Young people and students
Nick Champions Lives
Today I wanted to introduce you to someone who has championed the lives of more than 265,000 high school and college students. Nick Jackson commands the stage. When he gets in front of audiences he lifts them to a higher place, gets them excited and inspired. It truly is a gift and he has dedicated his adult life to sharing that gift with as many people as he can.
Nick is the first African-American male teacher and coach at Norwood High School in Cincinnati, later going to Ft Thomas Independent School District in Northern Kentucky. If you know him, it would come as no surprise to learn he coached two football teams to state championships, ever once having a losing season. Shortly after, he was selected by NBC, Showtime and Fox Sports’ Cris Collinsworth to become the national spokesperson for a nonprofit called UGive.org. Today, through Nick’s organization – NickJacksonSpeaks.com – he gives transformational speeches to packed events.
Let’s learn more about him.
Lisa: You have devoted your adult life and career to inspiring and empowering people. Where does your inspiration draw from?
Nick: My inspiration comes from inside me. Deep, deep inside me there is a young child that was told that the world doesn’t change nor care about you. The best you’ll be able to do is to “fit in it!”
Lisa: Was there a young experience that influenced your life?
Nick: Absolutely, my grandparents are phenomenal. Every time we spoke (they’ve passed) there was another reason to walk away from the conversation uplifted. They had this ability in my life to convey a message of love and empowerment at the same time. I’d walk into their conversations feeling beat down by struggling with an ability difference and the frustration of the day. They would always remind me of the big picture. And in doing this they would remind me that I’m a big part of this bigger picture.
So – keep fighting the good fight.
Lisa: What has driven you to this mission?
Nick: My biggest driving force is the amount of people out there that don’t have positive role models, parents or grandparents that point them in this positive direction.
Lisa: Who is someone that is a role model to you and why.
Nick: My grandfather. I mean he was just awesome! He had a way to connect that was as much spiritual as it was physical. He had a way of making you believe that you are special, and the outcome of your awesomeness opens doors for others to also be awesome!
Lisa: When others think about or remember you, how would you like to be remembered?
Nick: I would love to be remembered as the guy that helped others remember their awesomeness. I’d love to be remembered as the coach that was coaching people in life and the man that gave to them without expectation of return.
Lisa: What is something about you that people may be surprised to learn?
Nick: I have a serious fear of squirrels they freak me out!
Lisa: Do you have any stories of how one of your talks made an impact on your audience and yourself?
Nick: Wow where to start –
The two that come to mind are ones that are very close to my heart. I remember when I first started speaking I was at an elementary school called Crosby Elementary. I spoke to the students about never giving up no matter what other people say your disability is and also knowing that your ability will never be given to you by man. A young man stood up in the back of the room. He was leaning against the wall and he said he was a person with a disability. He explained after hearing our speech how he wouldn’t let other people’s thoughts of his ability hold him down – it was beautiful.
The next story is very similar. We were able to speak at a convention in Texas before thousands of students were with multiple races represented. As I stood there, I noticed that the Latino students, the African-American students and the Caucasian students all sat in separate sections of the auditorium. During the speech we talked about being one, having one voice, and being forgiven together in unison. The crowd of many colors, faiths and backgrounds came together as one in the hallway and we as one took the best selfies ever!
Their Passion Is Helping Kids In Peru
Now I know where my intern, Walnut Hills High School student Isabella Noe gets her generosity and her drive. Her father, Bill Noe, is sharing his story below of a cause that is dear to his heart.
In Bill’s words…
“The Paul Lammermeier Foundation helps children-in-need reach their full potential by providing houses in Peru, centered on family and the Jesuit values of education and service to others.
Gaston, a Lima board member, Paul Lammermeier, and Bill Noe
This is their mission statement. The Foundation supports two boys’ homes and one girls’ home in Lima Peru. There are currently 17 boys and 4 girls in the houses. The children are either orphans or children who have difficult family situations that would make it otherwise difficult or impossible for them to get a good education.
I have known Paul Lammermeier since my freshman year in high school (1979). He was a teacher of mine and he ran the community service program at St. Xavier High School. He began taking mission trips down to Peru, and after several years, felt God was calling him to move there. He sold almost all of his possessions and moved to Peru in 1988 to teach at an inner-city Jesuit high school. He was drawn to the larger needs of the community and the children living on the streets. In 1993, he informally adopted two homeless boys, providing them with shelter, food, education, and moral guidance. He decided to formalize his work by establishing a home for boys. The foundation came into being in 1995 in support of Paul Lammermeier’s work with homeless children in Peru.
Paul inspires me in many ways. He lives the motto of “being a man for ot
hers” through his life’s work of improving the lives of the children in Lima. His work permanently changes the lives of these children for the better, and like a ripple in the water, this in turn changes the lives of many others. Many of his former house residents are successful professionals and are involved in the foundation in Lima. In fact, one former resident, Juver, has started a house in the jungle country in Peru emulating Paul’s work.
The Paul Lammermeier Foundation’s motto is “be a small part of little miracles”. I joined the board over 10 years ago as treasurer and have made several trips down to Peru to visit Paul and the children in the houses. I am always moved by the sense of family in these homes and the way the children call Paul “Pablo” and view him as a father. The PLF board realizes that by helping support Paul’s work we can be one of those small parts of little miracles. Paul has changed my life by showing me how acts of kindness and care for others can make positive, lasting changes.
