CINspirational People
CINspirational People: Mara McCalmont
CINspirational People is a feature of Good Things Going Around profiling diverse people of Greater Cincinnati, what inspires them, and what is inspiring about them. You can read more profiles by clicking on the link at the top of the blog. Do you know someone to suggest? Please reach out. Thanks!
Mara McCalmont is a gifted artist in Cincinnati who specializes in capturing the hearts, souls and personalities of beloved pets. On her website, she says, “I have been endeared to animals and nature my whole life and have been involved with many charities dedicated to their protection including Pets in Need,UCAN, SPCA, 
Three Sisters Pet Rescue, Recycled Doggies and numerous other organizations. I have even drawn beside John Ruthevan in support of the Cincinnati Nature Center.” She lives with her husband, Paul, and Zoe, her Weimaraner of perpetual motion.
GTGA: How did you come to choose dogs (animals) as the focal point of your art?
Mara: Animals are fascinating and extraordinarily beautiful. It’s a challenge to capture, in two-dimension, the softness of their fur, the quirkiness of their body language and most importantly, the soul and personality that their eyes portray. They cannot speak and communicate through those eyes. The eyes always come first in my paintings. Only after I am satisfied with them can I continue with the rest of the portrait.
GTGA: We’d love to learn of how your art has touched lives. Can you give us an example?
A: Well, when big macho men cry… that’s always a sign that I’ve done my job well! Recently I was commissioned to paint a family dog, Riley that had passed away unexpectedly leaving two teenage children devastated. The mother was hesitant to ask me to memorialize him, as she wasn’t sure of what the children’s reaction would be. They were thrilled and said “I got him spot on” and they felt ” he is still with us every day, now”. They place tiny treasures from their adventures next to his portrait, which hangs above where his bed once was, and the Mom truly feels that it has helped in their healing process.
There is no better reward from my work!
GTGA: What is something people might not know about you?
Mara: A favorite quote of mine is from G. B. Shaw: “Animals are my friends, and I do not eat my friends!”
My husband and I are long-time vegetarians and believe there is nothing better that you can do for the animals, of course, yourself and for the betterment of the planet.
GTGA: Tell us about a challenge that you have overcome and how it impacted you.
Mara: I had my own small business for 32 + years in advertising and graphic design, specializing in print materials. I found myself, virtually overnight, in a field
that was becoming nearly obsolete with the invasion of web and social media. In my late 50’s I had to make some hard choices about the rest of my life. I had always wanted to pursue painting more seriously than a hobby and thanks to the support of my husband… and his steady engineering paycheck… I decided to jump in both brushes drawn!
It took several years of hard work, practice and honing my style before I started seeing the recognition and acceptance of my work. I still have a long way to go, but feel I am finally on my way!
GTGA: What are some of your simple pleasures?
Mara: I get immense enjoyment from nature whether it be a walk in the woods, tending my gardens, or enjoying an incredible sunset. It never ceases to amaze me of the variety of beauty that surrounds us and that we sometimes walk past everyday and forget to take notice. There is no bad mood, in my opinion, that a butterfly, falling leaf or chirp of a wren wouldn’t change for the better.
GTGA: What is a motto you live by?
Mara: That it’s never too late to start anew. If you dedicate yourself, work diligently, love what you are doing… your passion will show through and eventually gain the respect and acceptance of others.
GTGA: What is one of your pet peeves?
Mara: The perception that art is fun and “comes easy to you”. Yes, I have a talent and enjoy what I do, but art is hard work. It has taken a lifetime of practice, learning to work with the mediums, and countless hours of failures to produce a worthy painting. Yes, this painting might have taken me 5 hours to produce… plus 10 years of self-education and trial and error.
GTGA: Do you do any volunteer work?
