need.
But if you come, know t
his; ‘Soiree Pour Haiti’ is not about focusing on poverty and disaster. It is about celebrating the richness of the Haitian culture. This is the first year in history that that country has had to cancel its Kanaval – an annual ushering of spring – because of the earthquake. So this year, teens, many of whom had never even heard of Haiti before January are committed to ensuring their community is connected. All their funds raised will go toward the relief efforts of the American Red Cross and the Restevek Foundation.
The Soiree will have a Haitian marketplace that will also include authentic food and a Kanaval parade in which kids will be able to participate. Deer Park students have been researching and making traditional Haitian foods, and learning folkloric songs and the Haitian national anthem. Groups from sophomore English classes have been working on posters to educate guests about different parts of the Haitian culture. People who come will also have an opportunity to vote on the best shanty made by the teens (for a small fee).
“Ever since I saw the news about the earthquake, I wanted to do something but I didn’t think I could on my own,” Kalina Procas told me. She was making tissue paper flowers that would be for sale at the event. “One day I want to make a different in the world like the man from Restavec (Restavek Foundation’s Jean Cadet spoke to the students).”
Actually, Kalina already is making a difference in this world. And so are her classmates.
Gini Verbesselt Niekamp, PR coordinator for Deer Park School District, and Tim Hubbard, sophomore English teacher and high school service-learning coordinator, have been overseeing the project.
Soiree Pour Haiti
where: Deer Park High School (8351 Plainfield Rd; 45236)
when: Thursday, March 11 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
cost: $2 for adults; kids 12 and under are $1
(Pictures – upper left, Sarah Keefe making bracelets that will be
for sale; bottom right, Kalina Procas with tissue flowers she made)
Gifts Of Kindness
I have been so blessed to have been given opportunities to be inspired by some incredible young people – teens who have come to realize they have the power to affect change, volunteering at homeless shelters, organizing efforts for international epidemics, and helping neighbors in need; students whose resilience to their personal circumstance has given them strength of character and motivated them to succeed; and sons and daughters whose compassion for others grew as an extension from lessons taught by their parents.
Adam Hoover, a 15 year old student at Harrison High School, is one of my inspirations. His story is an example of how it’s not so much our life circumstance that brings out the best in us, it’s our choices about what we do in life – and not despite our circumstance, but because of it.
It was a little over a year ago when his teacher, his role model, his mom – Anna Abdim – lost her job and the income that was supporting them (including three other siblings). But Harrison is a close-knit community where neighbors take care of each other and people gave what they could to help. “It really makes you feel like there’s hope in our society,” Adam told me.
Paying it forward
One day Adam was looking around Craig’s List. He was searching for anything with the word ‘free’ on its price tag but what he was drawn to instead were the stories he found. Stories like that of a woman in Indiana who had used her last check to buy things for her children only to have their entire life collection destroyed in one horrendous night when their home succumbed to ravaging flames.
“It just clicked. There are too many people asking for help and not enough help to give,” Adam said. And so, he and his mom got to thinking. They could make a difference. They could help others just as others helped them.
Their program is called Gifts of Kindness. They collect gently used household items, clothes, toys, and just about anything that would be of value to a family who is in need. They can’t afford to rent a storage facility so their home has become a warehouse, stacks of donations everywhere. To date Adam and Anna have helped about 100 families but that number keeps growing.
Now Adam would like to hold a fund raiser. He has an Elvis impersonator group willing to donate their time but needs to find a facility willing to donate their space. If you a place, he’d love to know.
You can learn more about Gifts of Kindness at their web site http://www.giftsofkindness.yolasite.com
International Peace Day Being Celebrated In Cincinnati
The Youth Gun Violence Reduction Project, a program of the Community Police Partnering Center (CPPC), is inviting youth of Cincinnati to celebrate International Day of Peace on September 21, 2009. It will begin with a march from Cincinnati’s Fountain Square to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and conclude with a short program to promote peace and non-violence throughout our city. The United Nations International Day of Peace is a global holiday that encourages individuals, communities, nations and governments to highlight efforts to end conflict and promote peace. Established by U.N. Resolution in 1982, “Peace Day” has grown to include millions of people around the world.
The Youth Gun Violence Reduction Project is a program of the Community Police Partnering Center and is a complementary initiative to, and works in partnership with, the city-wide Cincinnati Initiative to Reduce Violence (CIRV). The Youth Gun Violence Reduction Project is focused on reducing incidents of gun violence involving youth and young adults ages 14-24. Efforts include the development of public education materials designed to change attitudes and behaviors about gun violence; the distribution of materials to those at high-risk for gun violence and/or in high-incident locations; coordinating special youth-focused events to unite community members in peaceful activities; hosting anti-gun violence assemblies at local schools and youth organizations highlighting the consequences of gun violence; and organizing youth groups with a curriculum discussing various topics relating to gun violence .
For more information on the International Day of Peace Youth March or the Youth Gun Violence Reduction Project, please contact Doreen Cudnik, CPPC executive director at (513)559.5587.
For more information on the International Day of Peace, please visit the official website at www.internationaldayofpeace.org.
Sometimes Part Of Healing Is Giving Back
The beauty of the human spirit, its ability to heal and its ability to touch others, is a wonderful thing. I think the older I get and the more life experiences I am exposed to, the more I appreciate that.
Many of you may know I do a lot of work for the YMCA of Greater Cincinnati. There have been so many days I’ve been uplifted by the people who I’ve met, those who have reached out to make a difference in the lives of others and those whose lives have been positively impacted by their generosity.
The Fischer’s are one in many examples. It was about three years ago when the most unthinkable of tragedies struck home for them. In a split instant, their world was turned upside down. Andrew, adventure seeking son to Lois and Wayne and brother to Amanda and Alan, was killed in an accident.
I sat in a room at the Clippard Family YMCA as Lois stood before other parents and guardians with their children, sharing her story that just four years ago she would never have imagined she’d be telling.
It was the story of a young man completely engulfed in life. Andrew was an Eagle Scout who loved exploring, challenging himself and others while learning about giving back and making a difference. Some of his greatest pleasures were times spent at summer camps rock climbing, caving, swimming, fishing and growing through friendships.
It was in Andrew’s senior year at Colerain High School that his life was tragically taken from those who loved him, but the Fischer’s are keeping his memory and passion alive through the hearts of other young people.
Andrew’s Scholarship Fund was set up to give elementary students in the Northwest School District whose families otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford it, full scholarships for a week at the YMCA Camp Ernst. In its first year, the Fischer’s collected enough to allow 8 kids the opportunity to go to camp. Last year 11 kids 
received scholarships. And in 2009, Lois looked out into a room of 16 kids, many of whom have never been to camp before. Lois’ friend, MaryAnn Herbster; sister, Kathy Jacob; and Clippard Family YMCA staff helped raise the money.
Applicants were told to write a paragraph explaining why they want to go to camp. Here is one:
“We really wanted to do something to honor Andrew and this is a perfect way,” said Lois, who has been office manager of the Clippard Family YMCA since 1999. “The volunteers and staff at the Y have been so supportive in helping to raise funds so that we can send more kids to camp. It’s a good feeling to know Andrew’s memory is making a positive impact on the lives of other young people.”