- Bill Noe
Ruth Voss Was A Voice For Youth
Many years back and very early in my career, my mentor, Bill Mefford, told me about an organization for whom one of his friends was looking for a public relations contractor. Long story short, that woman was Ruth Voss and the organization that became my first long term PR client is Cincinnati nonprofit organization, Lighthouse Youth Services.
Ruth was the impetus for Lighthouse’s existence. (One of my close friends, Connie Dreyfuss, was a friend of Ruth’s and also one of the founding board members of Lighthouse.) I never had the fortune of meeting Ruth but from what I’ve learned about her, she was an incredible woman, mother, wife, and advocate.
photo provided by Peter Voss
Recently I’ve come to know one of Ruth’s sons, Peter, and through him I’m learning more about this woman whose impact is touching the lives of thousands of young people.
It was in 1971 when Ruth, then the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Teen-ager editor and mother of eight, received an urgent invitation to visit with President Nixon in the oval office of the White House. The President was looking for her ideas on getting youth involved in the country’s affairs. As can happen when one begins talking about their passion, that conversation quickly became pointed toward a Cincinnati half way house for girls that was just opening.
Ruth sat beside our country’s leader and told him the story of how she and a group of volunteers had tirelessly worked for four years to get that project off the ground, and how desperately short they were of operating funds. President Nixon looked her in the eyes and asked her how much she needed. “$30,000,” was her answer. “I’ll give you $50,000,” he told her.
That check led to Cincinnati’s New Life for Girls that ultimately became Lighthouse Youth Services, and that $50,000 was its first year’s budget. Peter told me how that allowed them to buy two homes – one in Madisonville and one on Ezzard Charles Drive. Ruth was a sorority sister of Marge Schott, whom also became a donor. One of those homes was names after the Reds’ former owner.
Peter tears up when he talks about his relationship with his mother. An only child, her parents were immigrants who came to the United States through Ellis Island and made a home in Cincinnati. She and her husband, Peter’s father, met on a blind date when they were attending University of Cincinnati. When they married, Ruth wanted a large family and was a loving role model to her children. Her strong heart for kids led to her work at the Enquirer, and her hosting events for and coaching young writers.
He shared with me a prose he wrote as a gift for his mother on her first birthday after his dad’s passing.
“ Mom cherished this gift with all her heart, and it remains on display in my home; always!,” Peter said, adding, “When my wife & I were dating, she was told by her ObGyn MD she would never have biological kids. We fooled science and were blessed with Katie & Bobby, two years apart. We NEVER take our children for granted; nor one another, as Gloria (his wife) nearly expired delivering Bobby!”
Please click on the photo to enlarge it.
Peter told me if I had known his mother, I would have no doubt been her friend and I can absolutely see that. I wish I had had the opportunity to have met the woman who set my career path in motion but I am glad to know her son. Ruth’s impact lives on.
Loveland Twins Honored Nationally
Way to go Alex and Hannah Laman, now 13, who began (with their mom, Angela) their own Cincinnati area non-profit, Adopt A Book five years ago! They have collected and donated nearly 110,000 books for over 100 organizations that serve other kids in need throughout Ohio and Northern Kentucky. And the Loveland twins were just named a 2016 honoree by the Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes, a national award program that celebrates 25 young people who are inspiring others through their impact! You can read my first post about the Laman’s here.
An International Friendship Reunited
Written by Good Things intern, Isabella Noe, a Walnut Hills High School senior in Cincinnati.
“Typically on Good Things Going Around, I have the pleasure of telling other people’s incredible stories. Today, however, I get to tell my unbelievable story of how I met one of my dearest friends. When I was eleven years old, I traveled to Japan with a program called CISV, or Children’s International Summer Village. The program focuses on instilling ideas of world peace and wanderlust into children to create more empathetic and worldly adults.
While there, I met a plethora of people from 12 different countries. One girl who I met while in Japan was Carmo Gomes, from Portugal. We went on our second homestay together and although she couldn’t speak perfect english, we became friends.
Fast forward six years. We had not really kept in contact other than occasionally liking or commenting on each other’s Facebook posts. I never thought much about her until my senior year of high school. Sitting in my fourth period class, I saw a girl who I could not place, but who looked incredibly familiar to me. My teacher asked me to show her to the office, and I agreed. As we walked to the office, I turned to her. ‘This is going to sound incredibly specific,’ I said, ‘but did you by chance travel to Japan when you were 11?’
She looked at me quizzically and said ‘yes, I had (in perfect English).’
I reintroduced myself, and within a second we were jumping around the hallway, screaming in excitement, and hugging. Carmo explained that she was with a program called AFS, living for a year in Cincinnati, Ohio. As the day progressed, we discovered we are both involved in theatre and have many of the same interests. It has now been a month and a half since Carmo and I rediscovered each other. Now, we see each other every single day and spend almost every single weekend together. We go to football games together, we are in Julius Caesar together, and she enthusiastically joins me at Good Things Going Around events.
So quickly I have realized how lucky I am to have her back in my life. We never connected on this level as 11-year-olds, so without this incredible miracle of fate, I never would have known one of my best friends. She has already invited me back to Portugal with her, and I look forward to what the rest of this year brings us.
“Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.” -Marcus Aurelius