Mara: I’ve donated commissions for fund-raising to many local animal non-profits including, SPCA, Recycled Doggies, Three Sisters Rescue and UCAN,
For the last couple years, I have been involved with Pets in Need, which is an organization that allows for low -cost veterinary care to low-income families, a much-needed service and the only one of its kind in Greater Cincinnati. They provide the necessary care often needed to allow beloved pets to remain in their homes rather than be surrendered to a shelter.
GTGA: What is the best advice you have received?
Mara: Actions speak louder than words. Every time I sell a painting or receive a commission, it’s a confirmation of my talent and pushes me to be a bit better when I go back in the studio. Artists are extremely critical of their own work and never feel that they are good enough. Every time I am successful, it’s a “pat on the back” confidence- building push to continue what I am doing… even better than before.
GTGA: How would you like for others to describe you?
Mara: That I am creative, persistent, funny and was as good to fellow humans as I am to the other creatures with whom we share this beloved planet.
#GoodThingsCincy #CINspiration
CINspirational People: Terri Hogan
CINspirational People is a feature of Good Things Going Around profiling diverse people of Greater Cincinnati, what inspires them, and what is inspiring about them. You can read more profiles by clicking on the link at the top of the blog. Do you know someone to suggest? Please reach out. Thanks!
Today I want to introduce you to my friend, Terri Hogan, a Cincinnati volunteer and philanthropist. We met when I was working on the Cincinnati ReelAbilities Film Festival and she was the Premiere Weekend co-chair. If you know Terri, then you no doubt have also been inspired by her. She gives of herself tirelessly to causes and people she holds close to her heart. When knocked down, she bounces right back up with an invigorated determination. She practices her gratitude strength every day.
Terri’s greatest lessons came from two of her greatest role models – her late father and her son.
The mother of a beautiful daughter from a previous marriage, Heidi, Terri was in her 40s when she and her husband Paul decided they wanted to adopt. The couple were in the delivery room when a tiny, four-pound premature baby boy made his entrance into this world. Bailey was perfect in every sense, hitting normal milestones for infants. But then things suddenly changed and at 2 ½, their little boy was given the diagnosis of being on the autism spectrum.
Terri walked out of her doctor’s office asking herself, “Now what?” It was overwhelming, she shared. So much so that she was given a prescription for her depression, and she never cried as much as she did the day she took her first and only pill.
“I just said, ‘no more’,” she told me. And that was her turning point.
She went back to school so she could learn how she could get her son to talk; and, about a month after she began learning about Applied Behavior Analysis, Bailey said his first words, “Mom, green train.”
If you have ever been a parent, you know, you will never forget your child’s first words. For Bailey, that sentence was the door that unlocked an entire world of exploration. And for his mom, it was the driving force for her relentless quest to keep learning, keep teaching, and keep giving.
Seventeen years have passed now since the Hogan’s first took their baby boy home and he spells words to him mom. On Facebook, Terri posts regularly about his progress and about the lessons Bailey teaches her about life. She writes of the people she has impacted and those who have touched her, as a result of his being in her life.
I asked Terri some questions.
GTGA: How has your life been impacted by having Bailey?
Terri: Prior to Bailey, I was self centered. I didn’t know the people I know now and didn’t feel as happy as I do now. Now I wake up and think, ‘What can I do today? Who am I going to help?’, because I feel like a single act of kindness can transform a person’s life forever. I never would have felt that before.
In my world now, I go to a luncheon and I am in awe. I realize there is still so much in this world to learn.
I also don’t worry about silly things.
GTGA: How would you describe Bailey to a stranger?
Terri: Bailey is really smart and he has a cute sense of humor. If he is motivated, he can to the moon and back. His eyes are amazing and he speaks a lot with his eyes. He is really social and high fives the waiters and waitresses. He loves to play ball and swim. He also loves his Reds and Bengals.
GTGA: What has Bailey taught you about life?
Terri: He has taught me to not worry about the small stuff and he has really opened my life to a whole new world and made me happier than ever.
GTGA: Tell us about some of your volunteer work.
