Cincinnati nonprofit
Paw Joggers Run To Benefit Cincinnati Dog Rescues
I have always had a love for dogs. Our home in fact was never without one growing up. Jolie, our poodle, was a dear and special friend to me until she died at the age of about 18. Now training dogs as a second career is a real passion for me.
And for Billlie Mendoza, owner of Paw Joggers, keeping dogs healthy and happy is an equal passion. I am so impressed that 
now, this owner of a successful dog walking (and jogging) company is turning her business skills toward raising money for our area’s important rescue organizations.
The first annual Paw Joggers Run will be this Sunday, October 20 at Sharon Woods (11450 Lebanon Rd, Sharonville, OH 45241). There is both a 5K and a 2K course for runners and walkers. It is a pet-friendly and family event so bring your favorite four-legged friend with you. Registration that morning begins at 7:30 am and the race begins at 9 am.
What I love is that 100% of the registration fees ($35 to $35) will go toward one of 24 qualified organizations from our Cincinnati area animal welfare community. You can select a beneficiary as part of your online registration process if you’d like. NOTE that there is a $15 canine registration fee per dog.
The Paw Joggers Animal Community Fund (Paw Joggers ACF) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting the local animal welfare community through events, awareness, and monetary donations. The Paw Joggers ACF and its events are powered solely by 
volunteers.
Register to walk, run, or VOLUNTEER through the Paw Joggers Rescue Run website http://pawjoggersrescuerun.com
Mercy Neighborhood Ministries Is Improving Cincinnati Lives
Congratulations to these determined, hard working students! After an intensive, three-week program, they are recent graduates of the Mercy Neighborhood Ministries (MNM) Home Care Aide Training Class.
Many of the participants join the class having experience in taking care of a loved one. Others may be transitioning from being unemployed or underemployed to starting a viable new career.
How empowering it is for them to learn new skills in a positive environment and gain renewed confidence. After graduation MNM has seen a high success rate of helping them find full or part time jobs in neighborhoods where they live.
Home Care Aide Training is just one of many programs and services of Cincinnati nonprofit Mercy Neighborhood Ministries. Its website says it promotes the empowerment of individuals and families through programs that address their immediate needs, foster self-reliance, promote holistic health, and advocate for social justice. Other services include a monthly food pantry, crisis assistance, a grandparent’s support group, senior services, ABLE/GED classes and more.
Taste of the Neighborhood
On October 27, MNM will hold ist annual Taste of the Neighborhood from Noon until 3 pm at Purcell Marian High School (2935 Hackberry St Cincinnati, OH 45206). The event is free and open to the public.
This year’s participating restaurants include Eli’s BBQ, Kitchen 452, Eat Well Café and Take Away, Skyline Chili, Giminetti Baking Company, The Brew House, Café deSales, and Parkside Café with caramel apple cake from Bon Bonerie and Frisch’s pumpkin pie.
Children can enjoy strolling performances by Circus Mojo and take part in a scavenger hunt, costume parade, making balloon animals, and face painting while adults enjoy music by bluegrass band, Northbound Motion, and bid on gift baskets stuffed with great goodies and gift certificates to area restaurants, museums, performances, and sporting events.
If you can’t attend the Taste of the Neighborhood, you can buy a gift basket or certificate online now! Just visit www.mercyneighborhoodministries.org and click on the “Buy an Auction Item Now” link on the home page.
People Working Cooperatively Raising Money For Veterans
In her 98 years, Anna has seen great sacrifice. She has also seen great heroism. During World War II, the woman who now lives in a modest home in Bond Hill was known as a trailblazer. She was a member of one of two units of African American Army nurses in Atlantic City serving amputees returning from the European Theater.
“It was interesting work,” she said. “Some of the men were so sad that they couldn’t go back into action. They wanted to fight. They felt that they had failed because they were wounded.”
Those are memories Anna will never forget. Today, as her own health is waning, she is cared after by her 57 year old daughter. Still, with her mobility an issue, getting around isn’t as easy as it once was. And home repair bills can be costly.
People Working Cooperatively, a Cincinnati nonprofit that provides professional home repairs and modifications to low income older adults and homeowners with disabilities in the Greater Cincinnati area, has fixed a like in Anna’s ceiling. PWC also installed a ramp and handrails, new flooring and other work.
