YMCA To Honor Greater Cincinnati Professionals

Their careers are in finance, graphic design, broadcast media, education, nonprofit management, strategic brand marketing, recruitment and retail. They have achieved milestones in their personal lives and their careers – and they ALL have a common interest in wanting to help young people succeed. On November 4, 2011 the YMCA of Greater Cincinnati will celebrate these 37 professionals as YMCA Achievers at the 33^rd annual Salute to YMCA Black & Latino Achievers Gala. Unique to this event is that all YMCA Achievers are selected by their respective companies and commit to volunteering for the YMCA Black & Latino Achievers Program that motivates students of color to further their education and goals.

Honoree bios are here: 2011 YMCA Achiever honoree bios

Featured entertainer for the Salute Gala is David Garibaldi, who is known the world over for his amazingly unique stage entertainment combining exhilarating music with hip-hop moves as his arms flail with paint transforming a blank canvas into a graffiti-style masterpiece. David knows from his own childhood the important role of adults who care, or perseverance, and of believing in your dreams. It was as a young, impressionable boy growing up in unfriendly streets when he was first lured to the urban art called graffiti, but David’s ability to focus on bigger goals transformed that talent into a sought after performance artist who has been featured on MTV, NBC, PBS and others.

For the past several months, I’ve been spending a lot of time on the Salute Gala. My overarching role is to coordinate the messaging and communication surrounding it – which includes relationship building with the honorees and their circles, writing their bios, and this year putting together video snippets of them sharing their personal thought about the honor; coordinating the copy and graphics for much of the printed program; working with our three media partners, as well as other media and social media relations and other efforts to raise awareness about the Program and event; and writing the script for the Gala evening. This is my fourth or fifth year working on the Gala and it is such a meaningful project for me.

Listen to what Kimberly Forsyth, a 2011 YMCA Achiever honoree has to share.

2011 Salute to YMCA Black & Latino Achievers Gala
November 4, 2011 beginning at 6:30 p.m.
Bank of Kentucky Center on NKU Campus

To read about all of the 2011 YMCA Achiever honorees, please click here.

To learn more about the YMCA of Greater Cincinnati Black & Latino Achievers Program & the Gala, please click here.

To reserve your seat for the upcoming YMCA Salute Gala, please call 513-362-2012.