Terri: It was about two years after I began learning about Applied Behavior Analysis that I got on the board of the Autism Society of Greater Cincinnati, and now serve on committees. At the time, they had just lost about $100,000 and Paul and I were determined to help them recoup that. We pounded the pavement and organized events. We raised $80,000 for them that year because they do such a great job.
I am involved with so many organizations. Among them are Living Arrangements for the Developmentally Disabled (LADD), Visionaries and Voices, Melody Connections, Impact Autism, Birthright, Hyde Park Senior Center, and Crayons to Computers.
Paul and I like to help the small guys to help them get on track because we feel like the bigger organizations have a lot of support.
GTGA: This year you lost your greatest role model, your dad. Tell us about him.
Terri: My parents raised eight kids. My dad was a self made man who was so giving and sacrificing. What I always loved about him was that he was always into something. I remember as a little girl that I’d follow him around. I’d sit down with him and he’d tell me everything he was involved in. And then when I began getting involved with things, he would help me and write me notes and send things he read in the paper. He’s say, ‘Terri, you need to see this. Your group may benefit from it.’ He was a teacher. I miss him.
CINspirational People: Mike LaRosa
CINspirational People is a feature of Good Things Going Around profiling diverse people of Greater Cincinnati, what inspires them, and what is inspiring about them. You can read more profiles by clicking on the link at the top of the blog. Do you know someone to suggest? Please reach out. Thanks!
It’s really not very likely if you have lived in Cincinnati long, that you are unfamiliar with the name LaRosa’s. LaRosa’s Pizzerias have been part of our local community since Buddy LaRosa opened his first location in 1954. They have been a part of education, work, and celebration parties. They have given to charities and schools. They are where families congregate, and where neighborhoods gather. And now they are in the Great American Ballpark. LaRosa’s Pizzerias are no doubt one of the traditions you think of when you think about our great city.
Of the business he founded, Buddy told Fox 19’s Tricia Macke,”You have the zest and the energy to do something you love. And it’s not work. It’s passion, and I always tell kids and I told my kids, try many things until you find something in life that you have passion and a zeal for and then go for it. Give it 110%. Then it’s really not work, everything you do adds to that love, and the love just gets deeper. Just like relationships with the family, your love just gets deeper then you have family, the family gets bigger and then they have grandkids, and that’s what my business is.”
Wow, wouldn’t that be wonderful if all of us were doing work that is our passion?
I met Michael LaRosa, one of Buddy’s children who is now CEO of LaRosa’s Pizzerias, years back (actually on several occasions) when I was working on the Inclusion Leadership Awards Event and we were honoring the company for how they welcomed diverse employees with differing abilities.
Michael and I spoke again the other day for a CINspirational People profile. Mike very much personifies the generous and inspirational nature we have come to know and love about his family.
Lisa: Your family is very involved in our local schools. Why is that important to the LaRosa’s?
Michael: When my dad grew up in a broken home and those early experiences with positive adult role models in his schools really shaped him. What he got outside of the house between his teachers, coaches and others at school is what made him the caring man he is; and so we always wanted to support early schools. Our focus is to support in our community wherever children are being developed.
We have a Pizza Achievement program that any local teacher teaching grades K to 8 can enroll in, and we provide them with award certifications to give to their students for whatever the teachers want to recognize.
Lisa: What is the best advice you have ever received?
Michael: I have had a journal for more than 15 years, where anytime I am somewhere and impressed or influenced by someone, I will write a permanent reminder. I keep it near me, as there are times when I am looking for inspirational and it will always be there.
There is a quote in my journal that I had found somewhere in 1984 that says:
“Welcome every day with a smile! View today as a gift from God filled with golden opportunities. Be a self-starter and let your first hour awake set the theme for a successful day with your positive mindset. Today will never happen again, so go make the most of it!”
The idea is that today is never going to happen again so let’s make the most of it.
Lisa: What has been one of your greatest challenges that you have overcome?
