donation
Cincinnati Camp For Homeless Kids Needs Your Help
It is so difficult to imagine young children already knowing what it is like to be homeless, but sadly there are so many in our area. Faces without Places is a wonderful nonprofit organization that keeps such young victims of poverty connected to education. It offers them hope and laughter.
And this week, it will be offering them the experience of summer camp. Two buses will be transporting kid (ages 5 to 12) from shelters, motels and neighborhoods to an inviting place where they will work on their reading and math skills, learn about team work and character values, and leave a more enriched child with optimism for the new school year.
What a beautiful gift to give to an impressionable young mind!
Faces Without Places needs your help. In the past it has partnered with other organizations to offer this opportunity. This is the first summer for its very own Yellow Bus camp and it needs supplies. Below is a list. If you can help, please contact Beth Griffith-Niemann, MA, at 513-389-0805 or 513-389-3583.
• Deep Freeze
• Refrigerators
• Microwaves
• New swim suits for boys and girls (one pieces or modest tankinis) aged 5-12
• New flip flops for boys and girls aged 5-12
• New beach towels
• individually wrapped snacks
• juice boxes
• Cheerios cereal
• copy paper
• construction paper
• crayons
• markers
• pencils
• electric pencil sharpeners
• staplers & staples
• Epson 125 ink (black, cyan, magenta, & yellow)
• packing tape
• extension cords
• surge protectors
• New or gently used outdoor recreation equipment (basket balls, soccer balls, jump ropes, hula hoops, etc.)
• New or gently used board games
• Sunscreen
• Box fans
• Tissues
• Toilet paper
• Paper towels
• Paper plates
• Disposable cups
• Plastic silverware
• Large bottles of hand sanitizer
• New or gently used books for students aged 5-12
• Gift cards to Target and Wal-Mart to purchase clothing and swim suits
• Gift certificates to Kroger or Sam’s Club to purchase perishable goods
20 Foster Children Attend Cincinnati Reds Thanks To One Simple Wish
In Trenton, New Jersey there is a very special organization that is quietly making simple wishes happen for foster children and vulnerable families. One Simple Wish recently made a trip to Greater Cincinnati to take 20 foster kids of Lighthouse Youth Services to a Cincinnati Reds game. What a wonderful gift that no doubt has given some children with lots of potential, a lasting memory.
How Woodfill Elementary School Students Are Helping Others
Great for them!
How thoughtful for these third grade students at Woodfill Elementary School to realize the loneliness of long term hospitalized children who can not have their family at their side. With the help of their teachers, and a little research, they found Josh Cares, a non-profit organization that offers loving support to seriously ill kids when a parent or family member cannot be there. Josh Cares funds professionally trained Child Life Fellows who provide consistent comfort, care and companionship for a child whose family would be by their sides if they could. The Woodfill students created a skit in which they role-played the responsibilities of the Child Life Fellow in the life of a child patient and charged admission to see it. They also held a bake sale.
All in all, their project raised $579.05. And not only that, it taught these creative third graders an important life lesson…about caring and responsibility. I like those kinds of lessons.
I also want to mention this service learning project was made possible by Children, Inc.
Cincinnati Philanthropist Has A Personal Cause
I’ve known Myrna Ethridge for about five years now, about as long as I’ve been working with the YMCA of Greater Cincinnati. She is a board member of the YMCA Black & Latino Achievers Program who believes so wholeheartedly in the cause because she is so passionate about the success of young people. Several years ago the YMCA honored her with its Lifetime Achievement Award.
I love being around Myrna because she always has a smile. This past year, however, I didn’t get to see as much of her. Myrna’s split second happened in 2000. Out of the blue, this vibrant wife, mother and grandmother was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension (PH), a life threatening disease that has made even walking up a slight incline a difficult task.
Her challenges are real and her medication costs thousands of dollars each month, which was okay when she had medical insurance, but when she turned 65 in 2007, her drug plan was no longer covered and Medicaid only paid for a portion. An organization called the Caring Voice Coalition has eradicated her fear and eased her financial burden by providing her a yearly grant for the medications costs not covered by Medicaid.
It really struck a chord with me when Myrna told me the other day, “I probably wouldn’t be alive today if it weren’t for the Coalition.”
And so, it was no surprise to me when her next sentence was, “It is time for me to give back.”
Myrna is organizing (with help from a small committee) a dinner fund raiser for the Caring Voice Coalition, which is headquartered in Mechanicsville, Va. Pamela Harris, the organization’s co-founder and president, will be the special guest.
The With Every Breath dinner will be April 6, 2012 at the Sharonville Convention Center (11355 Chester Rd; 45246) beginning at 7 p.m. Cost is $80 per person. For reservations or more information, please call 513-374-8360 or email witheverybreath@fuse.net.
ABOUT CARING VOICE COALITION
Caring Voice Coalition empowers patients with chronic diseases to meet the challenges they are facing by providing financial assistance, insurance education and patient support programs. Their holistic approach and comprehensive program 
currently assists patients in the Greater Cincinnati area and nationally.
Chronic diseases supported by the Coalition are Pulmonary Hypertension, Pulmonary Fibrosis, Alpha-1, Complex Partial Seizures, Infantile Spasms, Huntington’s disease, Congenital Factor XIII, Chronic Granulomatous Disorder and Narcolepsy.
Photo right: Pamela Harris
Help For Northern Kentucky Tornado Victims
If you live in Greater Cincinnati, you already know about Friday’s relentless and tragic tornadoes that ripped through our communities destroying homes, lives and neighborhoods. As we do when tragedy strikes, we want to help.
I got a note from Ryan Courtade, president of the Northern Kentucky Youth Foundation, about an important Facebook group. Beginning last Friday the group has been constantly updating the region as a whole and verifying information as to not have mis-information circulating on how people can help, where victims can receive help, and what donations are needed.
I encourage you to visit their group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TornadoReliefNKY/ for the over 2,000 contributing volunteers helping Northern Kentucky rebuild itself. And if you know of anyone looking to help, or anyone that needs help, please have them visit that group and check out the documents section for up-to-date and accurate information.