Running through November 11, People Working Cooperatively’s Ramp It Up for Veterans’ campaign is trying to raise $500,000 to assist the 400 plus veterans in the Cincinnati area on its waiting list for critical home repairs. You can text-to-donate a $10 donation by texting the letters PWC to 80888 or give online at www.pwchomerepairs.org.
PARACHUTE CASA Is Voice And Advocate For Abused Kids
They were born with pure innocence and a big world to explore. Without choice they are neglected and abused, sometimes brutally. Their trust shattered by those who should be their greatest protectors.
I’m talking about the hundreds, possibly even thousands of young children who – by no fault of their own – are placed into the juvenile court system in our region alone. The national statistics are staggering.
No child should ever have to endure such unthinkable experiences. National Court Appointed Special Advocate Association (CASA) volunteers are their voice and their advocates. They are adults who care, giving young people hope in a world that has failed them.
In Butler County, nonprofit Parachute CASA has helped more than 1,600 abused, neglected or abandoned children find safe and permanent homes by recruiting, training and supervising 434 community members to serve Butler County Juvenile Court as Court Appointed Special Advocate Volunteers. CASA volunteers have attended 5,223 court hearings to speak up for the best interest of local abused and neglected children.
PARACHUTE volunteers are trained to investigate a child’s circumstances by interviewing any and all parties relating to the child, i.e. parents, relatives, school personnel, case workers, attorneys, medical people, the child; and thereby provide information to the court to expedite safe, stable and permanent placement. The PARACHUTE volunteer assigned to the child plays a very critical and unique role: the volunteer becomes the child’s voice in court, speaking exclusively for the best interests of the child. The volunteer’s goal is a safe, permanent, loving home for that child in the shortest possible time.
Chris Schultz, executive director of PARACHUTE CASA, told me they have about 80 volunteers currently working with about 200 children. However there are about 500 kids in need of a volunteer so the need for volunteers and funding is great!
You can help by giving of your time. You can also help to support their work by participating in their upcoming 5K Walk/Run at the Voice of America Park in West Chester. Pre-registration cost is $25 (if registered by October 5) and $28 if registering after that including day of. It all begins at 9:00 am on October 12.
For more information and to register, please visit the PARACHUTE CASA website or call them at Telephone: (513) 867-5010.
United Way Of Greater Cincinnati Campaign Success Will Impact Thousands
Yesterday hundreds of executives, employees, organizers, fundraisers and volunteers all gathered on our downtown Foutain Square. This time last year I was among them. They are the voice of the United Way of Greater Cincinnati and together, over the next couple of months, they will all be working toward a common goal – raising $62,850,000 for our 
region’s future.
Talk about a lofty goal!
“Centering our lives on making a difference for others by creating healthy communities to live, work and raise families is a noble calling for all of us. In Greater Cincinnati, United Way is the catalyst that helped spark strategic thinking about how we develop and sustain our region as a healthy place for everyone to live and work,” said Campaign Co-Chair Michael Connelly, president and CEO, Catholic Health Partners, who is co-chairing the 2013 United Way of Greater Cincinnati annual fundraising campaign with his wife, Sally, a community volunteer leader.
“If the goal is reached, it will be the highest amount this United Way has ever raised,” says Michael Connelly. Last year the total was $61,050,000 – $50,000 over goal.
“This year’s goal strongly reinforces our message that Bold Goals need Bold Resources,” says Sally Connelly. “We need to raise as much as we can to achieve the Bold Goals and help children, individuals and families throughout the region.”
I know firsthand of this need for success. For twenty plus years I have worked in our regions, helping nonprofits doing very important work to tell their story, to forge relationships. I have seen the faces on parents who received financial and mental support to improve the lives of their families. I have seen people overcome obstacles they never thought they were capable of doing. I have seen the impact of a caring hand. On any given day, tens of thousands of lives are touched by work of a United Way funded agency or program.
This is a campaign that is about all of us. Beyond fundraising, United Way is asking the community to become advocates for change. People can join United Way of Greater Cincinnati’s advocacy network through its website. Community members can also find more volunteer opportunities through the United Way Volunteer Connection.
It all ends October 30, 2013. To learn more, please visit www.uwgc.org.