Michael: My older sister was born with a heart defect in the 1950’s and I was very responsible early in life for keeping her in a good place. If she got overly excited, her condition caused her blood pressure to elevate to the point of causing her to be unconscious. My parents told me that whatever my sister wanted to do, that I needed to support her, and prevent her from getting overly excited.
From six years old and up, I was at her beck and call. If her situation was concerning, she would get purple lips. That reality changed when she was about 13 and a doctor at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center was one of first to do open heart surgery on little kids. They did a repair on her that changed her life dramatically.
As a child, that had a huge impact on me. It taught me to value life. Nothing is ever guaranteed because things can happen in a moment and it is gone. That lesson I learned because of my relationship with my sister. She is doing wonderful now.
Lisa: What are three things for which you are grateful?
Michael: Firstly is my relationship with Jesus. I was raised in a faithful family and that is for whom I am most grateful.
I am grateful for my parents and grandparents and anyone who influenced me, their guidance and leadership. I love all the people who have had a hand in making me who I am. I appreciate all of that and they make me want to do that for others. My grandparents came from Europe as immigrants. They worked hard and took risks.
And, I am grateful for Coach Bill, my junior and senior high school football and wrestling coach, and teacher. I was an introvert who was unsure of myself and anxious in situations. He taught me to believe in myself and be confident. I try to do that in my role today with other people because it is so important.
CINspirational People: Ron Harper
CINspirational People is a feature of Good Things Going Around profiling diverse people of Greater Cincinnati, what inspires them, and what is inspiring about them. You can read more profiles by clicking on the link at the top of the blog. Do you know someone to suggest? Please reach out. Thanks!
I have known Ron Harper for years, from back when he worked in radio. Ron is gifted with the most incredible voice that can be modified in so many ways, and he 
uses his gift as both a voice talent, writer and producer and website video producer.
Please learn more about Ron below.
GTGA: What is something people may not know about you?
Ron: I co-wrote an episode of Laverne and Shirley. Actually I wrote the scene for WKRP, but the agent I had at the time wouldn’t present it to Hugh Wilson. By the magic of Hollywood, it landed instead in a Laverne and Shirley. It was a learning experience. Not entirely fun.
GTGA: What is one of your favorite childhood memories?
Ron: The neighborhood where I grew up in Ft. Worth was full of creative and enterprising brats like me. The two brothers across the street would buy candy and soda and resell them in a “snack bar” on their front porch every summer. The rest of us were hired on and actually made some money for a few days “work”. The rest of the time we were writing or performing neighborhood plays. A few of us approached the management of a large shopping center and convinced them to let us use their community room and stage for one of our productions. We probably did 4 or 5 performances and donated the ticket sales to the local foodbank.
GTGA: Do you do any volunteer work? Please explain.
Ron: A few years ago I worked with an organization that would invite emerging leaders from around the world to the US to get a feel for how business is done and American life and culture. I got to meet radio personalities from Poland, the manager of a racetrack in Hong Kong, and a woman who had escaped the KhmerRouge in Cambodia as a young woman. Each one had a remarkable and compelling story.
GTGA: Tell us about one of your simple pleasures.
Ron: I learned to cook from my Mom when I was young, and I still like doing that very much. My wife says that’s one of the reasons she married me…and I don’t let her in the kitchen.
Besides that, we have two cats each with very different personalities. The female calico is a daddy’s girl, and the male shorthair is a mama’s boy.
Cincinnati’s Kelly Richey Talks About Her Inspiration
I’d like to introduce you to Kelly Richey. Kelly is a Cincinnati based musician, writer and educator who has been described as “Stevie Ray Vaughan trapped in a woman’s body with Janis Joplin screaming to get out”. Having shared the stage with many legends, she has been listed as among the top 100 gifted guitarists by the Truefire Community in 2011, and frequently draws comparisons to blues guitar icons Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Kelly has been teaching guitar almost as long as she’s been playing; with over three decades of teaching experience under her belt, she is a deeply dedicated and inspirational guitar instructor who has taught well over 1,000 students to date.
Additionally, in 2009, Kelly founded Powered By Intention, a Coaching Consultancy designed to educate, motivate, and inspire people to identify their life’s true purpose and achieve the life of their dreams. And, she is president of Music4Change, Inc. a Cincinnati nonprofit organization committed to music education in today’s schools as a vehicle for human expression, cultural understanding, and academic achievement. Three specifically aligned programs offer live performance, lecture, interactive participation and facilitate learning opportunities for youth.
As if all of that weren’t enough, Kelly is a gifted writer and shares her talent as a facilitator for another nonprofit called Women Writing for a Change.
On Kelly’s website, she candidly shares her own, very personal story – her journey as a person who has dyslexia and ADHD, and how they impacted her determination and success, and desire to help others succeed.
“Having a reading disability has caused two dynamics for me: 1) I have an insatiable appetite now for learning and 2) I have a passion for teaching and helping others learn. Nothing excites me more than to work with my students and clients… teaching, coaching, consulting,” she wrote.
“Had I not gravitated towards music and discovered books in audio form, I honestly don’t know what I would have done. My life would have turned out much differently, I’m sure. What I know now is that there is no cookie cutter mold to learning. I’m proof that even someone with severe dyslexia can learn to play a musical instrument….For many years having dyslexia negatively affected my self-esteem. It wasn’t until I was in my late 20’s that I began to realize I might actually be rather intelligent.”
Please continue reading to learn more about Cincinnati’s music legend.
GTGA: What is something people may not know about you?
Kelly: People mainly know me as a guitarist, singer/songwriter, recording artist, performer and guitar instructor, but there is an entire “other” side to my life. I am a life coach and hold certifications as a Dream Coach and True Purpose Coach; I’m trained in Voice Dialog; and I recently became certified as a facilitator for Women Writing for a Change. It is my deepest desire for my life’s work to weave together elements of musical performance and recording by teaching one-on-one and workshops, and life coaching and facilitating writing workshops for personal growth and community building.
GTGA: Tell us about a challenge that you overcame in life and how it impacted you.
Kelly: I am dyslexic, so learning to read has presented me with a series of challenges throughout all stages of my life. My dyslexia left me unable to succeed in school, as much of the understanding and support provided in schools today simply did not exist when I was in grade school. Thanks to books in audio format, I’ve managed to work my way through hundreds of books over a lifetime committed to learning and self-education.
Here is an article on my blog, How Dyslexia Made Me a Better Teacher, that addresses this in more depth.
GTGA: What are some of your simple pleasures?
Kelly: A great cup of coffee, conversation with a good friend, healthy places to eat out, and a good power-nap.
GTGA: What is one of your favorite childhood memories?
Kelly: One of my favorite childhood memories is listening to my grandmother tell me stories.
GTGA: Name three things on your Gratititude List.
Kelly: If I had to list three things I was most grateful for, they would be: all the great friends I’ve collected throughout my life, many of whom have been profound teachers; good health and strong constitution; and the ability make a living doing what I love.
GTGA: What is an accomplishment you achieved of which you are proud?
Kelly: Overcoming learning disabilities and finding a way to build a successful and sustainable career doing what I love.
GTGA: Tell us about someone who has been a positive influence on your life and why.
Kelly: My Uncle, Rev. Bob Brown, was one of my biggest influences. He was the preacher for the church where I grew up. My uncle was a passionate preacher, teacher, storyteller and community builder. Our church was the first church to integrate, and it was burned to the ground when I was 5 years old. He was a leader in civil rights; he believed in separation of church and state; and he felt the church should be relevant if it was to serve in meeting the needs of people in their individual communities.
GTGA: What is a motto you live by?
We must first be in integrity with ourselves in order to be in integrity with others.
